[You're reading http://BenMartinCAE.com. Yeah, you rock.]

Great articles by Lindy Dreyer, Andy Steggles, Caroline Fuchs, CAE and a book review from Rebecca Gordon, CAE. One of the best Membership Development Newsletters I’ve seen — ever!

Current Issue – Membership Developments – Newsletters – Publications and Resources – ASAE & The Center for Association Leadership.

[You're reading http://BenMartinCAE.com. Yeah, you rock.]

How about this?

“Smart” businesses recognized that social networking could not easily be separated from “professional” networking, he argued.

“In today’s difficult business environment, the instinctive reaction can be to batten down the hatches and return to the traditional ‘command and control’ techniques that enable managers to closely monitor and measure productivity,” he said.

“Allowing workers to have more freedom and flexibility might seem counterintuitive, but it appears to create business more capable of maintaining stability.”

Social networking sites “good for businesses” (Reuters) by Reuters: Yahoo! Tech.

[You're reading http://BenMartinCAE.com. Yeah, you rock.]

Judging from the volume of posts at comments-o-matic, here’s what struck a nerve with association blog readers last week:

• Disdain for business jargon (Thx4Playing)
  
• Has social media jumped the shark? (Acronym)

Here’s my personal take on the amount of social media education in the association sector. Yeah, there’s a lot of it. But hey, chalk it up to supply and demand. People keep asking for it, the sessions are continually full, so who’s to blame the educators for giving the people what they want?

Besides, this isn’t just what association execs want to hear: It’s what they need to hear. Social media has opened a whole new world of opportunity for associations, so it’s an important topic for industry leaders.

Of course, those of us who’ve been engaged in blogging and socmed for longer than a year are probably near, at, or beyond the saturation point on social media education. But understand: we’re not the majority, folks. Few associations are actually making use of socmed. As I learned in crunching the numbers for the Association Social Technologies report, less than half of associations are using any kind of social media.

So, for the majority of association execs, the answer to “Is there too much education on socmed in the association industry?” is: Nope.

As someone who speaks frequently about the use of social media in associations and business (wink, wink. nudge, nudge), I can tell you that the level of understanding is scattered all over the place. Some people get it and want more advanced information. Others show off their best blank stare as soon as you say “RSS.” I try to toe the line between basic and more advanced concepts, but it’s tough meeting everyone’s expectations.

[You're reading http://BenMartinCAE.com. Yeah, you rock.]

Well, when someone introduces you as such (on camera) it’s a bit difficult to recover and figure out exactly what to say next. Still, here’s video of me describing our association’s social media efforts back in July.