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Associations are embracing Social Media

channels as a way to enhance member

engagement, to expand thought leadership

beyond their member base and to develop new

marketing channels. Nearly three-quarters of

associations used some form of Social Media

communication in 2011. This study documents

association use of Social Media and records

behaviors and best practices.

Social Media

Use by US

Associations Benchmarks and

Practices

Andrew Roscoe, Managing Partner Andrea Knotts Bona, Managing Partner One Orange Feather, Inc.

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About the Authors

Andrea Knotts Bona brings 20 years of multi-channel

marketing, branding and publishing experience,

particularly in the trade association and business-to-

consumer sectors. Prior to launching One Orange

Feather, Ms. Bona was Vice President of Strategic

Marketing for the Mortgage Bankers Association, where

she spearheaded corporate branding and marketing

strategy. Previously she was a consultant with McKinley

Marketing Partners, where she led new product launches

for pharmaceutical clients, including US Pharmacopeia,

and developed tactical online marketing campaigns for

Network Solutions. Ms. Bona has a BA in Communications

and Sociology from James Madison University.

Andrew Roscoe is a 25-year-plus executive with a track

record of building successful businesses using a range of

business models. He has experience in executive

operations, corporate process, marketing, strategic

planning, market research, economic analysis and IT

management. Mr. Roscoe's previous positions include

Executive Director Corporate Operations at Technologists,

(a mid-sized international government contractor), CEO

Roscoe Consulting (a marketing consultancy serving trade

associations), Chairman and CEO of O2 Wireless Solutions

(a public telecommunications construction company), and

Chairman and CEO of The Strategis Group (a global

marketing and management consultancy). He has a BA in

International Affairs and MA Economics from GWU.

Research support by Kaushika Prakash.

One Orange Feather Inc. specializes in providing

marketing and management solutions to the trade

association, technology and government sectors. From

message development to targeted channel distribution, we

create integrated solutions with the broadest reach to

create memorable impact. www.oneorangefeather.com

Social Media Use by US Associations

Benchmarks and Practices

Key Findings

Almost three-quarters of 250 associations surveyed

used some form of social media marketing in 2011

(defined here as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn).

Association adoption rates increase with association

annual budget levels, reflecting the capacity of larger

associations to invest in technology and marketing.

Facebook and Twitter adoption by associations

correlated highly with associations’ budgets.

LinkedIn adoption by associations was more associated

with industry group, with particularly high adoption in

the Telecom/E-Data, Real Estate and Finance

industries.

Among our panel of two dozen associations given

detailed interviews, 58 percent will invest in social

media in the next budget cycle. Within this group, the

average investment in social media is projected to be

12 percent of their Web budget.

Key barriers faced by firms implementing social media

programs were:

Commitment to timely engagement

Commitment to fresh content

Staff training, particularly to maintain unity of

message

Copyright 2012 One Orange Feather, Inc.

Social Media Begins to Mature

Social media is a well-established tool used

by associations to communicate with their

core audiences. Nearly three-quarters of

the associations surveyed used some form

of social media communication in 2011.

However, associations’ use of social media

marketing is far from mature. There are

wide variances in adoption rates by

industry group and size of organization,

reflecting diversity in need and capacity

among associations.

The models used by associations to link

social media marketing to association

strategy and goals are still in the early

stages of development. We are seeing

models that use social media to drive

traffic to a Web site and models that use

social media as the nexus of

communications with an audience.

Some models drive membership, while

others push products and services. The

most successful models are those that

drive engagement, i.e. two-way

communications.

Associations have indicated that they will

increase investments in social media in

2012 and 2013. As an industry, we will

need to track and prove the ROI on the

increased investment in this

communications tool.

Study Methodology

One Orange Feather undertook a detailed

study of more than 250 associations in late

2011 to determine their use of social media

and related Web marketing tools. Our

sample represented a wide range of

associations in terms of size and industry

group. We deliberately over-sampled larger

associations to provide a sufficient sample

size to reach conclusions for this group. As

a result, the sample statistics are accurate

at the sub-group level, but the total

industry statistics are skewed toward

behavior of associations with an annual

budget greater than $1 million.

We also conducted a detailed survey to

explore qualitative issues with a panel of

several dozen association marketing

executives. Findings from these surveys are

not statistically projectable but are used

as directional findings.

Associations Begin to Innovate Amid

Widespread Adoption of Social Media

Copyright 2012 One Orange Feather, Inc.

Facebook and Twitter Adoption Closely Correlates to Association Size

There are many social media channels

available for association use, including

custom-developed channels and mobile

applications. However, for the purpose of

this study, we narrowed our focus to study

the adoption of Facebook, Twitter and

LinkedIn.

Overall, 73 percent of associations used

some form of social media marketing in

2011. Among the largest associations

(those with an annual budget of more than

$100 million), adoption of some form of

social media is universal. Adoption rates

decline incrementally as association size

declines. Among the smallest associations

(those with annual budgets less than $1

million), social media adoption was at 42

percent in 2011.

Facebook and Twitter adoption were highly

correlated to association budget. Facebook

adoption ranged from 100 percent of the

largest association group to 42 percent of

the smallest association group. Twitter was

adopted by 86 percent of the largest

associations and 19 percent of the smallest

associations.

These adoption patterns reflect the

capacity of large associations to have

substantial technology and marketing

budgets. However, they also reflect the

reality that properly implementing a social

media program requires resources –

resources that the smaller organizations

don’t feel they can afford.

Unlike for Facebook and Twitter, the

adoption of LinkedIn by associations shows

no relationship to size of association

budget. Among the largest associations

adoption is 29 percent, for those with

budgets of $25 million to $100 million it is

45 percent, and it is 8 percent among the

smallest associations.

LinkedIn Favored by Associations in Specific Industry Groups

LinkedIn usage is particularly strong in

associations within specific industry

groups. LinkedIn adoption is high in the

Telecom/E-Data, Real Estate and Finance

industries. Adoption of LinkedIn lags in the

Education, Legal and Manufacturing

industry groups.

Size Matters – Large Associations Lead Adoption of Social Media

Copyright 2012 One Orange Feather, Inc.

LinkedIn is more likely to be a critical

communication tool in industries where

communications with other businesses or

executives in a business format is

prevalent, which explains the intensity of

use in Telecom/E-Data and Finance

industry groups. Education associations are

often focused more on individuals, often

outside of the business environment.

Most Associations Plan Social Media Investment in 2012-2013

Among our panel of association executives,

58 percent indicated that they would

invest at some level in social media in the

next budget cycle. This compares to 73

percent of marketing executives across all

U.S. industries that indicated that at least

5 percent of their marketing budget would

be allocated to social media in 2012

(according to an eMarketer report of a

Pivot conference survey).

Forty-two percent of our panel will make

no investment in social media marketing

this year. One-third of our panel indicated

that they would allocate between 1 and 9

percent of their Web budget in the next

budget cycle. About one-quarter of the

associations in our panel are intensive

investors in social media. Twenty-one

percent of the panel indicated that they

would spend 10 to 24 percent of their Web

budget on social media, while 5 percent

indicated they would spend one quarter or

more of their budget on social media.

Overall, associations in our panel will

invest about 7 percent of their 2012-2013

Web budgets in social media. Of those

associations investing in social media, the

average investment will be 12 percent of

the Web budget.

Invest In-house or Outsource?

At this point in the adoption of social

media, most investment is made on

internal staff and activities. Among those

investing in social media on our panel, 83

percent will invest in internal social media

activities and 26 percent will outsource at

least some activities. This indicates that

social media marketing is largely being

taken on by internal

marketing/communications staffers.

It’s About Creating an Online Community, with the Reward of Relationship Building

While our research focused on LinkedIn,

Twitter and Facebook, social media is

about building an online community in

different social spaces and how they relate

to each other. “It is about understanding

Most Associations’ Social Media Managed In-House

Copyright 2012 One Orange Feather, Inc.

the difference between the hub and the

spokes. Building an online community

today means learning how to navigate

between outpost activity (on public sites

like Facebook) and home-based activity (on

your own website, white-label community

space or blog.),” according to the authors

of Open Community.

While many associations both large and

small suffer from senior management’s

aversion to the organization growing into a

social organization, social media is a part

of today’s business culture and being

leveraged by savvy associations to engage

their audience. Our research indicated that

there would be an increase in digital media

marketing, which includes all digital

channels, not just social media.

Case Study: CompTIA Embraces Multiple SM Channels

CompTIA is the voice of the Information

Technology (IT) industry with 2,000

members, mainly small business, and 1,000

business partners. The trade association

focuses on four main program areas:

education, certification, advocacy and

philanthropy, with a heavy emphasis on

certification.

The association has two audiences –

individuals who need to take certification

courses, such as Department of Defense

employees and students, which are more

of a consumer play, and the association’s

membership. Both groups are technology

savvy and social media oriented.

CompTIA’s Senior Director of

Communications, Lisa Fasold, told us that

CompTIA is a heavy user of social media.

The association hosts 20 separate LinkedIn

Groups and struggles to limit its Facebook

pages to five. They also have four main

Twitter feeds representing certification,

advocacy, membership and the foundation.

There is also one YouTube and one Flickr

feed.

Once the channels were established

CompTIA ran into a problem many

organizations experience: They need to go

to the next step of training staff to be

more responsive.

Engagement is the name of the game. “We

are doing too much pushing and not enough

engagement. On the certification side we

ask questions, and we run content.

Paying attention to what

people are saying is beneficial

because it makes it easier for

your organization to be

relevant. Listening helps you

be less of a spammer and

more of a service provider,”

said Damielle Brigida, a social

media strategist for the

National Wildlife Federation,

in The Networked Nonprofit.

Association Investment in Social Media

Copyright 2012 One Orange Feather, Inc.

However, we are not taking it to the level

to get enough engagement. Sometimes it

takes up to 48 hours for an employee to

answer a question,” Fasold said.

“We need to convince CompTIA employees

to engage; we have been training the staff

to be more responsive,” she added.

However, CompTIA is growing its use of

social media and migrating away from print

marketing, parts of the organization

continue to emphasize existing channels

from a marketing perspective. “The

certification (marketing) group leans

toward print materials; they have not

embraced social media or email. When a

new product is developed the first thing

they do is create a brochure and a Web

landing page,” Fasold said.

Case Study: Linking Social Media to Strategic Goals in a Large Association – The National Association of Realtors

Virtually all large associations, those with

budgets over $100 million, now use some

form of social media. Facebook

penetration is near 100 percent, Twitter

penetration is 86 percent and LinkedIn

penetration is 29 percent. These very large

organizations have budgets and resources

to pursue complex multi-dimensional

strategies.

The National Association of REALTORS®

(NAR) faced the challenge of multiple

audiences each requiring different

approaches and messaging, such as

REALTORS® on the state and local levels,

consumers and the business community at

large.

NAR embarked on an aggressive social

media strategy in 2008 (for members of

ASAE, the NAR Social Media Strategy

document is available in the Resources

section of the ASAE website).

Hilary Marsh was the Managing Director of

Realtor.org at the time and directed much

of NAR’s social media strategy during this

period. She told us that social media

became a way for NAR to accomplish three

of its strategic goals:

Linking Social Media Strategies and Association Goals

Virtually all large associations

(those with budgets over $100

million) now use some form of

social media. Facebook

penetration is near 100 percent,

Twitter penetration is 86 percent

and LinkedIn penetration is 29

percent.

Copyright 2012 One Orange Feather, Inc.

1. Create and support a meaningful,

long-term relationship between

REALTORS® and consumers (by

modeling smart use of social media

and by creating guidelines for

REALTORS® to follow)

2. Be the most comprehensive,

reliable and accessible source of

real estate information (by sharing

real estate information in more

channels) and

3. Strengthen relationships with

REALTORS® and within the

REALATOR® Community (by

blogging, as well as responding to

other real estate blogs, and by

creating and fostering online

communities of realtors to enable

them to learn from one another.)

NAR identified four primary goals for social

media:

Turn monologue into dialogue with

members.

Reach more members with

information – when and where it’s

relevant to them.

Join and influence existing

conversations about NAR and about

issues realtors care about

Build deeper relationships with

members and others.

In 2009, NAR decided to use three primary

channels to achieve these goals –

Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, as these

were the primary social media channels

used by realtors. In addition, NAR pursued

blogs and multimedia channels.

Today, NAR’s use of social media is

extensive across all of these channels. NAR

lists seven LinkedIn groups, 35 Facebook

pages for related and affiliate groups

(including specialty REALTOR® groups,

such as women REALTORS®, trade show

Facebook pages and research-oriented

Facebook pages). One of NAR’s LinkedIn

groups has almost 50,000 members, making

it one of the 200 largest groups on

LinkedIn.

Effective Resource Management Key in Successful Social Media

Maintaining focus, unity of message and

current content for such a variety of

channels is a massive undertaking, said

Marsh, who identified critical success

factors for a large social media program

“[Associations] have to consider what

resources a social media program needs to

be successful, which usually includes time,

commitment, ongoing support and

prioritization.”

Social media marketing is no longer a new

tool for associations, and the majority of

associations are now engaged. For the

industry to prove the ROI on the budgets

allocated to this channel, they will have to

find processes, resources and budgets to

support engagement and timely content

while maintaining unity of messaging.

Contact:

aroscoe@oneorangefeather.com

andreabona@oneorangefeather.com

Linking Social Media Strategies and Association Goals