Flickr: x-ray delta oneMy title at NTEN is the Membership Director, but it's really a misnomer: I don't get to direct the members! (This could have been brought to my attention earlier, Holly.)
Instead, I have a much more rewarding and exciting job working WITH members. I do a lot of listening. I also ask questions, followed again by more listening. And I try to connect directly with as many members as possible to hear why they joined, what they're working on, and how we can help them. I even try to keep tabs on the topics, ideas, applications, and issues members are talking about.
Because I can only be in one place at one time, I take advantage of technology to help me listen, communicate, and connect. As part of Member Appreciation Month, I want to share a few of the tools I use every day:
I find Twitter to be a great place to listen. You can follow people, lists, and hashtags to get news, find new people to connect with, and engage in conversation. To those that say Twitter is just a place where people share what they're having for lunch and no "real" connection happens, I would recommend checking out the #nptech tag to see the valuable links, idea sharing, and back-and-forth this community engages in every day.
I use Tweetdeck to help me wrangle all my Twitter options because I'm always logged in as myself and as NTEN (Tweetdeck supports multiple accounts simultaneously), and I like having columns for various hashtags and groups. In addiiton to replies and direct messages in my Tweetdeck, I always have #nptech, #12NTC, #501TechNYC, #CommBuild, and lists I've created to pull out friends and favorites.
Skype and Google Hangout (Video)
I am one of the remote staff members at NTEN, and am connecting with members and partners every day from all over North America and even the world. Sometimes, sitting on a conference call just doesn't have the magic in it when you're trying to really learn about each other or brainstorm ways to work together.
So, I use Skype and Google Hangouts (video conferencing within Google Plus) almost every day, whether it's with just one other person, some of the NTEN staff, or with community members. When we can't sit down at the same table, it's nice to have an option of still seeing each other's faces!
Netvibes and Google Alerts (RSS)
There's no way I'd be able to stay on top of all the blogs, case studies, videos, and conversations happening online – especially since we have nearly 11,000 members! – without a little help.
My favorite combination of tools is Google Alerts and Netvibes. With Google Alerts, you can set up searches for terms or names and set parameters for the kinds of content to search, then subscribe to the results via RSS. When you plug that RSS feed into a tool like Netvibes, as well as RSS feeds from your favorites blogs, news sites, and even Twitter searches, you have a complete newsroom right in your browser! I always recommend creating Google Alerts for all your key staff as well as the names of your programs or conferences and your organization. Pull in Twitter search results for your favorite hashtags, too!
As always, I would love to hear from you! Which tools do you find you use every single day to listen and connect? Share your tips and tools in the comments and as part of NTEN's Member Appreciation Month. I'll pick a commenter at random to win a prize this week!