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Searching associations’ membership directories is
“the most common way recruiters find potential
candidates that aren’t actively looking for a job”
according to a Society for Human Resource
Management Survey (WSJ 8/14). Recruiters
also recommend actively participating in the
association to raise your profile.
VALUE:
Another intangible benefit that professional
societies in particular should communicate.
However, be careful not to end up with a board and
committees full of job hunters.
Do not overplay the value of networking based on
potentially inaccurate feedback from involved
volunteers. A new study by ASAE & The Center
indicates a significant difference in the importance
of networking between the involved and
members-at-large (Associations Now 7/2007).
54% of involved volunteers rate networking “very
important” versus only 25% of uninvolved.
“It’s a tough time to be in bottled water” says the
CEO of the International Bottled Water
Association (USA
Today 8/20).
The issue: waste from 38 million plastic bottles a
year. The IBWA ran a full page ad (NY
Times 8/3) promoting the health benefits of
water and communicating the industry’s commitment to
plastic recycling.
OPPORTUNITY:
A Swiss company is producing refillable aluminum
bottles with slogans like “Make love not landfill”
and “Friends don’t let friends drink from plastic.”
The head of the Federal Aviation Administration is
under fire for accepting the CEO position at the
Aerospace Industries Association effective
November 12 (USA
Today 9/12).
“It raises some pretty serious ethics questions”
says a representative for Citizens for
Responsibility and Ethics. The new exec says she
was “taken aback and a little appalled, frankly” at
the concern on her move. The outgoing AIA exec
“bristled at charges” that the hiring could cause a
conflict.
HELLO!
The FAA makes decisions with billion dollar impact
on AIA’s members and there’s no potential for
conflicts of interest?
The American Cancer Society is focusing its
entire $15 million ad budget on the consequences of
inadequate healthcare coverage (NY Times 8/31).
Cancer rates are not dropping as fast as projected,
and research shows a lack of insurance delays
diagnosis. Most disease-related not-for-profits
usually focus on prevention or education.
PR:
Remember that advertising budget number when someone
suggests a national media campaign.
A recent study projects that the U.S. not-for-profit
sector will need to fill 80,000 senior management
positions a year for the next 10 years (Associations
Now 7/2007).
COMMENT:
Add associations to the long and growing fields
experiencing workforce shortages.
I’m not making this up:
Mayor Ray Nagin said that while worried that the
high city murder rate makes the city seem dangerous,
the crimes nonetheless “keeps the New Orleans brand
out there” (NY Times 7/11).
PR:
Now there’s a unique approach to destination
marketing.
TECH WATCH:
Social networking sites are booming. Leading sites
collectively attracted over 110 million unique
visitors in July, up 40% over last year (WSJ 8/28).
New sites like Multiply, TeeBeeDee and Maya’s Mom
all target an older demographic, and each attracted
from $5 to $20 million in investment capital. By
the way, the number of Internet users over 55 is
equal to those aged 18-24. And social networks are
moving from the PC to mobile phones. Mobile social
networks include Utterz, MocoSpace and Twango
(Boston Globe 9/17).
Professional networking sites are attracting
significant numbers and capturing what used to be
associations’ space. LinkedIn has 14 million
registered users, 150 employees and is expected to
generate $100 million in revenue next year (USA
Today 9/5).
Sermo.com has 25,000 physician members (WSJ 8/28).
INmobile.org has 750 members working in the wireless
industry. ModelsHotel has 1,000 professional model
registrants – and has rejected 1,000 unqualified
applicants (WSJ 9/10).
ONLINE NETWORKING:
Where are the associations? If you know of one with
a successful, robust social networking system, I’d
like to hear from you.
Craigslist, a centralized network of online
communities featuring classified ads, personals and
forums, claims that it has 25 million users and 8
billion page views a month (NY Times 9/5).
Video web sites have come up with advertising
techniques that replace the “preroll,” that annoying
ad you have to watch before seeing your video.
“Overlays” or “tickers” are ads that run along the
bottom of the video without interrupting the clip.
“Skins” are ads that run around the border of the
video while it plays (WSJ 8/13).
REVENUE:
Capitalize on web advertising income. It should be
almost equal to your ad revenue from your printed
publications.
The paper airline ticket is history. The
International Air Transport Association
announced that all ticketing will be electronic
beginning in May 2008 (WSJ 9/17).
Internationally, 84% of tickets are electronic while
97% of US tickets are paperless.
COMMENT:
Electronic, but not paperless. They just shifted
the printing to you.
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