|
|
 |
|
|
| |
|
September 14, 2009
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
CEO BLOGGING
|
|
| Here are great events this month that might appeal to you or your members. Renewable Energy: Sept 16; Federal IT Update: Sept 22; Hot Topics in Law Department Relations: Sept 25. See them all! |
|
| |
| Few associations put the blogosphere and Twitterverse in the hands of the CEO—or anyone over the age of 30. Not so for the American Hotel & Lodging Association. |
| |
 |
|
CEO Joe McInerney started a blog, Joe's Tales from the Road, last year as a way to update members (and his wife) about association issues and his worldwide travels. His advice to fellow CEO bloggers: update once a week and make it personal. He's found that people are just as interested in his family reunion in Saugatuck, Michigan as they are in the status of the Tourism Protection Act. (What that says about the excitement of the Act, we’ll let you judge.) Did we mention Joe just celebrated his 70th birthday? You can watch him blow out those 70 birthday candles here.
|
| |
 |
| The blog gets 300 hits per month, promoted through a daily e-newsletter and a “Where's Joe?” logo on the AH&LA homepage. Between Barcelona, Bangkok and a dozen other trips McInerney takes, flight attendants might see him more than staff. That's why AH&LA began sending McInerney's Friday blog posts to its 125 staff members, including two affiliates. He says it's helped create a greater sense of community. Another blog bonus: He reviews Italian restaurants around the world (apparently Malaysia has some gems). For locals, he recommends the Rigatoni and Sunday Gravy at Potenza (he's ordered it three times in three visits). |
|
|
FRIEND ME
|
| |
 |
|
Facebook’s benefits for associations aren’t a mystery to Maddie Grant, who’s helped many (National Association for the Self-Employed, Business and Professional Women's Foundation, etc) figure it out. The social media blogger and SocialFish consultant (blogsultant?) gave us these tips:
- Don't just hand your Facebook page over to the only 25-year-old on staff. Create an inter-department team—with contributors from advocacy to marketing—to add updates.
- Content should be member driven, not staff driven. Figure out who's most active and has tons of friends, and ask them to start discussions.
- If a member creates a group for your association, don't ask them to take it down. Tell them you're psyched, and ask if you can help or provide a logo image. Otherwise, you might end up with an enemy group.
- Make content fun and interactive. The best example: For its 125th anniversary, IEEE asked members to send video of themselves passing the IEEE logo from right to left. Clips poured in from around the world and were spliced together to create this viral video.
|
|
|
CEO Line of Succession
|
| |
 |
| Ralph Petta was in his K Street office—sitting down—when he learned he’d be succeeding former congressmen Ken Bentsen as head of the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association. (It reps the $650 billion industry that leases everything from copy machines to 747's.) It wasn't a total shock: ELFA's board of directors created a succession plan two years ago in case something happened to the CEO. (That sounds more ominous than it is.) At month's end, Ken, who "spread the gospel of leasing and financing" for nearly 4 years, will become EVP of Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, and Ralph will take over as interim president. |
| |
 |
|
ELFA's board will consult with its members to decide whether they want a government guy (or gal) or an association guy, like Ralph, who has 22 years of institutional knowledge and doesn't need to learn the wi-fi password. In other new developments, the association is stepping up cost-effective webinars. They have 30 planned this year, and are budgeting 36 for next. Waning attendance at conferences that once attracted up to 500 has ELFA rethinking the way it engages its members. This fall, it begins day-long roundtables for networking and discussions with 16 to 18 CEOs in close-to-home hotspots such as Herndon (aka, Aspen of the East . . . assuming nobody reversed the edits we made to its Wikipedia page).
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
This newsletter is a journalistic news source which accepts no payment for featured interviews. It is supported by conventional advertisers clearly identified in the right hand column. You have been selected to receive it either through prior contact or professional association. If you have received it in error, please accept our apologies and unsubscribe at bottom of the newsletter. © 2009, Bisnow on Business, Inc., 1323 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20036. All rights reserved.
|
|
|
