Last friday, I was lucky enough to be a guest speaker at California Society of Association Executives in order to talk about social software for professionals.

I love talking to normal people about emerging technologies and from a technology perspective these folks were very mainstream (although from a leadership perspective they were elite). To give you a sense, the other speaker was the president of the association of chain link fence manufacturers. Here’s where some of the highlights from the presentation and the feedback:

There are three primary reasons the executives were interested in social software (blogs, wikis, social networks). They want to know what the buzz is about. They want to be more relevant with young members. They want to continue to attract and retain members.

One of the first questions was how hanging out on Facebook for hours on end would help their association. Luckily I had an answer. It won’t. That’s leisure and nobody should be doing that as part of their work day. However, there are plenty of ways to use a social network for professional use cases. You just need to stay away from the leisure activities.

Another concern was that their members were older and unfamiliar with social software. All of our demographic data shows that the number one driver of activity is how strongly people want to network. At a recent tech conference, 9 of the top 10 job titles fell in the range between Project Manager and CEO. The geeks had been pushed out by managers and executives. Also, our networks for associations are always our most active because people join associations to network. Familiarity with social networks never comes into play (although people need to own a computer).

Interestingly, nobody had a strong desire to blog. I think this is because their members weren’t big blog readers. However, several people had good experiences with blog search and I was able to point them to Summize which is just as powerful but for Twitters.

Some people think associations have a problem because they aren’t attracting a younger demographic. As evidence, only two people in the room of 150 were younger than 30. The alternative view though was that people aren’t seeing the need for associations until they’re more established. I tend to believe that.

My goal was to give people a framework about thinking of social software as a tool to solve a problem. A blog can be a way to communicate and converse with members. A wiki can help you publish and update key information. A social network can help members connect. And of course, a CrowdVine social network for your conference means your attendees show up knowing who they want to talk to.

Our friends at Interaction08 sold out a month early (perhaps because they used CrowdVine?). I think most conferences would count their blessings and move on. However, the Interaction Design Association (IxDA) that runs the conference sees their mission as a lot more than just collecting registration dollars. They exist to strengthen the entire association and they see potential to bring parts of the conference to the members that couldn’t attend. They explain officially here, but the summary is:

• They will post recordings of all the sessions.
• They have a waiting list to make sure that no slot goes unfilled.
• They invite members to connect and collaborate on their CrowdVine network.

A connected membership leads to a stronger association. We’re working with three associations this month and we’d love to work with a lot more. IxDA and the others have a great enthusiasm for helping their members. Normally we say we’re not happy unless we can show a direct effect on your conference bottom line, and although we get there by helping attendees, sometimes it’s fun to do good just for the sake of doing good.