Andy Steggles is the author of “Social Networking for Non-Profits” ( http://higherlogic.com/snfnp ), published by ASAE.  The book focuses on how to increase member engagement in a mobile and web 2.0 world. He is also the Chief Operating Officer & Social Strategist for Higher Logic, LLC, a social media and mobile software company for associations and nonprofits. Prior to joining Higher Logic, Andy spent 10 years serving as the Chief Information Officer at the Risk & Insurance Management Society, Inc. (RIMS) where he headed among other things, their social strategy initiatives.

Prior to joining RIMS, Andy served in the Royal Navy from 1986–1996. In 1996 after serving around most of the world including the Arctic and Antarctic, Andy returned from a three year tour in Hong Kong to London where he left the Navy and went back to School to study Computer Science at Brunel University. In 1999 after finishing his degree, Andy moved to New York City where he accepted a job as the head of technology for the Risk & Insurance Management Society, Inc. (RIMS). RIMS is an organization that recognized the value of innovation and allowed Andy to work on his own projects one day per week.

In 2003, after renting out his vacation home via the web, Andy realized the potential for vacation home referrals within the UK. In 2004, Holiday Home Rental, LLC (www.holidayhomerental.co.uk) was launched. Within a short time, the site grew from nothing to more than 20,000 rental properties and generated more than 150,000 pages of mostly user-generated content (UGC). Andy didn’t know it at the time, but this UGC was his very early introduction to the social web. Shortly afterward, Andy’s ex-military buddies (Royal Navy) started to contact him on Facebook and LinkedIn. This was his first proper introduction to social networking.