Here’s a nice round-up of blog posts on generational communications issues, especially as they relate to online communications.
Sooner than we think, the day will come when the absence of an instant messaging and text messaging strategy will seem just as disdainfully old-fashioned as not having an e-mail communications strategy. Younger members will soon view associations that don’t adopt these new technologies as quaint and backwards.
I’ll bet your print pieces have images of young people in them holding cell phones. But you’ve never texted your members. Ironic.
I wonder if us older people view our cell phone numbers as things we must protect and keep private, and that younger people don’t see it that way?
Tagged: Association Management; Associations; CAE; Certified Association Executive
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I lectured to a couple classes of first year college students this week and in both classes I asked if any of the students would text message someone they didn’t know already. The reaction was viscerally negative. They would never think to text someone they didn’t know well already. Texting seemed very intimate to them (my interpretation) and not that casual.
Assuming these 40 students generalize to the population, I think any texting to members should be 100% opt-in or else you risk creating very strong negative impressions.
No question.