Component Relations Professionals and the T-Word

By KiKi L'ItalienComponent Relations, June 2009

Engaging members in 140 characters or less—that is the goal of component relations professionals who are embracing Twitter. Jumping on the Twitter bandwagon helps CRPs accomplish their tasks in several ways: It enables CRPs to communicate valuable information quickly and succinctly; it is an easy way to reach a lot of people; and it can even help identify potential new members and subscribers. Read Full Story.

The question about whether or not Twitter is here to stay is irrelevant—at least to me it is. There is an amazing amount of opportunity within Twitter. If an overworked CRP can figure out how to use Twitter effectively, he or she will benefit. I should know. I am a CRP who went through the initial, “How could this ever be useful to anyone?” phase and eventually found herself approaching Twitter addiction. Why? There are three good reasons:

1. Twitter is attracting more and more users all the time—and those users include members of my organization.

When I am able to provide a link to a resource that is valuable to my colleagues, members, and the ephemeral Twitterverse, I am adding value. Furthermore, when a member or colleague shares a valuable link with me, I grow in my abilities to serve as a CRP. Message: Twitter is a two-way street, and everyone gains from participating.

2. Twitter allows me to organize groups of members on site during meetings.

True story: I was able to invite my chapter leaders to an impromptu VIP party with our association’s president because of Twitter. I gave all of my chapter leaders my Twitter information (and guidance on how to use Twitter) in the weeks approaching the annual meeting. After I had dismissed the international collection of more than120 chapter leaders from their leadership meeting, I learned about a new

invitation to all of them to meet with our president. I sent out an alert via Twitter and the turnout for the party that evening was successful, with members spilling out into the hallway. Those who were not connected to Twitter via their phone or Internet had heard about it from those chapter leaders who had received the message. During that party, the association president became a true believer in social media. This story is great because it shows the power of technology as well as word of mouth. Message: Twitter is a quick way to reach a lot of people in a group using technology and word of mouth.

3. Clever CRPs can use Twitter and Twitter applications to identify potential members and publication subscribers, as well as to feed their industry’s thought leaders with news that will spread their organization’s message and add to their ability to serve their current membership.

For me, figuring out how to identify the people on Twitter who I wanted to “follow” and receive tweets from was the

biggest hurdle to overcome. I did not know right away about things like the “Twitter Yellow Pages,” a.k.a. Twellow, which would allow me to plug in keywords to identify people on Twitter who I might want to follow. I also did not realize I could use TweetLater, another Twitter application, to monitor the entire site for mentions of my organization and my society’s industry keywords, allowing me another tool for identifying users who might have an interest in our association. Message: Twitter can identify new leads for membership and will monitor your brand.

Those of us who regularly use Twitter cannot help but want to teach the uninitiated about its positive attributes. Will you have to hear about someone’s breakfast in a 140-character tweet? Maybe. But it’s worth it if that person’s next message is a link to an article transforming the way you do business.

KiKi L'Italien is chapters & membership relations manager, The Optical Society (OSA), Washington, D.C., and is a member of ASAE & The

Center’s Component Relations Section Council. Email: klital@osa.org.