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About issociate

issociate has been designed specifically for associations and not-for-profit organisations who want to add the power of social networking to their existing communities to help them achieve their common goals.

By offering software products that allow people to contribute, share, and collaborate, issociate delivers solutions to associations and not-for-profits looking to enhance their organisational value and attract and engage a new generation of members.

But first, why should associations and not for profits use social networking or collaborative tools?

The very idea of not-for-profits and associations is to bring together like-minded people to elevate awareness, promote education and provide best of industry standards. The end result is a comprehensive network of people with mutual interests and goals.

Social media represents a simple means to a very powerful end. The internet, once characterized by one dimensional marketing and static web sites has transformed into a robust, dynamic network of people who collaborate to share opinions, knowledge and expertise. Social media has become the conduit for message delivery, opinion, member support as well as providing new and innovative marketing and sales opportunities.

By introducing social networking, community minded organisations can promote essential relationships and redefine new ways of communicating, collaborating and staying in touch with colleagues. Associations can connect directly with members and get a clear idea as to what they want, where they are and what makes them tick. And that is the key to success – Knowing Your Members. By providing a comprehensive approach to member engagement, associations and not-for profits can extend value to their constituents by increasing Member Recruitment and Relationship Development and increasing revenue with a new revenue stream by allowing advertising or sponsorship opportunities (why let LinkedIn and Facebook benefit from your members?)

What about Facebook and LinkedIn?

Facebook and LinkedIn are terrific and popular social networking resources and should be included as part of an associations overall communication strategy. However, there are risks and they should not replace an associations own private social networking site or collaborative tools.

Comparison of private (issociate) and public (such as LinkedIn and Facebook) social networking

Here's a list of the 10 top things a private social network can do for your organisation

1. Enhance member engagement by allowing members to find, contact and connect with people with similar interests, aspirations, businesses, social interests. They can do this safely using the member directory.
2. Build new communities based on demographics, eg location, job roles, employment, interests − using member-generated profiles.
3. Enable members to build their own communities around interests that motivate them. Member-developed groups can build their own momentum.
4. Increase member-generated content by offering members new and different ways to communicate and interact, eg blogs, ratings, feedback, Q&A, wiki glossaries, group files, video streaming, podcasts. You have different members with different preferences; offer them alternatives that suit them.
5. Gain new sources of revenue with advertising and sponsorship within the site and related egroups (list serves).
6. Deliver an online mentoring program that helps mentors and mentees find each other, increases the effectiveness of the program and reduce staff management time.
7. Swell attendance at conferences by using online member networks to help develop the agenda, enable members to engage with speakers before during and after the conference, rate conference sessions, deliver the conference program to member mobiles.
8. Mobilise your membership with mobile phone apps. Make your organisation readily available. Members can update and change profiles, check contacts, find the details for the next event…on the run.
9. Provide micro sites for groups, communities and even events – groups or state bodies can add their own blogs, groups, shared files and events in the framework and look and feel of the main site. Communities can belong and contribute without the need to form separate organisations or breakaway groups.
10. It helps maintain unity and strength

Other social networking sites represent a threat to your association. Why's that? Because they enable your members to set up groups over which you have no control. If your members are engaged in these online splinter groups, they are less inclined to participate in your formal association activities. That fragments your membership and diminishes the power of your association. issociate delivers social networking in a way that enhances, rather than undermines, the strength and unity of your association.

And here's just a few reasons why issociate is the best social networking solution for professional associations

1. It's cost effective – with a low cost annual subscription fee which incudes all updates, service and maintenance, issociate delivers all the benefits of social networking – without the prohibitive cost.
2. It earns money – If you create a group on LinkedIn, you don't earn any money for your association. You earn money for LinkedIn. But on issociate, you can carry advertising on your pages. The more pages you have, the more you can earn. You can handle the advertising or get us to handle it for you. We make it easy for you, which brings us to...
3. It's easy to use – issociate is a breeze to use because it's been designed for non-technical people. We've made it simple for your members, and we've made it simple for you. For example, single sign on for members, user-friendly content management system, intuitive navigation, ready made AMS plug ins, templates and guides and active user group to share tips and strategies and real-life experience.
4. We help you nurture your network Social networks are organic and need nurturing – just like your association. We provide ongoing tips to help create and maintain a social network that is vibrant yet safe and welcoming.
5. There are no lock-ins. If you decide issociate is not right for your association, we will certainly want to know why, but we wont stop you. And neither will we hold any of your data. Your data, your members and your content are yours.
6. Issociate has partnered with Higher Logic who exclusively focus on developing collaborative software products for the association and not-for-profit industry.

Association Management System (AMS) integration

One of the most distinctive features of our software is our ability to integrate with many of the most popular Association Management Systems (AMS). Integration to your AMS provides secure back-end integration allowing your association or not-for-profit to pre-populate member data and provide up to date member information and data synchronisation.

With AMS integration associations and other not-for-profit organisations have a strategic advantage over the more well known social platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn. By using issociate's private social platform taking advantage of data within your customer database, you immediately have a competitive edge over any of the public platforms which offer limited or no integration.

With AMS integration an association can launch a fully populated social network with pre-populated communities and networks from day one. Your networks can focus around event registrations, purchase history, volunteer positions, leadership roles and any other engagement metrics which might be stored in the customer AMS.