So how can associations benefit from Open Social? I see a few options, and can guarantee more ideas will pop up as we start riffing on the work of the early adopters like Slide, Last.fm, and iLike.
- Interactive member directories: Many associations offer “Find a professional widgeteer” function on their websites. I can imagine associations creating an Open Social application that would allow their membership directories to be plugged into social networking sites by users or network owners.
- Tip of the day: Many associations publish daily or weekly tips for consumers or businesses. Why not use the Open Social platform to push those tips out to social networking sites?
- Popular classes/books: Let’s say your association has its own social networking site like this one at Ning for the American Library Association? ALA could extract data about its most popular books and classes and display them right in the sidebar.
There are a lot of possibilities. Here are three. What ideas do you have?
Tagged: Association Management; Associations; CAE; Certified Association Executive
