Mining Social Media for Data
Do you know what others think about your organization? Whether or
not you are actively involved in social media, your organization should
closely monitor what’s being said about it online. Do your members
write blogs, for instance, where they might write about your programs
and products? When you have an event, are attendees tweeting about
it?
The American Society of Association Executives encourages the use
of social media and regularly monitors it for mentions of its organization — including ASAE10, its recently re-branded annual meeting.
For the most part, mentions of ASAE10 found through Google’s blog
search were very positive. However, there were a surprising number of
negative posts and tweets from attendees expressing disappointment in
the experience.
Although it is easy to put too much value in a small number of
comments, tracking what is being said about them on social media
sites can help associations predict and prevent future problems. Creating metrics to benchmark social media commentary can be as simple
as tallying the positive, neutral and negative number of tweets and
blog posts. Depending on the results, associations can then develop
strategies to address the negative and leverage the positive.
An even bigger issue was discov-
ered when the membership director
was asked how many new members
were obtained based on member
referrals. As luck would have it, the
association had regularly captured
information about referrals in its
membership database. A subsequent
review indicated that during the
prior five-year period, an average of
80 new members joined through an
unofficial member-get-a-member
program that required no staff or
funding resources. This method of
new-member acquisition was the
second most successful each year
for the organization, and the least
costly.
2. Use Data to Increase Event
Attendance
When they host education sessions
and seminars, associations often
gather a surprising amount of data
from program evaluations, which can
offer keen insights into members and
other attendees. Coupled with other
information the association collects
— such as clicks on its website or
e-newsletters — this data creates a
unique opportunity to leverage seemingly disparate pieces of feedback
for the purpose of developing more
targeted association products and
services.
One association did exactly that
when it was having trouble selling a
high-priced education course. Faced
with trying to sell a course that
had a capacity of 25, but had no
registrations after it was marketed,
the association shifted its focus to
identifying — then targeting — the
members who were most likely to
register.
Because the course had been
offered before, the association first
carefully reviewed evaluations from
previous events and discovered
that more than 80 percent of prior
attendees had been in the profession
for 10 years or less.
Based on that information, the
association examined evaluations
conducted at its annual meetings
and results from its annual membership surveys, each of which included
a question about the length of
respondents’ careers. It also identified the individuals who had clicked
on a link to information about the
Creating metrics to benchmark social
media commentary can be as simple as
tallying the positive, neutral and negative number of tweets and blog posts.
