Technology in the Arts has just released a publication reviewing legal issues surrounding using video footage online. (Access the PDF publication here.)
This is not just for arts association managers, either: If you put video on your website, take note!
--> Posted in: Featured, Mobile* deep breath * There. I said it. And I know I’m going to get a lot of grief over it, so let the debate begin.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, and my thinking has been influenced by research, including the September Pew Internet report on “The Rise of App Culture,” and a report on global mobile statistics from MobiThinking. I believe that associations need to get mobile right, and fast. I disagree that apps are the answer. Here are five reasons why.
1.) There are too many barriers to using your app
So, first someone has to have a phone that works with native apps–for the most part, that’s an iPhone, Android, Blackberry, and maybe a Windows phone or other smartphone. Then, assuming your app works on all of those phones, they have to download the app. Then they have to USE the app. See? That’s three significant barriers right there.2.) Popular app types don’t favor association apps
App users heavily favor games, followed by news/weather, maps, social networking (inflated by successful Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter apps), and music. To me, these are lifestyle apps, and each of these categories will be dominated by the big players in those spaces. I could never advise an association to try to compete for mobile app users in any of these niches.
3.) Association members are not ready yet
According to Pew, only 29 percent of adults with cell phones use apps on their phone, compared with 72 percent who use SMS (text messaging) and 38 percent who access the internet. App users skew younger and male, too. If we’re fishing where our fish are, apps are a miss this year.
4.) By the time association members are ready, mobile apps will be on the decline.
According to ABI Research, mobile app downloads are expected to peak in 2013, then start a slow decline. According to their senior analyst, Mark Beccue,“We see two emerging trends: first, many applications (increasingly built on web standards) will migrate from app stores to regular websites, and for some sites you won’t need an app at all. In addition, more and more popular applications will be preloaded on mobile devices. Social networking apps in particular will be pre-loaded on new products.”
This is important. The first thing people think of when we talk apps is native apps–the ones you download from the App Stores, or the ones that come pre-loaded on your new phone (and pre-loading partnership deals are probably not an option for associations.) But as mobile web browsers and the sites we design for them get more sophisticated, “web apps” will begin to take the place of native apps. If you used http://asae10.org from your mobile phone, you used a web app. And you didn’t need to download anything–you just went to the URL in your mobile web browser. One less barrier. So to be clear in this post, [native app = bad] and [web app = good].
5.) There are better ways to invest in mobile this year.
A year from now, building mobile apps will be cheaper and easier. We’ll know more about the market, and there will likely be more of our fish in the sea, so to speak. There will also be more vendors with web app options, rather than native apps. So for this year, where should associations be spending money on mobile? I can think of a few things to invest in…
- Optimizing website content and user experience for the mobile web
- Researching member use of mobile (including iPad/tablet),
- Optimizing email for mobile web
- Continuing to optimize presence in Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, which have the most popular social networking mobile apps that people are already using.
- Experiment with opt-in text messaging (especially for event registrants, volunteers, and grassroots advocacy use). Remember, the adoption rate for SMS is 2.5 times the adoption rate for mobile apps.
Think I’m wrong? (Maddie might.) Then at least test the concept before you commit big dollars to it. Don’t rush in to building apps, and waste resources you need for other kinds of mobile innovation.
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9 responses to "Mobile apps are a waste of time for associations."
Good points in this article. Think, before you spend money on something that may not have a return on investment for your organization.
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It wasn’t MY idea, though I wish it had been. Rather, it was the brainchild of the CEO of the National Association of Realtors (which is why they hired Dale Stinton and not me). Anyway, Dale said, “We’ve just completed this great contest for our local associations and now we need a plan to share the results—something fun. Interesting. You know, like a GAME.”
The ‘results’ were the treasure chest of winning ideas from the 2010 NAR Game Changer contest: “What,” the local association executives were asked, “would be your great and game-changing idea for a real estate association—one that you’d love to do, but just don’t have the resources?”
Out of the 250 or so responses, NAR selected a dozen winners and subsidized their ideas with money and a professional consultant to assist in the implementation process. Another group of contestants, the runners-up, received cash awards to fund their ideas. There was also an array of ‘bright ideas’—concepts which were innovative and cool, but perhaps not revolutionary enough to be thought of as Realtor association Game Changers. The accumulated results were amazing, really: a land rush of new association programs, products and services devised and-- in many cases-- successfully implemented by the associations themselves.
A remarkable diversity of project products now belonged to all levels of the NAR organization--everything from communication software to a training program enabling Realtors to better serve the returning war veterans, from a new category of association membership to a real estate education self-study program. Some of the finished products were ready to plug and play on any association’s computer system or adopted by its public relations committee; others were brilliant new ideas which could be rebranded and adopted in any location.
Following the implementation period, Dale Stinton’s question was one of leveraging the contest results: how does NAR get busy local and state staff and volunteer leadership to review and consider implementing these new ideas? How can the national association incorporate its investment into a value product for its state and local associations?
That’s where Dale’s creative thinking surfaced. “Few people are going to read through the pages and pages of descriptions of these projects,” he reasoned. “We need some kind of search program, some type of interactive tool which is appealing and fun, but which will help our 850 local and state associations find ideas which fit their needs and resources.
“ C’mon, folks,” he said to a couple of us who had been consultants on the original project, “You put together a terrific contest. Now, figure out how to market the results.”
We started by creating an inventory of all the winning ideas. We found that they fell into several common categories—public relations, education, member professional support, communications, and association governance were among them. We also asked a group of seasoned AEs to review a series of observations which staff and leadership might be making about their associations:
We need to become more influential in our community.
We need to increase or diversify our association income.
We need to improve member professionalism.
We need to provide useful business tools for members.
We need to streamline our governance procedures.
We need to identify and groom our future leaders.
We need to increase our value proposition for our members.
“Okay,” our task force said. “Those are the ‘ need’ statements. Now, what are the concerns that an association leadership might have in selecting a project which would satisfy that need?”
Obviously, available resources (both money and volunteers) will be a major issue. Other questions might be ‘is the project scalable for large or small organizations?’ ‘Can an association leverage its investment in a project by sharing it with other associations$’ ‘Does the proposed project have the potential for additional association revenue?’
Needs and qualifying concerns—that’s how we agreed to sort through NAR’s data base of Game Changing winners and bright ideas. Then came the hard part of Stinton’s challenge: the process should be fun! “This should not be another dry and dusty database, unwieldy and unread,” he argued. “Make the process entertaining and appealing to the newest leader, the smallest association, the busiest AE. Make it a GAME that truly will enable CHANGE is our associations.”
The task force of NAR staff and the project consultants tossed around a lot of ideas—Monopoly, Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders, Pac Man, Bingo—and finally decided on a slick game show host and his Vanna look-alike assistant. (I was all for making the host tall and blond, a Dale Stinton avatar. “No,” said one committee member. “That might be a little TOO much fun…”)
We catalogued and cross-referenced all the winners, runners-up, and bright ideas. Then Lars the Geek designed the program, making it easy and—we hope—fun for association staff and leadership. Did we meet Dale’s requirements? You be the judge.
Visit our solution on Realtor.org and play the Game Changer Challenge. You’ll be a winner.
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