Why don't association executives read blogs?

The hot topic right now in the blogoclump is "Why don't association executives read blogs?" Ben has a handy roundup on the discussion if you need to get caught up.

I think a better question is "What do association executives read?" followed by "What should association executives read that they don't?" There aren't any one-size-fits-all answers to these questions. I've worked for several associations in my career, and I haven't found two CEOs to be alike. Some are far more focused on building relationships (and revenue) with members, some see themselves as more of a "coach" concerned with overall strategy rather than day-to-day details, and some are intensely focused on directly leading the association's legislative and regulatory efforts. As a result, they have widely divergent needs for news and new-idea input.

An aside: One of my duties as a junior communications person at the American Trucking Associations was to produce a summary of the latest news affecting our industry. It was a daily project, modeled on the daily media briefing produced for the President. I arrived at work early (about 7 a.m.), scanned a stack of newspapers and trade publications, clipped a "top 10" of relevant articles, cut and pasted the articles so they could be easily photocopied, wrote 1-2 sentence summaries of the stories, produced copies of the full report, and delivered it to all of the executives' offices by 8 a.m. Today we've got software that will do it all for you -- all except for one important thing. Even the best news aggrigator or other similar tool lacks a human editor to look for nuances, to decide what's really the top story, or to find something relevant that would otherwise have been overlooked by the computer search.

I mention this because the point I want to make is that we shouldn't get hung up on "Why aren't association executives reading blogs?" A blog is just a format for information. Association executives will spend a certain amount of their limited time and attention reading things that they view as valuable and efficient (the Wall Street Journal and BNA Report for Executives come to mind) and that they believe other people are reading. No one wants to be caught flat-footed when a member calls and says "Did you see that story in the Wall Street Journal?" or be the only one at the reception who hasn't read an important piece in this morning's Washington Post.

Another thing to consider is that association executives may or may not be looking for "the next big idea" in an association blog. The "next big idea" could just as easily come from a keynote speaker or a business book or an article in Forbes having nothing at all to do with associations. I'm not suggesting for a minute that the association blog world doesn't produce ideas of value -- it does, unquestionably. But most blogs are first-person, they're self-published soapboxes. They lack third-party validation. Again, this isn't said to diminish their overall value, but an executive with limited time and attention will, I believe, take this factor into account when deciding how to allocate reading/reviewing/digesting time. Association executives are as concerned with who else is reading something as they are with what ideas can be found within.

Tagged: Associations, Blogging.