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A weekly column by Jane Doe

Using Facebook - Part VI

Building a presence for your organization on Facebook is a great way to engage your younger members and potential members "where they live".  See five previous installments of Trend Spotting for many advantages and recommendations for how to go about that.

This week, we focus on "friending" your members. Should your staff engage in this?  The obvious answer might be "Of course!  We want them to be able to reach us this way."  But there may be reasons why this is not such a good idea.  Let me start with a story.

A few months ago our AMS vendor held their annual user meeting and training conference.  This is such an incredibly valuable source for training and tips on how to take advantage of the incredible breadth and depth of functionality in their system that it more than pays for the trip in productivity gains every single year.  This year, the conference was to be help in Cancun at the Ritz Charlton.  And best of all, they had negotiated a killer rate: $189 a night!  At the Ritz Charlton!  That is what we call a slam dunk.  We sent 5 staff - the same number we send every year.

Well, you know that little "What's on your mind" control they have, where people tell you what they are thinking or what they are doing at the moment? ...

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