Why should Clubs use web 2.0 technologies?
The key advantage of using web 2.0 technologies (social networking sites, blogs, wikis) is that they are interactive, with members communicating directly with each other, often in real-time.
Does your Club funnel communications via your club office bearers or web master, who can sometimes inadvertently act as filter or even worse as a censor? Filters can often slow down communications and act as a disincentive to be involved in Club business.
Members using web 2.0 feel ownership of their communications. They feel empowered. Web 2.0 content is member generated and ideas are shared before being informally reviewed by others via the comments below each post. No longer is the Committee the sole custodian of the "club wisdom".
Younger club members are likely to feel more at home in an organisation where a hierarchical structure does not inhibit their communication with each other. Before joining, they can immerse themselves in the club culture via the club's website and decide whether they will feel at home and welcome.
Other articles in this series:
Useful Web 2.0 technologies
This article by Bush Walker is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
It's a step in the right direction, especially in an advertising sense. I did a study and found that 100% of Generation Y needs to see a business website before making contact. So basically, unless a club has an online presence, they will not attract younger members.
ReplyDeleteThe other thing with Generation Y is that they are a Peter Pan generation, and haven't really grown up. They aren't as responsible or practically independent. We can see this with them returning home after a 6 month stint of trying to make it out on their own.
Although this is not fair, in order to appeal to that generation, group leaders and the club board will need to make on more responsibilities that have been pushed back to the members in the past. However, this requires fees to go up and thus, it goes away from a club mentality (a community of people with a united passion), and to a business approach.
It's a difficult problem with no easy solution. But an online presence and a forum will help attract and hopefully keep some Gen Y members.
"I did a study and found that 100% of Generation Y needs to see a business website before making contact. So basically, unless a club has an online presence, they will not attract younger members."
ReplyDeleteI agree with you 100%
This would suggest that keeping the noticeboard, blog etc hidden away in the members-only section may be counter-productive. By being able to interact with existing members, it is more likely that "voyeurs" will join