If a tree falls in the forest but no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?

If someone complains about or compliments your organization online, but you have no social media presence, is it like that tree?

Nope! The forest now listens and one falling tree can cause quite a stir.

I recently spoke with Alison Chander, marketing manager for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), about her association’s social media presence, especially on Facebook and Twitter.

AAAS launched its first page on Facebook in June 2007.

It uses a number of group or fan pages for different activities. Science Careers currently lists just shy of 5,000 members. This fan page complements one of AAAS’s Web sites, Science Careers.

Alison sees AAAS Facebook fan pages as an outreach effort to let people know about the association and what it does. She also likes that the fan page is open to anyone, so even non-members can learn about the advancement of science and segue into membership.

“We get different types of messages through Facebook than through the Web site,” said Alison. “The Facebook page is a wonderful opportunity for people to interact. It alleviates us having to come up with our own social networking system.”

For example, prior to a recent AAAS conference, one Facebook fan posted a question regarding affordable housing options. AAAS fans responded with suggestions. This interaction between association members was made possible by Facebook’s interactive social media platform.

Alison also sees the future potential of Facebook as a way to organize its members around a cause. “Though we have not tried this social strategy yet, we hope to!”

AAAS uses LinkedIn but has not seen much activity yet. “Our LinkedIn page is restricted to members, and LinkedIn has only just started to implement features that encourage people to participate in discussions,” Alison explains.

Twitter is another form of social media AAAS relies on. Alison recommends, “Even if you don’t tweet on a regular basis, set up a Twitter search. I occasionally find tweets I can reply to. In one instance, I direct messaged a potential unhappy customer who was very pleased I cared about what he had to say.”

An active presence in social media is a benefit to AAAS members. I applaud this association for meeting their members when and where they are online. What a great example of a successful social media strategy!

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