If you’ve ever felt disadvantaged by imperfect knowledge of the events that shaped the second half of the twentieth century; ever been party to a conversation where people of a certain age make knowing reference to mysterious characters and events like the Blake spy case, Profumo, or Keeler; or your shaky grasp of recent history and literature has ever been exposed. Don’t worry, it happens to us all! Right now, earnest pundits who’ve never even cracked the spine of 1984 are referencing doublethink, newspeak, and the Ministry of Truth, in support of their opinions about fake news!  But all is not lost. Here is your chance – through one man’s career – to join up the dots of modern social history.

 

Jeremy Hutchinson was one of the greatest criminal barristers of the 60s, 70s, and 80s. His cases of the period changed society and provide an enthralling exploration of Britain’s post-war social, political and cultural history. From the sex and spying scandals that hastened Harold Macmillan’s resignation in 1963, to the struggle against the secret state and literary censorship through his defence of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Fanny Hill, and Last Tango in Paris, Hutchinson was involved in many of the great trials of the times. He also defended George Blake, Christine Keeler, Great Train Robber Charlie Wilson, art faker Tom Keating and Howard Marks.

 

Younger readers may find it hard to believe, but this was a period of revolutionary change in British society. The undermining of what was then regarded as the ‘establishment’, and re-alignment of social and moral conventions was well under way, even if the ‘old guard’ failed to recognise it. And the divisions in society can hardly be better illustrated than when the prosecutor in the Lady Chatterley case invited the jury to “ask yourselves … would you approve of your young sons, young daughters – because girls can read as well as boys – reading this book? Is it a book you would even wish your wife or your servants to read?” Remember, the year was 1960, not – as you might suppose – 1860!

 

For those of us who lived through these formative decades – and either didn’t know, or didn’t care, that society was shifting all around us – it is fascinating to see those relatively recent events through the lens of history. But the joy of this book is that in describing Hutchinson’s career, his biographer, Thomas Grant, strips away the hyperbole and gives arm-chair historians the facts and context of each case with clarity and wit. It is also a beautiful examination of the power of language and words. As Hutchinson puts it, “Words are the ammunition of the advocate; simple but telling words placed in the right order. It is remarkable how powerful words can be.”

 

Advocacy is the stock in trade of trade association professional. This excellent book can provide some examples for all of us!

Michael Hoare

©2017 M J Hoare

Published by John Murray (Publishers) ISBN 978-1-444-79975-0

 

www.johnmurray.co.uk

Every trade association or membership organisation should have a social media presence, right? Yes, but think hard before leaping in! It’s not something to be tackled half-heartedly, so be sure you’re doing it for the right reasons, and have the right resources – human and financial – at your disposal.

 

If my inbox is anything to go by, some of the most hyped training courses are about getting the most out of social networking. Hardly a day goes by when I don’t get an invitation to attend a course where I will learn about the effective use of the Internet and social media to drive business growth. The idea being to harness Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google, and others to drive sales, and harness engagement.

 

There is anecdotal evidence that it works. Contrary to tradition, and In a reversal of their usual approach of shouting about the unique benefits of their product in the hope of snagging customers who are ready to buy, some companies are trying to build a community of interest around their activities and employing engagement marketing to bring customers to them. It is one stage on from transactional marketing and it clearly works for those companies that have employed it to best advantage.

 

But will it work for membership organisations? The key words, of course, are ‘community of interest’; or the people who buy into the ideas, brand, or lifestyle that is being promulgated, or share the same beliefs as those doing the talking. It’s the basis on which all membership bodies work, so the concept is not new, it’s just the method used to achieve your objective. For instance, back in the olden days, retailers had local high street shops, and they developed a community of interest by talking to their customers and understanding their lives and needs. Membership bodies did the same using print media, social events, and meetings. But now, because we enjoy less personal contact, and a businesses’ ‘community’ may be flung far and wide, we need to use new tools to achieve the same ends, so social media appears ideal.

 

But beware! What might seem at first glance to be a cheap and cheerful marketing tool – beloved of trade associations – may swiftly become an albatross around your neck if you don’t have the resources to see it through? And by that I don’t just mean money! Before membership bodies take the leap they should be mindful of some of the pitfalls.  Because, once committed, there is no going back! Feeding the social media beast can become a full-time job. And only about thirty percent of member organisations have someone dedicated to the task. 

 

The Internet is not the sole preserve of the young, but it’s a fact that having been brought up in a computer based environment they take more readily to the medium. The age of your target ‘community’ will influence your tone and how you communicate, but don’t imagine you can just hire a ‘youngster’ and let them get on with it! Plus, social media sites aren’t a broadcast medium. The traffic isn’t all one way and they rely on action and reaction; developing a conversation over time. So, ask yourself, can you develop an enduring narrative; are you comfortable writing persuasive informal text; and can you keep it up day after day and night after night. Considering the websites I’ve seen that haven’t been updated since the year dot, and the lamentable rubbish I’ve read online, the evidence isn’t looking too good!

 

Consider the amount of precious time consumed just reacting to your email inbox, and the time commitment is pretty clear! And have you, personally, got heaps of sparkling ideas with which to entice your eager waiting community? Describing your breakfast every day simply won’t cut it – unless you own a café – and what happens when you want to take a break? Going silent for a fortnight isn’t an option, so without help you can wave goodbye to uninterrupted holidays, your life will never be your own again.

 

So, the tools may be free but the content isn’t. It takes resources – both human and financial – to develop engaging content, and there can be reputational risks too! It’s all well and good when your community loves you, your ideas, service and product. What happens when they don’t? Or, more likely, when a vocal minority, or a disgruntled customer doesn’t! An old customer service mantra used to run something like, ‘a happy customer will tell his best friend and an unhappy one will tell everyone’. That was in the days of neighbourhood gossip, today the Internet has given rumour an exponential boost. Just look at current world events to see the power of social networks and the inherent risk if they disseminate unfettered and un-moderated comments.

 

 

But these aren’t reasons not to proceed, just why you mustn’t assume social media is a cheap option that can be easily delegated. It requires, clear objectives, defined resources, excellent content, measurement and management. And, once you commit to the process, you’d you better get your running shoes on to keep up with the ‘next big thing’. Because as surely as night follows day, when the pioneers and acolytes of social networking realise that their chosen medium has been debased by cynics, they will move on faster than you can say Twitter.

 

So, get out your KPIs and measuring tools – opens, visits, click through, and event attendance – and start racking up your analytics!

Michael Hoare

©2017 M J Hoare

The furore surrounding member engagement has almost reached fever pitch in the last few years. For membership organisations it has become the word on everyone’s lips, almost to the exclusion of member satisfaction. The channels of engagement have multiplied rapidly. A website is almost passé a newsletter or magazine is verging on the antique. LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter; all have reached their zenith and joined the also-ran technologies. Snapchat and Pinterest have burned brightly. Now a whole new list of social media apps for marketers – Pyrus, Bear, Pocket Casts, Hootsuite Enhance, DuoBook, Headspace, Boxer Pro, Into, Daycap, and Confide – is queuing up to grab our attention.

 

So most membership organisations have either taken the plunge, and are reviewing their decisions, or are grappling with complex choices concerning the future breadth and depth of their technological integration.  Thankfully, once again, MemberWise has come up with a worthy study into the digital world we probably still understand and, more importantly, the way it interacts with membership organisations! And this time ‘Digital Excellence 2017’ replaces the customary ‘Harnessing the Web’ survey. 

 

Introduction

 

Introduced by Ricard Gott, sponsors Advanced Solutions International (AIS) and undertaken by Heather Forrester of Research by Design, this year’s offering deals pretty comprehensively with reviewing, planning, investing, and developing digital plans. Keeping its findings neatly summarised in a twelve point plan makes it digestible without the stodge!

 

We are reminded that over 270 membership professionals took part in the survey – 50% of them from trade associations – and this has kept the content away from the esoteric and firmly within the practical. In fact, I wish I’d had this little book at my side when I first ventured into the world of CRM on behalf of my association back in about 2010. Then I could have worked my way through sections like: key findings; organisations’ goals and challenges in 2017 / 18; driving member engagement; the challenges of CRM; and integrating websites and CRM systems, and realised that many, just like me, were feeling their ways gingerly towards an elusive goal.

 

By the time I’d reached: offering a website with member structured content; personalising web content to ensure a more engaging online experience; and, understanding member engagement through web analytics, I think I would have truly understood the purpose and magnitude of the not inconsiderable investment.     Even so, the subsequent beauty parade of providers, the directory sized specification, the apparent lack of practical training, and the tortuous time-scale until final completion would still test the patience of a saint.

 

Questions & Answers

 

Then, as now, increasing member engagement is the goal. Once again it is uppermost in the minds of participants of the study. But one cannot help the suspicion that, lurking in the back of each mind, is the question, “is the acquisition of new members truly work it?” The resulting data has answered that question and a lively question and answer session posed many more! Here are but a few:

 

Organisations are faced with engagement, value, value propositions, and better integration: when to engage with CRM; where should we start, and how much resource should we allocate? Postponement may look like an attractive option? And a 2/3 year completion time-table is far too long, as strategies and technologies will have long-since moved on before completion!

 

Addressing the multiple silos of information in most organisations is another key challenge and the question that often hangs in the air is whether any new system is capable or flexible enough to deal with all my minor issues? Personal experience shows is that whilst a CRM system is wholly capable of handling multiple data streams it is often difficult to persuade employees to give up tried and tested methods. Integration is the goal, and 64% think that their systems have achieved this, but 74% say their databases and CRM systems don’t do this adequately.

 

The temptation to keep running a back-up copy of the accounts ‘just in case’ is frustrating. As a consequence CRM systems are often under-utilised by those they are designed to assist. There is also a tendency for there to be one ‘go to’ person in most organisations with the result that their knowledge isn’t shared throughout the company, they are perceived as over worked, or their experience is lost when they move on.

 

The silo of existing staff culture or working practices presents a challenge in many companies, and websites designed to reflect this structure only tend to re-enforce it. How do you structure a website on the basis of customer experience? Particularly given the silo structure? 78% of respondents said they were challenged by the possibilities of personalised we content.

Not enough resource is provided by membership bodies for members to deliver active local content.

 

Member engagement is the oft stated nirvana, but the results are split, with 53% saying it has increased over 12 months whilst 48% say it’s the same. But how to measure engagement? There are known performance indicators, such as open rates, click troughs, website visits, event attendance, engagement in social media, and lastly member retention rate. But all are transactional relationship! And none tell you anything about the thought and feeling of members or potential members.

Open rates of 21-30% and click-through rates of 11-20% are considered good, but still give plenty of opportunities for readers to slip though the net. Is your written content too superficial for readers, does it fail to capture their imagination, is it banal and patronising? All sure-fire deterrents!

 

Going one stage further, only about 25% of participants actually have a membership engagement plan in place; about 30% of organisations have a dedicated social presence; and only 9% measure their return on investment in social media.

How was it for you?

 

Anna Heath, Membership Manager for the Royal Statistical Society is one of the ‘go-to’ people in an organisation whose moto is ‘Data, Evidence, Decisions’, and she said, “I found the Digital Excellence event really useful – more so than I had expected.  My main interest was in the CRM side of things, as we are about to embark on the huge project of finding a new CRM that suits the varied needs of our whole organisation.  It was certainly useful and interesting in that respect, but other aspects of the research report were also of interest; it is always reassuring to hear that other organisations are facing the same challenges, to learn that we are not the only ones failing to achieve certain aims, but also that with the odd thing we actually seem to be slightly ahead of the game!

 

The event was really well organised, just the right length, in a great venue, and gave an opportunity to meet and network with a range of interesting people.  I definitely picked up some tips of what to look out for as we begin our CRM project, and I returned to the office with lots of useful facts and figures to share with the rest of the membership team.”

Michael Hoare

©2017 M J Hoare

 

New Director for One Nucleus

One Nucleus, the Cambridge based not-for-profit membership organisation for international life science and healthcare companies, has announced the appointment of Linda Summerton as a Director.

Linda is Chief Executive of Immodulon and a Senior Partner with TranScrip Partners. She has over 25 years’ experience in the global pharmaceutical industry in large pharmaceutical companies, small biotechnology companies, private equity ventures and specialist service provider organisations. She has deep understanding of the needs and interests of the SME life science and healthcare community.

 

As the CEO of Immodulon, Linda is passionate about supporting smaller companies within the sector ecosystem, and commenting on her appointment said: “Having worked closely with One Nucleus I am very excited about working with the team to support their future objectives. These are challenging times for life sciences and healthcare companies and One Nucleus is extremely well placed to support the sector. I am delighted to have been asked to join the Board and look forward to bringing my experience to the table, to support the team and assist One Nucleus members.”

Jon Green, Chair of One Nucleus commented: “Linda is a great addition to the team. She has a deep understanding of the needs of One Nucleus members, and this coupled with her current interests, particularly as CEO of a growing biotech company make her an ideal Director for One Nucleus”. 

Linda worked for 18 years at AstraZeneca, where she held a variety of roles, including project director for Iressa to first registrations in Oncology, Accolate to NDA in asthma, and culminating in being Head of Strategy and Portfolio for the Oncology and Infection Therapy Area Management Team (TAMT). 

She was also SVP Portfolio and Project Integration (PPI) at Merck KGaA, based in Darmstadt, leading the portfolio steering committees for Oncology, Cardiovascular and CNS development programmes as well as managing a department of commercial and development personnel. 

 

Latterly Linda became a Senior Partner at TranScrip, a specialist service provider to the pharma and biotech industry, where she leads oncology services and directly supports clients working in oncology. Immodulon is currently her major commitment. Linda has a first degree and PhD from Cambridge UK, and held a NATO post-doctoral Fellowship tenured at the University of California, San Francisco.

The Institute of Economic Affairs Appoints Two

The Institute of Economic Affairs has appointed Dr Jamie Whyte as a New Director of Research and Julian Jessop as New Chief Economist.

Julian Jessop becomes the IEA’s Chief Economist in a newly created role. He has thirty years of experience as a professional economist in the public and private sectors, having worked at HM Treasury and most recently as Chief Global Economist at the leading independent consultancy, Capital Economics. He will take up his role on 7th March 2017.

 

Jamie Whyte holds a Ph.D. from Cambridge University and is former leader of the ACT Party of New Zealand. He will take up his role in mid-April 2017. He takes over the position from Professor Philip Booth, who has taken up a role as Professor of Finance, Public Policy and Ethics at St. Mary’s University, Twickenham. Professor Booth remains at the IEA for one day a week as an Academic Fellow.

 

The IEA seeks to promote the role of markets in solving economic and social problems, aiming to change the climate of opinion over the long term.

ADE Welcomes New Policy Officer

The Association for Decentralised Energy is delighted to welcome Chris Higby to the team. Chris will take on the role of Policy Officer.

 

Chris joined the ADE in 2017 and works on the Association’s policy and regulatory development team. Tasked with connecting ADE customers and policymakers, Chris helps develop CHP and DSR markets by ensuring that policy goals and commercial development are aligned so as to favour innovation and growth.

 

Raised in California, USA, Chris holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Tulane University and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Southern California. Prior to moving to the UK, he spent 10 years working with the US government, splitting that time evenly as an employee of the US Congress and a corporate energy lobbyist.