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Oct
19

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Strengthening your online presence: 3 things every Association can do right now

Category: Internet Strategy, Social Media Tags: , , , , , Leave a Comment

Are you scared or tired of everyone using the terms “social media” or “web 2.0″?  Do you recognize that you need to jump in to the world of social media but don’t know where to begin? Do you need to strengthen your online reputation?

The online world these days can be confusing at best – and for those with limited resources and big dreams – it is an overwhelming task to figure out where to begin. I have been in these shoes over and over-again, and have found that a simple, practical approach is best. Here are 3 simple initial steps to take that do not require a significant amount of resources:

1. Make your existing website more SEO-friendly.

While reassessing your current website for a rebuild is probably optimal, it is also overwhelming. We need results NOW. This approach will help you get better over time AND, if you do this right, you will see recognition in your Google organic search rankings.

  • Write better (SEO friendly) content for your home page and main landing pages.
  • Update these pages regularly
  • Publish feed(s) from your blog(s) and other social networking sites (Flickr, YouTube, etc) throughout the site (see below)

2. Launch a blog.

Blogs give your organization a voice, and if done right, make you more approachable and personal. More than anything, they are all about inspiring conversations around topics and issues important to you. Through this, you will help to increase understanding around your messages and topics – and eventually strenthen your brand on (and off) -line.

Pick a topic that you are most passionate about. Recruit a few passionate, inspired folks to write posts (these can be folks on staff, or part of your membership). Publish feed(s) from your blog(s) on pages throughout your main website. Encourage comments and respond to them. Cross-link to other industry or issue-related blogs.

3. Launch a Flickr and/or a YouTube Channel.

You have photos, lots of them. Photos from events, luncheons, activities. Every photo that you have should be uploaded to flickr and ‘pushed’ to your other online properties. For $24.95 per year, you have a highly functional photo repository that not only enables you to easily publish them anywhere you like, it gives your organization a “face” and exposes it to the millions of folks on the web. It works for you while your are sleeping. The same concept works with YouTube for video content.

Using this approach also makes you more efficient. You do not duplicate effort by having to post the same content (photos/video) to each online property. You have one central repository where all of this lives, and you simply publish it to your other sites.

    Apr
    21

    By

    7 areas of successful web management

    Category: Internet Strategy Tags: , , , , Leave a Comment

    I am the kind of person who needs clarity as much as possible when working towards any goal or mission, so I like things in neat, concise packages.

    In my 14 years of working on the Internet, website initiatives are much more successful when we connect the dots and create clarity around the processes and structure that get us there.

    With that said, I have found that this is the most natural and effective way I have found to explain the elements of a solid web infrastructure.

    1. Strategy. Includes site goals and measurements, SEO tactics, social media strategies, content strategy, etc. This strategy is in direct alignment with the overall organizational strategy. Thinking through audiences, goals around customer interactions, content delivery, and visibility are all part of this area. This becomes the blueprint that drives criteria for all other decisions.
    2. Content development & management. As an outcome of the overall strategy, content is developed and maintained, with editorial guidelines and process in place. It is essential to have appropriate resources dedicated to this area – without great content, your website will be just a pretty picture!
    3. Design/usability. Once you understand the overall strategy (which includes your content strategy) it is time to get to work. A good web designer understands best practices for web design, usability, Information Architecture, Audience-specific design, as well as site optimization, etc. A good designer takes in to consideration the long-term approach for site management, maintenance etc., in order to produce something that your organization can support.
    4. Front-end Development. Building efficient and effective templates using best practices is critical. An efficient, optimized site will not only make visitors happy, but help to increase your organic search rankings as well as reduce overall support resources and costs. A savvy front-end developer or ‘webmaster’ must be extremely knowledgeable about CSS, Xhtml, HTML, and Javascript, as well as a rich understanding of how open API’s work in order to integrate third party widgets, feeds, and other items to make the user experience even more valuable. This person will turn a smart web design in to a highly-functional masterpiece – and also acts as a liaison when developing heavy-hitting back-end functionality.
    5. Back-end Development. Programmers make complex functionality happen on your website. Typically these applications have some sort of database on the back-end, and are riddled with complex logic. This stuff makes my head spin – my hats off to those programmers who can take my ideas and work their magic to create flawless functionality on the web.
    6. Hosting/Infrastructure. Having a hosting infrastructure that includes both a development and live server is paramount for ongoing site success. All changes, upgrades, additions are completed on a development server which should mirror the production server – then approved and deployed. Using some sort of source control where site managers and developers are required to check out files prior to making changes works well. This way, versions of the site are kept in a database (this is also great fro disaster recovery) and can be rolled back if need be. Finally, the hosting environment must take into consideration the overall strategy of the site, the expected traffic, and type of activity going on – in order to accommodate with bandwidth, processing power, and support resources.
    7. Site ownership and ongoing management (non-technical). It is my opinion that every successful web initiative must have a champion – an inspired individual to oversee its success, measure activity against goals, write annual plans, and make sure the support structure is working effectively.