I think that’s what the hashtag provides, one stream of the entire conference aggregated into one. I think the reason I’m against the individual account is that usually what was coming from the @Tech09 didn’t really enhance my experience. What made the twitter interaction exciting was just that, the interaction. Whether that be with colleagues or staff from ASAE, when they interacted and didn’t just broadcast at me is when I as an ASAE member felt engaged. I do understand the desire to have an “official stream” of sorts, but I would expect that if something is really important, it will spread virally by retweeting. Sometimes I think there is a lack of trust with these tools in general (not referring to ASAE specifically). Trust that your audience is smart enough to figure it out, the tools aren’t hard, they are just different. The same way you engage in person is the same way you engage online. ASAE doesn’t have just one end-all-be-all person as a figurehead, you can go to multiple people to get your questions answered. We all understand that, so why wouldn’t we be able to understand it online?

As I’ve said before, I support ASAE and applaud them in engaging in these tools. I just think they need to let loose of the control a bit. Don’t be scared, those members that use the technologies are here to support.

I understand the benefits of back-and-forth engagement that Twitter can offer, but I’d argue that there are also conference attendees, who, if we can persuade them to use technologies such as Twitter at all, would rather have the option to follow one official stream where they can get session updates, room changes, etc., rather than having to find and follow all of an association’s staff on Twitter. I see a place for both approaches – individual staff accounts, hashtags, and the like for those more engaged in social media, and an official account for those getting their feet wet in the Twitter stream.

Your post illustrates a great example of how twitter and other social media tools can be used to extend and inform sessions in real time. Thank you for that. It certainly broadens the discussion. We hope you will help us engage twitter to extend our sessions like this moving forward to creating a more meaningful learning experience for all and to help us ensure the content of these sessions meets both your needs and the needs of your fellow attendees.

We look forward to continuing the conversation.

It’s a big enough battle to get the higher-ups to finally say ok, go ahead and try this or that, but I would imagine it will be a whole different story when it comes to making it more about individual personalities and interactions rather than more formal, controlled “dabbles.” Nothing wrong with heading in the right direction, but I know that I, myself, am not the most patient person in the world and it is definitely frustrating to have to move at what is sometimes a snail’s pace because before you can do anything you have to sell it to a million upper-staffers. I guess I should count myself as lucky, though, that they have agreed to go forward with it at all and that the people I work directly “get it.”

I do commend ASAE for diving into these new waters, but I agree that sometimes they play too much into trying to control the information. They just need to let go a little bit more, but as membership associations we depend on being able to offer our members value that we don’t offer to other groups. This is something that we association professionals will constantly run into while playing in the social media space and is something I ask myself about on a regular basis. Is there a balance between letting go of control and still serving our members who are the reason we exist?

ASAE has 2, 3 & 4 working for them. They also experimented with #1 by having their unsession on Volunteerism.

#5 they do & don’t do. Some individual employees have their own accounts and find those way more personal & interesting. I understand the theory of having an “official” stream for the conference (@GreatIdeas09), but I think the personality gets diluted when all the individuals when they all tweet from the same account.

You’ve given me things to make sure that I do for our conference coming up in May. Thanks for the thoughts!