January 2023

Association Communications in a SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD By Michael Pesce, PCAM, Associa Community Management Corp. of New Jersey, AAMC

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A ssociation communications used to be much sim pler. I am old enough to remember what it was like pre-internet and email when the association would communicate, infrequently, via snail mail, and meet with owners at the annual meeting and periodic open board meetings in between. The current proliferation of communication alternatives makes it not only possible but essential, to have the means to communicate association issues to the membership fre quently and effectively. In my experience, communication platforms outside the control of the board (e.g., Google Groups, WhatsApp, Facebook, Next Door) ought to be discouraged whenever possible. Without board control or input/feedback, they too often devolve into a complaint forum, with issues escalating without a process for resolu tion. Board members ought to also be discouraged from

participating in these external platforms, because their participation, as individual owners, may be wrongfully per ceived as articulating the position of the board as a whole. However, these alternative platforms may only be avoided, or their use minimized if the association has an alternative effective means of communication that makes their use superfluous and unnecessary. Our company uses a website, TownSq, to accomplish this purpose, and there are obviously various other platforms being used by other management companies and associations directly. Whatever the platform, the goal should be to provide as much content on these platforms as possible, and to com municate through them frequently and substantively. As with any website, the more valuable content that is supplied, the more likely it is that owners will log on and view the association website as the go-to place for information.

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