The best entrepreneurs and CEOs think about time in two chunks—five years and 100 years.

To be a good leader, you need to be able to juggle short term thinking with (very) long term planning. How do you have a great Q4 but also set your company up for success in the next 100 years?

Volunteer work is critical to your association. Not only does it supplement your staff’s daily workload, it deepens member relations to the organization and offers the chance to build new skills. 

But how do you get members to start volunteering? Although you know the benefits of volunteer work—both for the association and for the members—it can be hard to convince a person who’s never volunteered to start.

Did you know, according to the Pew Research Center, 73 percent of American adults consider themselves lifelong learners?

Education is a huge benefit associations can provide for their members, and online education is a great way of providing it. And today, with learning management system (LMS) options that seamlessly integrate with your online community, it’s possible to create a centralized member experience that includes education and certifications of all types.

Do you ever wonder why certain videos go viral? Or why some articles get shared widely while others don’t? Dr. Jonah Berger has spent his professional life digging into why certain things take off and why people make different decisions.

Data science is a new and growing profession and many companies are scrambling to either find a data scientist or to increase their data team. But what exactly do these people do and how can they help all types of organizations?

At Super Forum 2017, we’re excited to bring Brad Klingenberg, the Vice President of Data Science at Silicon Valley startup Stitch Fix, as a keynote speaker. He’s going to talk about what data scientists can do for organizations and how they wrangle big data into actionable insights.

According to the Harvard Business Review, before technology made it possible for companies and organizations to connect with large groups of colleagues and stakeholders anywhere in the world in real time, the average team size was around 20 people. Today, however, it isn’t uncommon for people to work in teams comprised of upwards of 100 people—many of whom interact with one another virtually and not face-to-face.

It’s time you face the facts—your online community is biased. Customers bring their own bias when they engage on the platform and community professionals build in bias as they create the space and social norms. Biases are there, baked into your community from all sides—there’s no getting  around it.

Biases aren’t always bad. In fact, community builders often work to create certain biases that encourage behavior they want to see in the community. For example, a ‘family friendly’ community might encourage limited  participation during the weekend or after working hours, creating a “spending time with family”  bias. It is subtle but sets an expectation that drives the way members engage.

Are happy customers as engaged as they can get? Or is there any way to increase their engagement—by giving them more purpose and helping your organization create more value for all members? As it turns out, there is more to customer engagement beyond simply being a “happy customer”—specifically what we call “promoters” and “co-creators.”

According to a study done by Forrester Research, 80 percent of businesses think they deliver ‘superior customer service.’ And, guess what? That same survey found that only eight percent of customers agree. Clearly, there’s a major divide between perception and a hard reality.

In a world where mistakes and missteps can go viral instantly, no one wants to be caught in the social media crosshairs for bad customer service. But there are social communities that can manage customer service issues as well as generate new approaches while building stronger customer relationships.

What happens when you combine a passionate segment of your membership with opportunities to make a difference beyond the walls of your association? An advocacy program.

With an advocacy program, your organization can offer added-value for your members while simultaneously positively impacting issues and constituencies important to your industry and members. By giving members an advocacy outlet, you can expand your reach while creating stronger bonds with your current members.