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Getting Your Chapter Online and Making the Most of ItRebecca Sills, Audubon Chapter Services
Why take your Chapter online?
• 239,893,600 Internet users in the US (77.3% of the total population) as of June 2010.
• More and more often, people are looking to the Web as their first and/or main source of information.
Data from www.internetworldstats.com
Getting Your Chapter Online and Making the Most of ItRebecca Sills, Audubon Chapter Services
Why take your Chapter online?
Getting Your Chapter Online and Making the Most of ItRebecca Sills, Audubon Chapter Services
Establishing an Online Presence
Draft a plan for developing your online presence while considering these factors:
• Purpose • Budget• Target Audience• Volunteer time & talents
Scale the plan according to resources available.Schedule phases if budget or time are limited.
Getting Your Chapter Online and Making the Most of ItRebecca Sills, Audubon Chapter Services
Steps for Establishingan Online Presence
1. Create a Chapter website.2. Obtain links to your website from popular, relevant
websites and post Chapter information in online directories.
3. Build a social networking page, blog, forum, and/or post to photo and video sharing sites—all linking back to the Chapter website.
Getting Your Chapter Online and Making the Most of ItRebecca Sills, Audubon Chapter Services
Create a Chapter Website
Getting Your Chapter Online and Making the Most of ItRebecca Sills, Audubon Chapter Services
The Chapter Website is Your Official Online Presence
Most people will look to the Chapter website as the main place to find official information about your Chapter online.
Getting Your Chapter Online and Making the Most of ItRebecca Sills, Audubon Chapter Services
Building a Website Involves...
• A thorough planning process• Appropriate design software or web
application• Internet connection• A volunteer or a paid professional web
designer
Getting Your Chapter Online and Making the Most of ItRebecca Sills, Audubon Chapter Services
A Successful Website...• Meets clearly identified goals• Provides compelling and frequently updated content that
draws your audience to your site again and again• Is easy to navigate• Is designed attractively to complement the content• Is accessible to challenged/disabled users• Loads quickly• Is found easily on the web when key phrases are
searched
More website design tips at http://chapterservices.audubon.org
Getting Your Chapter Online and Making the Most of ItRebecca Sills, Audubon Chapter Services
Chapter Example: Tucson Audubon Society www.tucsonaudubon.org
Getting Your Chapter Online and Making the Most of ItRebecca Sills, Audubon Chapter Services
Obtain Links & Post Chapter Information to
Directories
Getting Your Chapter Online and Making the Most of ItRebecca Sills, Audubon Chapter Services
Listing and Linking• Getting listed and/or linked is generally free and
is an easy way to begin developing an online presence if you do not have a website.
• Obtaining many links to your website from popular, relevant websites and directories will help boost your Search Engine Ranking.
• To get listed and/or linked on a particular directory or other website, contact that site’s webmaster or follow any specific instructions provided to make a request.
Getting Your Chapter Online and Making the Most of ItRebecca Sills, Audubon Chapter Services
A Few Examples• Google, Yahoo, DMOZ and other major search engines or
directories; add physical locations to Google Maps• Any regional, state or local directories that list conservation
organizations, non-profits, or birding resources (http://www.mtvoters.org/directory is a sample of a directory of conservation organizations in MT)
Hint: Open a Search Engine and search keywords/phrases under which you would like to be found; then send requests for listing and/or linking on the appropriate websites or other directories in your found set. Target the search phrases to your specific audience, e.g. “birding galena illinois” or “illinois bird conservation”
Getting Your Chapter Online and Making the Most of ItRebecca Sills, Audubon Chapter Services
Automatic Online Presence with Audubon
http://www.audubon.org/states/
Chapter contact information is posted in Audubon’s online directory.
Be sure to keep this up-to-date through your Chapter Leader Report, or contact Chapter Services with updates.
Getting Your Chapter Online and Making the Most of ItRebecca Sills, Audubon Chapter Services
Social Media
Getting Your Chapter Online and Making the Most of ItRebecca Sills, Audubon Chapter Services
What are Social Media?
Social media are disseminated through online social interaction (multi-way communication)
We are familiar with traditional media: newspaper, radio and television (one-way communication)
Getting Your Chapter Online and Making the Most of ItRebecca Sills, Audubon Chapter Services
Examples of Social Media
Getting Your Chapter Online and Making the Most of ItRebecca Sills, Audubon Chapter Services
Examples of Social Media
• Social Networking Services (Facebook, MySpace)
• Social Messaging Services (Twitter)• Blogging Services (Blogger, WordPress)• Forums/Message Boards (FreeForums.org
)• Photo/Video Sharing Sites (Flickr,
YouTube)
Getting Your Chapter Online and Making the Most of ItRebecca Sills, Audubon Chapter Services
Why Engage in Social Media?
• Generally available to anyone at little or no cost
• Do not require special skills to publish content
• Interactive (many-to-many communication)
• Rapid posting and response capability
• Reach goes far beyond initial audience
Getting Your Chapter Online and Making the Most of ItRebecca Sills, Audubon Chapter Services
Who Uses Social Media?
• Is between 35 and 55 years old
• Is college-educated• Earns $55,000 to $75,000 in
household income• Is only slightly more likely to
be female than male
Taking Facebook as an example, there were 133,518,980 Facebook users as of August 2010. The “average” user:
Getting Your Chapter Online and Making the Most of ItRebecca Sills, Audubon Chapter Services
Imagine Yourself at a Chapter Outing or Meeting…
• Announcements are made
• Information is distributed
• Photos or video may be shown
• Questions are asked• Social interaction
occurs• Members tell friends
about the ChapterPhoto courtesy of Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society (CA)
Getting Your Chapter Online and Making the Most of ItRebecca Sills, Audubon Chapter Services
Take This Concept to Social Media
• Post announcements, upcoming events and bird sightings
• Upload photos and video• Post articles and links to articles• Ask and answer questions• Comment on postings• Interact with other participants• Invite friends to participate
Getting Your Chapter Online and Making the Most of ItRebecca Sills, Audubon Chapter Services
Example from Huntington-Oyster Bay Audubon Society (NY) on
Facebook• Chapter
membership ~800.
• Started FB page in Spring 2009
• Currently 599 fans(as of 12/02/2010)
Getting Your Chapter Online and Making the Most of ItRebecca Sills, Audubon Chapter Services
How Diversifying Online Strategies Can Help
A Google search on “Huntington Audubon Society” shows a first page of results that lists HAS’ website, Facebook page and Twitter page
Getting Your Chapter Online and Making the Most of ItRebecca Sills, Audubon Chapter Services
For More Information
More information on each topic presented may be found on the “E-Outreach & Networking” page of Chapter Services’ website (chapterservices.audubon.org)
Getting Your Chapter Online and Making the Most of ItRebecca Sills, Audubon Chapter Services
Additional ResourcesSocial Media Sites: A Handy Reference
Guide http://www.searchmarketinggurus.com/search_marketing_gurus/2007/03/while_moderatin.html
Techsoup.org: source of discounted software, useful articles and webinars for non-profits
http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/