One + March/April 2011 - (Page 21)

>> Ask the Experts NBTA Goes Global You have questions. Paul Bridle ﬁnds the answers. A leadership and organizational expert, Bridle will answer your questions in One+ using his knowledge and the knowledge of the meeting industry’s top experts. I ONLY HAVE 24 HOURS IN A DAY, SO HOW DO I DEAL WITH SOCIAL MEDIA? Bridle: I asked tech expert and futurist Corbin Ball, CMP, CSP, and he said that the ﬁrst mistake is to try and do it all. Stop seeing it as another thing to do and see it as marketing time. Social media is a marketing opportunity, so develop a plan or routine that will help target you and your business to the audience you want to attract. However, Ball strongly recommended that the ﬁrst thing to do is listen: “It is not about yelling…it is about communicating.” There are a number of social aggregator tools that will help you “monitor the buzz,” and you will soon learn what is being talked about and where you can get involved. Ensure that you tune into the network you are connecting with and appreciating what they want to hear. When you do this, you’ll be able to identify how you can contribute and eventually take a lead in it. If you are a large enough business, you can have a director of social media, but if you are an independent, then you should be setting time aside to market yourself, and part of that should be to use social media as a tool in your marketing approach. THE NATIONAL BUSINESS TRAVEL ASSOCIATION (NBTA) has changed its name to the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA). The organization says it’s enhancing the member value proposition through a broader global focus and new member features and benefits, including the following. • An expanded global footprint of networking and educational events, many of which will be complimentary for members. • Free worldwide registration for members to all GBTA webinars. • Access to new and improved industry research and resources, including global benchmarking tools. • Enhanced online collaboration and information sharing. • An internationally driven and interconnected committee network offering global guidance. • Continued expansion of the GBTA network for representation in every major business travel market. GBTA says it will also offer advanced networking, giving members the ability to find the expert they need on any topic, in any global region, and collaborate with them. A new, more robust website will allow members to find resources more easily and enable greater collaboration, and GBTA also says it will continue to have a strong voice in industry advocacy, reflecting the increasingly global nature of the changes happening in the business travel industry. —BLAIR POTTER WE ARE LOSING MEMBERS. WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT? Bridle: I asked Ed Rigsby, an expert in associations and membership ROI. It seems that associations feel they deliver a decent amount of value, but “they don’t know how to measure that value, and if you don’t know how to measure it then it becomes hard to tell the prospective member (and current member) what it is.” Rigsby believes that the difference between a “feature” and a “beneﬁt” needs to be clear. In many cases, what used to be a beneﬁt is now only a feature. For example, many say “education” is a beneﬁt, when in reality the member can get education from many different sources these days. So education is largely a feature now, unless the education is distinctly different from what everyone else is offering. Be sure to deﬁne what features and beneﬁts you offer. However, Rigsby did warn that “networking” is too much of a catchall and should be carefully deﬁned and proven if it is going to be a beneﬁt. Paul Bridle is an information conceptualizer who has researched effective organizations and the people who lead them for 20 years. He writes and speaks on his research and business trends. Reach him at info@paul bridle.com. Read more stories at www.mpiweb.org/Magazine/pluspoint mpiweb.org 21 http://www.mpiweb.org/Magazine/pluspoint http://www.mpiweb.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of One + March/April 2011

One + March/april 2011
Contents
Energy of Many
Impressions
Ultimate Fail
Overheard
Agenda
Ask the Experts
Thoughts+Leaders
Wonders, Man
Business Is Back
Top Spots
Connections
Irrelevant
Fail vs. Fail
Long Distance Sportsmanship
The Conference Is Not About You
Eat, Play, Love
Fantastic Fit
Where Tomorrow Happens
Middle Kingdom Come
All Together Now
Economic Impact Study
The Truth of Tech
The Social Networker
Applified
Super Wi-Fi Is Coming
The Kitchen Sink
@ Your Service
Your Community
Making a Difference
Until We Meet Again
MPI's 2011 Meeting Guide to Colorado

One + March/April 2011