Brussels, Belgium (May 2nd, 2013) – Kellen Europe, the European office of the Kellen Company, the premier global association management firm, has launched its first status report on „Social Media for Associations‟. The report was launched at Kellen‟s annual EuroConference, which took place on April 25th in Brussels and gathered over 90 association executives that came to learn from association experts in different fields and share best practices with peers.

The 2013 status report „Social Media for Associations‟ gives an overview of how associations in Europe are currently dealing with social media and which challenges these organizations face in using social media and its different technologies.

The research firm ComRes, on behalf of Kellen Europe, has conducted the online survey amongst association executives in Europe. These were analyzed and served as a basis for the focus group meetings that Kellen organized with communication directors from leading EU associations. The outcome of these focus groups and specific recommendations made by Kellen, based on its extensive expertise in working with associations as well as its capabilities in communications, led to this 2013 status report that concludes with 10 steps to successful social media for associations.

“With this report, we tackle the new opportunities and challenges that many associations face when engaging with social media. We have experienced the increasing demand from association executives on different aspects relating to the use of social media; how to measure effectiveness, what is the actual ROI, how to best fit social media efforts in the overall communication strategy, etc. We hope this report will give some answers and will help associations in deciding on their social media strategy and efforts”, said Alfons Westgeest, Managing Partner of Kellen Europe. “We plan to conduct this research on a yearly basis to showcase how associations are adopting social media, as well as to provide trends and insights on this fast moving area” he concluded.

The 2013 status report can be downloaded from the Kellen Europe (www.kelleneurope.com) and Kellen Company (www.kellencompany.com) websites.

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Methodology
ComRes interviewed 123 respondents online between 8th and 27th February 2013. All respondents were individuals that said that they know a good deal about or they were aware of their organisation’s social media activities. The sample for this survey was provided by Kellen Europe. ComRes is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules. Full data tables are available at www.comres.eu.com.

Note to editor:
For any additional information or a printed copy of the status report „Social media for Associations‟, please contact Nele Devolder by e-mail: ndevolder@kelleneurope.com or via phone: 32 2 761 16 00 Additional information on the EuroConference can also be found on www.kelleneurope.com/euroconference
About Kellen Europe
Kellen Europe provides association management, strategic advice, communications, government affairs, benchmarking studies, internet services and other professional advice to associations and corporations worldwide. Over the last 25 years, Kellen Europe has gathered considerable expertise that enables the company to rapidly anticipate the needs of emerging or existing associations and to provide tailored organizational solutions. For more information, please visit www.kelleneurope.com
About Kellen Company
Founded in 1964, Kellen Company provides association management, government affairs, public relations, meetings management, creative communications, web site development and other professional services to associations, as well as individual companies and other organizations. Kellen serves more than 10,000 companies and 100,000 professionals worldwide, through its more than 100 client associations directly from offices and representation in the United States, Europe, China, the Middle East, India and Southeast Asia. For more information, please visit www.kellencompany.com and www.kellencommunications.com.