Social Media Roundup: Membership Rewards Keep Annoyance at Bay

No matter how wonderful, every association and its website have some minor annoyances or obstacles that stand in the way of a smooth member experience. Perhaps the snags are an opportunity for a new benefit?

Find out how they could be erased with cash in today’s Social Media Roundup:

Paying to Avoid Irritation

https://twitter.com/Poynter/status/458634191928713216
Slate debuted its membership model this week, becoming the latest news site striving for an improved monetization model. We previously previewed the details of the membership program, for which readers can pay $5 a month or $50 a year to enjoy ad-free podcasts and more access to the site’s writers. But one of the most interesting benefits of membership is being able to circumvent one of the web’s most reviled artifacts: article pagination.

Members will no longer have to click through to a second page if the article they’re reading stretches beyond 1,000 words, a policy Slate has long adhered to  (opens in a new tab).

Plenty of other news sites employ pagination, which is often criticized as a way to artificially boost page-view counts, but Slate is breaking from the crowd in making only nonmembers do those extra clicks.

Poynter’s Sam Kirkland uses Slate‘s announcement as a launchpad for a big question that applies directly to associations  (opens in a new tab): “What usability sin would you pay to eliminate?”

Should your members not have to deal with ads in the newsletters you send out? Should they have greater access to commenting threads or be able to opt out of seeing them entirely?

The possibilities stretch beyond the web: Should members who pay more be given the means to avoid conference nitpicks like long lines, poor seating or less-than-perfect WiFi? (ht @Poynter  (opens in a new tab))

A More Active Promotional Board

https://twitter.com/ViewOnAssocs/status/458622122840301568
Boards are a vital part of any association, and as with anything else, some boards are better than others.

Once you’ve recruited the right board members for the job, what should they be doing in their new role? Bob Fitch, president of Cain Consulting Group, sounds off on why boards should have a keen interest in advocacy, in a post on MultiBriefs  (opens in a new tab).

“Too often, board members think their job is to show up for the monthly or quarterly board meeting, listen to some reports, make some decisions and go home,” Fitch writes, calling for members to instead take an active role in promoting their organization.

“Each of us has a different personality and different comfort levels when it comes to ‘evangelizing.’ But you can—and must—find your niche as an advocate,” he advises. (ht @ViewOnAssocs  (opens in a new tab))

(pkstock/ThinkStock)