Best 2014 Blogs from Our Association and Alliance Management Company

Happy New Year! We hope you and yours are having a memorable holiday season. Here at Virtual, Inc., we’ve certainly had a memorable year… 

We celebrated a big birthday. We grew our team. We expanded our service offerings. And we’ve really begun to make headway as a technology-focused alliance management company—capable of supporting open-source technology associations,  standard-setting alliances, and IoT consortia, in addition to our other practice areas. 

Of course, it’s not all about us. Your interests always drive the conversation, so here’s a list of our best blogs from 2014, based on your readership:

Bad Board Members: Fighting Fury with F.I.R.E 
We’re not surprised this blog was among our most popular in 2014. Our website page on association board support services is actually our most visited page overall—so we know many groups are looking for resources and advice related to building more effective leadership. There are no quick fix solutions, but this post outlines four practical strategies you and your fellow leaders can start pursuing now, in order to minimize (or eliminate) the effect of a “problem” board member. 

Social Media for Associations 
As a full-service association and alliance management company, we help groups create smarter marketing campaigns—including active social media profiles. But alliances don’t need to establish a presence on all of today’s busy social channels. And simply being seen on a network doesn’t do much good, anyway.  This blog explains where and how different associations should be speaking to their audiences—a question that will only get more complicated in 2015. 

The Long Road to Standards Adoption 
This blog offers some interesting background on technology standards and near field communication (NFC) standards, as just one example. If you’re participating in one of today’s many standard-setting organizations, this post is well worth a read. 

Video Content for Associations: If a Picture Is Worth 1,000 Words… 
Is your association equipped to create high-quality videos? Without realizing it, most groups already have the tools and the material necessary to engage their members with visual content, instead of more printed words. See how we’re using video to help improve associations’ websites, conferences, and overall communication strategies. Because let’s face it: PowerPoint isn’t getting any younger. 

In the lull between late December and early January, please take some time to catch up on Virtual News. Or better yet, take a moment to send us your thoughts. Great blogs often originate from great reader questions and real-life situations. Your feedback helps to make us a better association/alliance management company.