NHPCO, the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, was nice enough to invite me to present their new Connected Community tools and website to their section leaders a few days ago. It was a great way to connect with members and give them a sneak peak into what will be available to them in the coming weeks.
What was so exciting and so rewarding was that everyone in the room "got it" - getting over their initial concern/fear/intimidation about what social networking meant, they immediately understood that these tools would provide them with a new way in which to work and communicate.These are individuals who are all about relationships and building personal connections - rather than position software in a way that seems like it's meant to replace the personal touch, everyone understood how they could connect and work with each other in a way that extended beyond the yearly conference or meeting.
I was thrilled when one of the section leaders (I will have to look her up on the community to find her full designation), Joy, came up to me afterwards and told me that she had told one of her section committees that they were going to be the model to show others how it could be done using these tools - fantastic user adoption!
NHPCO is going in the right direction - they used the event to recruit for their beta group, frame up the right positioning message for their leaders to take back with them to spread the word, and promote the tools as much as possible throughout the conference. They even leveraged the "Member get a Member" concept and asked for leaders to stand in the exhibit booth with them in order to talk to recruit and engage!
Am very excited to see full rollout and what June will bring.