IASA executive director Joe Pomilia doesn't imply his organization has been at the forefront of social media, but he does remind members IASA has worked for years to find better ways for members to connect with each other.
"Many years ago we started the IASA Knowledge Exchange, and that was a place where our members could sign up, express interest in particular areas of the insurance industry, and exchange questions among each other," says Pomilia.
He described the Knowledge Exchange as being similar to a blog, as different members provided information on a subject they were interested in discussing.
Over the years, social media has exploded, thanks to the proliferation of Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. What started out for many as a way to communicate about their personal lives has expanded to businesses and associations such as IASA.
For IASA, that means finding the best way to accomplish that goal of better communication. "We're trying to see how we either migrate some of our current applications to be better served using the social media platforms that already exist or use new strategies to support our members," says Pomilia.
IASA is attempting a three-prong approach at this point. The first prong was the creation of an IASA group on LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com).
"It isn't doing anything other than putting together a group of people who know IASA and want to exchange messages with each other," says Pomilia. "There are a few people who joined our group who may not be what you would call a mainstream IASA person, so this is a way of reaching some individuals we ordinarily might not reach."
The second step was the creation of a Facebook presence, which began earlier this year, according to Pomilia. "Facebook seems more useful as it relates to our conference event," he says.
The Facebook page is dedicated to the IASA Annual Conference and Business Show, not just the 2010 edition. "We are always going to make sure the Facebook page continues to roll forward, year after year, for people who want to become a fan of the IASA conference," says Pomilia. "We plan to use the page as a communication tool–as well as our traditional communication methods–to announce things."
The third piece of the social media puzzle is the Twitter account IASA has set up for the annual conference (www.twitter.com/IASAINC). Members of the IASA staff are handling the tweets, according to Pomilia.
"The strategy with the Twitter account is to send out a lot more messages throughout the event as a way of streamlining our housekeeping," says Pomilia. "If anything happens during the conference people might need to know about because of last-minute changes, we can contact them. We also can tweet little reminders about where you need to go to pick up something or the starting times of different activities. We think little reminders like that will be helpful to our attendees."
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