How many of us know of associations, or other organizations for than matter, that are scrambling to adopt social networking so that they will not be left behind? Yet how often do considerable investments in technology translate into better service to members or customers, or provide fresh solutions to many of the problems plaguing association executives--from retention to resources and relevance? And that's just it. The new horizon of opportunity networking technology is bursting open today is not simply in add-ons--programs, processes, features, experiences. It is in identifying and leveraging its potential to find entirely new solutions to challenges. The greatest opportunity is in fact when utilizing Web 2.0 platforms to redefine the very basis of your competitive advantage. Think Amazon.com or e-bay.
As an ethnographer, I understand the intangible links and values that shape community, and the many forms communities can take. In the traditional communities I studied, like those in rural Greece and the ethnic pockets in American cities like Baltimore, the meaning of "community" was affirmed, experienced and negotiated continuously through many shared vehicles and platforms; for example: women's ritual laments for the dead; other collective, aesthetic expressions in rituals of passage; gossip; dance; columns in ethnic newspapers that featured back and forth communications among immigrants in various parts of the world who came from the same village.
The lost ability to connect meaningfully, continuously and flexibly within a shared framework of culture and values, has been regained and re-invented through Internet-based technology. Technological transformation and social change have affected consumer behavior and the nature of service. Today's consumers are empowered, aware of the many options available to them and demanding of engagement and interactivity.
In the end, the greatest challenge is not driven by technology but by people: how does your association understand the new options web 2.0 technology offers and leverage them to connect with your members' driving motivations and concerns that keep them up at night.
The starting point in any plan involving social networking or other technology should be getting inside your members' or customers' mind. What motivates and drives them? How do they define professional success? How do they solve problems, learn, communicate, look for solutions etc.? And where, within this larger ecosystem of partners, customers, employers and providers, does your association best fit? What do members need to get and keep customers or satisfy their employers at various stages of their careers, and how can you help them reach their destinations?
The web 2.o world of possibility encourages a fundamental re-thinking of whom you serve, how and with whom. You might, for example link your members' customers, employers, partners etc. into communities of value to them. Interactive platforms could increase members' exposure to prospective customers and facilitate collaborations. They could bring together members with industries that serve their sectors or professions in moderated forums that facilitate problem-solving or business collaborations. Or you might partner with your very competitors to offer a model of seamless, one-stop shopping to target customers, hence increasing all partners' market and ability to offer portfolios of bundled services.
In short, simply investing in, and adopting, a new technology platform or tool does not translate automatically into return on investment or delivers magical transformation. Transformation requires more than just confining technological innovation to the website or member benefits. Instead, business innovators have utilized technology for the possibilities it offers for doing business differently; re-conceptualizing business models and customer relationships; and creating a new basis for their value proposition.
Adopting web 2.0 technologies can be most successful when it undergirds a larger shift in your service model--from serving to connecting with your members; not.
As Wayland and Cole note in their book, "Customer Connections: New Strategies for Growth:"
"We believe that you cannot get to the future on time by running after your customers. You get there by running with your customers and understanding their destinations and the role you can play by helping them arrive there. This means connecting with your customers."
The use of technology to enable the shift from running after to connecting with; from passively serving to actively co-developing is the space of most possibility and what is of most interest to me.
