New Power Has Given Everyone a Voice.
There’s a new perspective in the world that we can make massive change. It’s a new perspective that we don’t need to rely on authority to do so. And with new social tools and worldwide connectedness, we’ve been trained that we have a voice.
Take out your phone and find a popular social media influencer in your Instagram account or on Facebook. I’ll do it right now… I follow Arnold Schwarzenegger on Instagram, for whatever reason. He made a post earlier today and it has 2,495 comments. People want to contribute. People want to say something at every juncture. And if managed well, this collaborative contribution, or crowdsourced innovation and thought can be far more effective than a room of PhD’s.
A fun example comes from James Surowiecki’s book, “Wisdom of the Crowd”, where he demonstrates crowd accuracy by referencing a 1906 competition of guessing the weight of an ox. While in 787 guesses, no one landed on the weight, the average of all the guesses was exactly the correct weight.
The biggest difference now is that the communities of people participating are far bigger and the ease of participation is much better. Not only better, but people are craving to offer their voice. Are you giving your members that opportunity?
Here’s another example. I had dinner at a dive bar in my hometown tonight. I’m not proud, but it’s the truth. Poopsie’s is a small, local hangout and they’re known for their one-size bar pizza. They have 120 reviews on Yelp. Customers will say something if given the opportunity. Amazon has reviews and ratings for every product you can imagine. Native deodorant has 1,424 reviews. Who feels that strongly about their deodorant?!? But people have a voice and they want to use it. Each month, Yelp and Trip Advisor have 750 million reviews, while Facebook has 5 billion comments. People expect to be able to say something. Maybe not in the 80’s or 90’s but today you must give your members an outlet to talk to you.
Our last experience as a consumer is now our expectation and that translates to our professional experiences. The fact that social media has trained people to use their voice, to provide ratings and reviews and to offer authentic feedback, means the same structures need to be made available by associations.
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