Marketing is still new to me. It’s more challenging than I imagined. At least it’s challenging for us as we’re building a tool that’s valuable to several different markets. There are so many marketing options for a Software as a Service startup to choose from and it’s hard to know if your real message is getting out there. The question that has kept coming up lately for me is: “How are we doing telling people who we are and why we’re unique.” Are we telling our story?

Here’s a hodgepodge of facts about our product and people:

1. We’re passionate about creating really, easy-to-use, un-bloated software; that actually works.
2. We want to help churches, associations and non-profits (any member-driven organization) enhance communication and community among the members of their organizations
3. We want our software to be affordable.
4. We really do believe that software can enhance communication and help people feel more connected.
5. We don’t believe that MemberHub is a social networking site. It’s s private groups communication tool.
6. We really like to serve our customers; we’re social people.
7. We’re a father-n-son start-up.
8. We’re honest, hard-working, good-to-know people who follow Jesus.

We’ll be sharing more with you about who we are. And if you know us or currently use MemberHub, please leave a comment and help the rest of the world learn more about us.

Thanks!

The executives who ignited the transformations from good to great did not first figure out where to drive the bus and then get people to take it there. No, they first got the right people on the bus and then figured out where to drive it. They said, in essence, “Look, I don’t really know where we should take this bus. But I know this much: If we get the right people on the bus, the right people in the right seats, and the wrong people off the bus, then we’ll figure out how to take it some place great.”

Jim Collins – Good to Great

At your church, non-profit or association, how many tools do you use to communicate with your members? We’ve learned that in some cases people are using 3 different tools. For example, a Director of Youth Ministries at church here in Raleigh, is currently using Facebook to connect with the kids, an email marketing program to reach the adults and he combines this with the occasional personal email and phone call. Throw in Twitter and text messaging capabilities and you can find yourself spending half the day trying reach everyone, just to remind them to return their (enter random weekly form name here) form.

Does this sound like you? Sure, effective communication needs multiple mediums to make sure everyone is reached, but how many tools do you have to use to accomplish this? How much time and effort are you spending on simply “organizing the procedures in which your communicate”?

Please share with us how you deal with this challenge. What’s working for you? What’s not working?

Many of you know @milleemassey. For those of you that follow her on Twitter, you’re already well aware of her knack for sorting through 100′s of  tweets and finding those nuggets of goodness that deserve to be passed on and retweeted. For MemberHub customers you may just know her as the friendly account representative that answers all your questions.

Some people may wonder how a group communications tools saves time or money. “Isn’t it just way for people to talk and be social?”. Well group communications tools certainly do help people talk and that should be the point of church or association using a tool like MemberHub. Here’s the deal, communication is key to your organization. You know that. Especially if you’re a member-driven organization like a church or a non-profit.

The more informed your members are the less time  you spend answering questions you’ve already answered; multiple times already. How many times do you have to pick up the phone or answer an email just to address a question that a member should be able to answer themselves?

Here are three ways that using group communications tools save money:

1. Empower your ministries, groups and teams to coordinate and organize themselves; instead of the staff

2. Drive all communications with and among members through one tool (i.e. you don’t need Facebook, an email marketing tool and traditional email.)

3. Happy, informed and empowered members stick around (i.e. think giving, donations, and dues)

Can you think of any more?

The good folks over at Web Worker Daily did an excellent review of MemberHub today. Upon reading the article, the first thing that I noticed was that Scott called MemberHub a “group management and communication service”. We have never made any public effort to describe MemberHub in that way…”group management”. From the get-go, I knew that Scott really understands MemberHub.

Quoting Scott Blitstein:

I realized that while MemberHub is billed as a tool for churches and non-profits, there is a lot of value here for a group of any sort (or any size) that needs a place to communicate and collaborate.

Yes, he gets it! He goes onto say:

…a dashboard does a good job of presenting all of them (hubs), even across organizations. So while each hub is a unique and private entity, there is value in maintaining multiple hubs on the service.

This is the true strength in MemberHub. It centralizes communications and collaboration among groups for not only “organizations” but also members! You! You, the person that is a member of a church, non-profit, association, club and family! So go recommend MemberHub to all the organizations that you’re affiliated with that need to enhance communication and start getting things done! You can start by creating a free hub.

And let us know if you have any questions along the way.

If you need help for your small group(s), then logically you would go to SmallGroupHelp.com, right? Naturally.

Whether you’re a small group leader or pastor, if you’re looking for a great resource for small groups then you should really check these guys out. Frank Chiapperino and others have been cranking out valuable, interesting, blog content since January 2007.

Here’s an excerpt from small group help:

Small Group Help is a destination for small group leaders and ministry leaders to get resources, training materials, study guides and advice. You can read the BLOG, MESSAGE BOARDS, & RESOURCE REVIEWS for FREE, but if you would like to unlock the full potential of this site, you can purchase one of our low cost subscriptions. A subscription will give you access to all of our articles, downloadable discussion guides, and training materials and videos.

Really good stuff there and lots of way to plug in. Now, surf on over to http://www.smallgrouphelp.com/ and be on your way to impoving your small groups!

Please join us for a FREE demo on Wednesday, March 18th at 4:00PM EDT or Thursday, March 19th at 4:00PM EDT. In this 40 minute session we’d like to make you aware of all the benefits and features of MemberHub.  During this time, we will cover the following items:

• Overview of MemberHub for Organizations
• Benefits of centralizing Hubs underneath a MemberHub Organization
• Navigating the application and exploring significant features
• Provide best practices and discuss ways to best leverage MemberHub
• Discuss upcoming features

Please sign up for one of the demo times by following the links below.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009 at 4:00pm EDT:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/408778593

Thursday, March 19, 2009 at 4:00pm EDT:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/665940550

Contact Millee.Massey@MemberHub.com with any questions. We hope you can make it!

MemberHub deployed two very basic, but very needed features yesterday.

Recurring Event Reminders

One of the more elegant and powerful features in MemberHub is the calendar that is available in every hub. Its recurring events functionality is just as powerful as Apple’s iCal and Microsoft Outlook. The only thing that was missing was the ability to setup reminders for recurring events. That is no longer the case! You can create recurring events and specify that MemberHub send members an email and/or text message…automatically. NOW, go into your hubs and setup reminders for all those weekly and monthly meetings, practices and games. And while you’re in there, set up a reminder and text message for that random event that occurs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, every 3 weeks.

Search for People in you Hub

For hubs that have lots of members, it feels a bit cumbersome to have to page through all the members to find that one person you’re looking for. So we’ve added a search field on the Members page in the hub. You can now search by first or last name and the members list will be filtered appropriately.

Enjoy!

You Do NOT Have To Be a Church Leader To Attend

Bottom line: As a Christian business owner, I got real value from this event. Andy and Craig shares lessons and  experiences on how to create and build momentum in any organization you’re in. Yes, much of the content is most applicable to churches, but I learned more than I anticipated about myself and the things I need to do to create a long-lasting successful company. Really good stuff here and lots of take-away materials.

Mega-churches Rock

One of my main interests in attending Catalyst, on a personal note, was that I’ve never been in a Mega-church. Thought and questions flooded my brain:  What would it be like? Would it be overwhelming? Would it be loud? Plus a ton of other questions that I was asking, but I won’t get into them here. While I can’t attest to what it’s like during a Sunday service at North Point, what I can attest to is that their band is good. No, they’re really good. I’ve listened to a lot of  Christian worship music before. This music was good. And the sound was almost better. Props to the guys that run the sound for North Point.

You Can Do More With Less

One of the fundamental philosophies we have with MemberHub is to do less. Less features, less options, less clutter. 37 Signals embraced this concept and so have Craig Groeschel and LifeChurch.tv. They do less programs at their church. We do less features. Don’t try and do everything. Just do what you do – and do it well. More options make it too confusing and less effective, whether you trying to save souls or build software.

Andy Stanely is Funny

Seriously, Andy and Craig are both very funny. I come from a long line of smart-alecs and really appreciated his wittiness. It was almost refreshing to watch him be so authentic and personable up there. You didn’t know what was going to come out next and both of these guys kept me smiling and thinking the whole time. There was a level of comedy there that made the price of admission worth it.

Take Time Off

Just do it. You need to be healthy! You need the rest. I was reminded again how important it is to rest. God rested…nuff said.

Thank God for Navigation Systems

I landed in ATL at 6:50am yesterday. I drove to Alphareatta, GA for the conference. After that I went to Buckhead. I went to the wrong location first then got it right. Last night I drove back to a hotel by the airport. This morning I was up at 6:00am and back in Alpharetta for a breakfast meeting. Then promptly I drove back to the airport where I now sit. I could have labeled this point “Atlanta Traffic Sucks”, but most everyone knows that. How did humans live before we had navigation systems in the car?

Conclusion

I had a really great time at North Point and I met some great folks. I’m definitely looking forward to Catalyst Conference in October and would definitely go back to Catalyst One Day…even thought I’m not a church leader.