Association Leadership - July/August 2008 - (Page 35)

technology Web sites By T.J. Scott, CAE Independent Bankers Association of Texas You’ve made the decision – it is time to redesign the Web site. Now what? Your ﬁrst step is deciding what you want to accomplish with the site. Examples include: • Inform and educate members • Inform and educate the public • Register attendees for events • Sell goods and services • Sell advertising • Provide a place for members to network There can be many more functions, but chances are you can’t do everything. Before starting to add things, it is important to be familiar with a site’s capabilities. The key is to know what you expect – be speciﬁc on what you want your site to produce. Most associations will need to hire an outside consultant to guide on planning, timelines, costs, staff resources and computer capabilities. Get input from everyone. Talk to staff members and see how they are using the Web. Survey members and see what they use your site for… and what they need. In addition, pay attention to how you use the Internet. Everyone has a home page – some use Excite, others Google, MSN or Yahoo. What are the things you like about those sites? How are they useful? Can you incorporate some of those “cool things” into your new site? How cool would it be if all of your members used Never finished, never done, never ending But let’s talk about redesign our site as their home page. That is the idea behind the site IBAT is in the process of developing. Plan your strategy. We assembled a team within IBAT to make the move to a Web-centric IBAT. There are pros and cons to getting an Association Management Software (AMS) system with a strong Web component, but in the end we decided to go with a design company that would integrate our existing AMS data. We felt a good Web design company using Web 2.0 would be better at new technology than an AMS company with its strong points in data management. Decide what your needs are, what your budget is, whether to hire a consultant and how it will integrate with your AMS? Cool things to have on your site. Some of the things you might want to include are blogs, wikis, RSS Feeds, Podcasts, forums and availability for members to update their data. You may want a LinkedIn type component or a Facebook module. At some point you or one of your competitors is going to be providing training over the Internet, it might as well be you. You almost certainly want online registration capabilities. Lesson learned. You will underestimate how much this will cost in both time and money. Redesigning your Web site is a major undertaking. It is never done. It is a constant job to keep it updated and fresh. The most important consideration before implementing Web 2.0 features is who is going to maintain them? The Web is not making our job easier, what it is doing is making us better. Our members will be more informed, but that also means someone has to be sitting in on Congressional hearings and twittering your blog. Someone will have to be manning the camera to put your convention speaker on streaming video, so people can hear the words of wisdom from the stage. It will also cause strife in your organizations. I can already hear meeting planners saying “No, you cannot stream the convention because people will not come and I will not ﬁll my room block.” I can hear lawyers saying “You can’t let the members do a wiki on rules and regulations that impact our industry. What if they get it wrong?” I can hear the magazine editor saying “If it is all on the Web immediately, why will the members read the magazine and what will happen to the ad revenue?” And I can hear naysayers claiming “Our members are not that Web savvy, they don’t get it.” But I can also see members leaving in droves to a place that will ﬁll their immediate needs if we don’t. Be prepared for resistance from staff or members. But in the end, association members will have the information ◆ they need. July/August 2008 | Association LEADERSHIP 35

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Association Leadership - July/August 2008

Association Leadership - July/August 2008 Contents Chairman’s Column Homepage 60-Second Solutions Cover Feature: Association Lessons Learned Perspectives Association Case Study TSAE Annual Conference CEO Strategies New Members Community Spotlight Government Relations: Resources Technology: Web Site Redesign Global Summit Photo Page Great Ideas Beaumont New Mexico Index to Advertisers Advertiser.com The Lighter Side of Associations

Association Leadership - July/August 2008

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