BlogClump - Blogging About Associations From a Gen Xer

I have been tagged to post about how I have seen Word of Mouth Marketing in small staff associations. As many of you know, I work in a small staff association, focused on youth soccer. Word of Mouth is critical for us. Many kids and parents talk about their after school activities, so we rely on WOM to help us get new kids into the program. We learned from a survey that a number of folks found out about the association through WOM. We do the normal email and print marketing, but I feel that many times one parent reads it and mentions it to other parents when they see each other in the neighborhood. Here is a sample for WOM. One of our players is nominated for Goal of the Year. Do us a favor and VOTE HERE . WOM at work!

The ASAE Technology Conference was in DC the last two days. I had the chance to run into a bunch of good friends and learn about some new technologies and websites that are out there. Here are a few resources that I found that I wanted to share out there: A wealth of resources from the gals at SocialFish , especially Twitter tools Good legal presentation for social media Some quick wins to help your website Some thoughts on the conference itself: ASAE, please give presenters wireless mics. It is worth the extra cost. Love the free wireless in the session rooms. Just wish it was upstairs too, but know you can't really do that. Overall a great conference. I am happy I had the chance to present and hope that the folks who attended my session enjoyed it.

The next few days are crazy for me as this weekend is the Virginia Youth Soccer Association workshop being hosted here in Arlington. Then Tuesday and Wednesday is the ASAE Tech Conference . I will be presenting at both conferences. Saturday I am talking about Web 2.0 Tools for Youth Soccer Organizations. Wednesday I am presenting with my former InfoComm co-worker about Social Media - How One Association Went From Nothing to Something. If you are at either conference, please stop by.

My first post of 2009 - w00t! Looking back, 2008 was a major year of change for me. In April, I welcomed my beautiful daughter Madeline Louise into the world. Then, in October, I started my first ED job with the Arlington Soccer Association. Needless to say, those two events have really driven my life this year. I think I can honestly say that right now I am the luckiest guy I know. A great family and a job that I was built for. 2009 looks to be just as exciting as I watch my little girl grow by the second and as I start to get the ASA where I know it can go. I am not one for New Year's Resolutions (as I never keep them), but there are a few things I know I need to work on. This blog is one of them. I dropped off a great deal once I got the new gig. Things were crazy and I just didn't get it done. I need to get back on track to win one of Ben's awards for 2009. So, I give you permission to kick me in the butt if I go back to slacking. I would also like some he...

As I continue my slow read through Here Comes Everybody (I am reading many other things at the same time which is my downfall), I think I have found the crux of social media. I am sure everyone already realizes this, but I figure I will mention it anyway. Shirky comments that most people don't get active about a cause because it takes a lot of effort and the actions of one are tough to see in the face of a much more powerful force. The old way was to try to convince the folks who cared a little bit to care more. But now with social media, the barriers to join in are so low that people can be effective in aggregate. Having a handful of highly motivated people and a mass of barely motivated ones used to be a recipe for frustration... Now the highly motivated people can create a context more easily in which the barely motivated people can be effective without having to become active themselves. The key here is that there still needs to be highly motivated people. If you are an ass...

I, like many, worked at a grocery store in high school. First a bagger, then a cashier, then the produce department. Each job required training on how to do it. I usually spent several shifts shadowing someone, then several on my own but with supervision. This method seemed to work just fine. I see it employed places other than the grocery store. Lately, I have been amazed at how poorly grocery bags are packed by store employees. I know that you have to adjust to the bag type, cloth or plastic these days, but I can't tell if the employees are lazy or just didn't get proper training. I even go as far as emptying my cart strategically to try to help - put all the cold stuff together, bread and eggs last so they can go on top, etc. But it doesn't seem to matter. I think there is a fine line between apathy and lack of training, at least trying to identify which situation it is. Anyone have any great ideas for identifing and then fixing either situation?

Another Shirky Quote: Revolution doesn't happen when society adopts new technologies -- it happens when society adopts new behaviors.