power.com/Community), where members
and site registrants can connect, collaborate and share content. The association
believed this community could enhance
member value, membership acquisition
and retention.
Following an in-depth evaluation, the
AMA partnered with Telligent, which
provides social community software. The
AMAConnect™ project team led by the
AMA’s website and IT departments also
included Manifest Digital, the AMA’s
website development agency, and TMA
Resources, which provides AMA’s member database management software.
AMAConnect™ launched in November 2010, available to AMA members
and registrants of MarketingPower.
com who may take advantage of most
of the community’s features during a
trial membership. If registrants do not
convert to full AMA membership, their
access levels remain limited. They can
continue to view the homepage and one
general group of the community but
cannot participate in others. They also
can search for content and people but
cannot connect with other community
members or access full versions of content.
AMAConnect™ offers AMA members
37 groups in which to participate. Each
group is customizable and contains
multiple blogs, discussion forums,
ask-and-answer forums, media galleries, wikis, polls, group membership
lists, quick updates and other features.
The platform also provides members
personalized views of their activity so
they can easily update their community
friends; view their friends, groups, blog
and forum activity; and store files and
other content accessible only to their
friends. They also can easily set privacy
controls.
Key Business Decisions
The AMA did not take the decision to
build its own online community lightly.
There were many business strategy and
technology issues to consider, including:
• Access. The AMAConnect™ Business
Planning Group discussed at length
who should be granted access to the
online community and how guarding
should work. Ultimately, AMACon-
nect™ is intended primarily as a
benefit of AMA membership; there-
fore, all of the groups, features and
functionality, including members-
only content, are available to AMA
members, including collegiate stu-
dent members. A trial membership
program was developed to attract
new members.
