Manley's Blog

Will Social Media Take Professional Associations Down The Same Road As News Papers?

When you read about the closing of The Rocky Mountain News and the steady, drastic decline of news papers in general, even though you can see the end coming, you still feel sorry for them when it happens. They are institutions that have provided us the news for the majority of our lives and while we appreciated them when they were one of few options, we were quick to leave them when we could gain more timely information any way we wanted it online or via mobile phone. Only those innovative news papers who look at themselves as news organizations and not primarily a paper are putting themselves in a position to survive in today’s world.

With all of this history-happening-now in front of us, I wonder if professional associations look at social media and see the same thing. When I think of why most professionals join associations, it’s easy to see how only the strongest will survive:

1. Meet other professionals in our field. For a time, professional associations were the hub that connected like-minded professionals in one way or another. While they had events for us to get together, not all would give access to contact information of others in the group. You had to get that on your own while you networked at the events. Now, I can go online and in minutes, find multiple groups for my profession. I can even get into a more detailed niche group or join a group in another country to see if they face the same issues. All of this from my desk with instant access. A good example of this is how PR and Journalists get together regularly on Twitter using the #journchat hashtag.
2. Find and learn from other professionals in our field or those we work closely with. Again, historically associations would have events where we go to learn from experts or representatives of customers or other business groups that people in our field work with. Now, I can ask a question to my peers in multiple forums. I can search for an expert and email them directly or ask them through social media. I can subscribe to their blog. All for free and all from where I choose, when I choose, and how I choose.
3. Keep up to date on the latest trends and information in my profession. Associations provide quarterly magazines along with monthly or weekly newsletters sent either physically or via email. Their main goal was to keep us up to date on the latest trends in our profession as well as read a good case study from a fellow member. Now we have access to everything immediately as soon as it happens. How many of us have our groups on LinkedIn set to send us daily digests, follow certain groups in Digg, or Google alerts set up for important topics? Do we even look at the quarterly magazines any more?
4. We stay active by attending seminars or logging hours/credits to keep our certification. This is the one area where certain associations still add a perceived value. Everyone wants a CPA or a CFE when looking for an accountant or a fraud examiner. Although some certifications ( I won’t name any here.) are sort of questionable to begin with. It seems their main criteria is successfully taking an online test and then paying annual membership fees along with attending one seminar. As time moves on and social media platforms continue to track who the quality contributors are, I wonder if it will be more important to people if I see three years of quality posts on a topic on someone’s blog and that they’re a top contributor for professional groups on various social media platforms that I value. Will that mean more to me then knowing they pay an association their dues every year? I think so.

Now let’s look at how associations make money:

1. Membership dues. How many professionals (especially in the current economy) are looking at the current professional associations they belong to and asking, “Is it worth it?” “Am I getting anything from this association that I can’t get somewhere else?” How many of your companies are making this decision for you by no longer paying your annual membership? Is there enough value for you that you’re willing to pay it yourself? I know I’ve dropped from a few associations because I had more access to the information and people I need online.
2. Advertising. That quarterly magazine and monthly/weekly newsletter isn’t there to just entertain you. Associations can sell ad space to advertisers and let them know the exact demographic that they are hitting. The downside is that now most social media sites can provide even better information to exponentially more people and much more frequently.
3. Events (including seminars and courses). Events are sponsored. Exhibitors pay to present their goods at the event. More ads are seen throughout the hall and in the event collateral. This is the one area where associations can still have a powerful value proposition. The difference is that they will have to change and they will have to add value. Before, if an event stunk, attendees would fill out the surveys and the only group that would know nobody liked it that much was the association. Think they passed that on back to their membership? Now via social media, everyone can tell anyone about what they thought of your event via multiple channels…immediately while it’s still going on! There is no place for bad events to hide anymore. In addition, people are now calling/hosting the events they want on their own and how they want them (i.e. Twitter #hashtag groups, Ustream.TV, Webinars, forums, IM, video chat groups, etc).

Am I saying that all professional associations will cease to exist next year? No. But I am saying that unless associations figure out what their true value proposition is and how their members can’t get that same value via social media for free, many laggards will end up closing their doors. I also believe that as things progress, more people will associate with each other by being in “[insert group name here]” online group together more then by their professional associations. It will be interesting to see how things play out.