Association 2020

What makes social media technology powerful?  One might be quick to conclude that the power is rooted in the social media applications themselves.  After all, the mass-user applications provide the platform which enables interaction to take place on multiple levels. 

However, I believe the true power of social media is in the minds of its users.   I’ll say it again, I believe the true power of social media is in the minds of its users.

If you look across the spectrum at how these tools are being utilized you will find a degree of unimaginable inventiveness.  For example, consider the manner in which crowdsourcing and mobcasting is being used today by highly reputable traditional media sources (for an example, click here , but don’t forget to return). 

From the “technopreneur” world of open source code to the world of the ingenious end user, powerful and unexpected things can happen when people and organizations open their minds to experimenting and exploring new ways to leverage social technology.  In my mind, the future belongs to those associations who view the social web as an exciting laboratory as opposed to a threatful fad.   

As Clay Shirky put it during Digital Now 2009, “The conversation is the value”.   As I see it, when many conversations interconnect and join together they form one strong voice.  When motivated people feel a powerful and personalized bond with an organization, amazing things will happen.  Isn’t that how associations emerged in the first place?  

We must move beyond the myth that, as associations, we somehow “control” the conversation to engage and invest in the evolving world of social media… not as mere communication tools, but as a fundamental part of  association mission and strategy. 

As I like to put it, we may now join our regularly scheduled future… already in progress.