Engaging the growing Washington, DC Chapter through a dynamic online presence

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1 Engaging the growing Washington, DC Chapter through a dynamic online presence

2 Summary Statement: Objectives As the 2009/2010 year was winding down, SMPS Washington DC was facing an unknown cost to keep the Chapter website up and running, which in its current platform required a web design professional with extensive coding knowledge to make updates. The Chapter had been relying on a programmer who volunteered their time to keep the site updated, but whose availability was becoming more limited. Always forward thinking, the SMPS DC leadership decided it was necessary to move to a content-management platform so that the Chapter could maintain and build on the site without possessing any coding knowledge, ensuring a smooth transition between successive leadership teams. The SMPS Washington DC Chapter leadership decided it was imperative the new website be launched before the official start of the 2010/2011 program year with three goals in mind: Move the SMPS DC Website into a robust Content Management System (CMS) Open new communication avenues between the Chapter and its membership Launch the new site ahead of the 2010 September Kick-Off event and within budget Target Audience The target audience for the website is two-fold. First and foremost, the public audience: the members and potential members that the Chapter wishes to not only inform and educate, but to engage in actively contributing to the dynamic content of the website. This group also includes the firms that support SMPS DC through sponsorship or supporting their employees involvement with the Chapter. Secondly, there is the administrative group: the Board Members and committee volunteers who are dedicated to keeping the website content dynamic and fresh, and who will pass the torch to future chapter leaders. Research, Planning, & Implementation 1 Move the SMPS DC Website into a robust Content Management System (CMS) The SMPS DC Chapter leadership was forward-thinking in their decision to move to a CMS; not only would they take the reigns in regard to the content and direction of growth for the site, but they could easily transfer that knowledge and control to successive Chapter Board Members. The board conferred with PR/Communications chair, Frankie Bailey, on which platform to use. Since the Chapter had launched a WordPress blog in 2009 and had been happy with its capabilities and ease of use, her recommendation was to marry the main site and the existing blog into one powerful online presence via the WordPress platform. Once completed, the new site had all the content controls the leadership was looking for, as well as a fresh look consistent with the Chapter s strong branding and other communication materials. Member feedback has been positive, and the Board and committee volunteers have been enthusiastic and engaged in adding content and expanding on the new site. When once the Chapter relied on one individual to update the site, it now has seven administrators, editors and authors, as well as additional guest bloggers 2 SMPS Chapter Communications Awards SMPS Washington DC Website

3 Summary Statement: growing the site and keeping the content dynamic. SMPSdc.org has also received positive reviews from other SMPS chapters throughout the nation, setting Washington, DC apart as chapter to emulate within the association. 2 Open new communication avenues between the Chapter and its membership The new website has successfully brought fresh voices into the mix and created an evolving conversation by engaging members and potential members through guest blogging, commenting on news posts, and pulling in member and sponsor twitter feeds. This was a significant change from the old website, which had served more as a vehicle of information delivery from the board to the chapter eg. these are our events, here s our mission, here s our goals. The Chapter has been pleased by the enthusiastic response and participation from the membership. With the new website platform, the Chapter has also been able to track visitors to the site through the implementation of Google Analytics. Guided by data on how visitors are referred to the site, and what pages they visit, the Chapter has been able to tailor content and track the success of various social media initiatives. See page 4. The Chapter has not only focused on adding value for members, but also to the firms that support the Chapter and its membership. The website has added significant value to sponsorships. Sponsors now have featured advertising on the website, and the opportunity to promote their companies via live Twitter feed. Overall, 15% of existing sponsors opted to upgrade their level to better take advantage of these new benefits. See page 7. Another terrific benefit serving both firms and professionals is a new online payment system for job posting. Due to ease of submitting and paying for a job posting, as well as how quickly the Chapter can post openings using WordPress, the Job bank has been overstuffed with opportunities for members. Not only are firms able to reach a group of professionals with a Once the Chapter relied on one individual to update the site... now it has seven administrators, editors and authors, as well as additional guest bloggers growing the site. specific skill set and industry experience, members on the job hunt can be confident they will find the latest opportunities. The new system has increased revenue for the Chapter 23% over the 2009/2010 program year. 3 Launch the new site ahead of the 2010 September Kick-Off event and within budget SMPS Washington DC proudly launched the new WordPress site in late August of 2010, with no delays or milestones unmet in the three month timeline, and well ahead of the kick-off event for the program year. Training with the entire SMPS Board of Directors quickly followed. Taking just one hour during a monthly board meeting, the SMPS DC leadership walked through all the site s capabilities including blogging, sponsor advertising, job postings, event scheduling, and photo publishing. The final cost of the website redesign came in as estimated at $ After this initial investment, the Chapter no longer needed to rely on outside web design services, and can maintain the site at no cost aside from hosting and domain registration fees. Hosting costs are roughly $85/year, and domain registration is $10/year. $ The average yearly budget for the chapter website. Daily updates during the week mean smpsdc.org has fresh content 260 days a year. 3 SMPS Chapter Communications Awards SMPS Washington DC Website

4 Site Performance Average site visits per month Visits per year The top 3 most-visited pages of the website are Events, Photo Galleries, and Jobs ,000 Top 3 Using Google Analytics the Chapter has been able to: Track the average amount of visits by day, month, and year. Track the average amount of time a user spends on the site, as well as the most popular pages of the site. Track referring sites - on average how many users are accessing the site from LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc. 4 SMPS Chapter Communications Awards SMPS Washington DC Website

5 Screenshot: Homepage Dynamic Homepage Content Slideshow of latest blog posts News items with featured images Upcoming events featured prominently Latest Job Opportunities one click from the homepage SMPS DC Tweets pulled into the site automatically from Twitter Links to the Chapter s Facebook and LinkedIn groups, RSS and Flickr feeds, YouTube channel, and mysmps.org Sponsor ads displayed randomly when user visits site Site-wide search 5 SMPS Chapter Communications Awards SMPS Washington DC Website

6 Screenshot: Events The Calendar of Events page features online registration for upcoming events and Flickr photo galleries from past programs. This page also pulls in recaps of past events from the blog. Single event page with photos and Google Map functionality. 6 SMPS Chapter Communications Awards SMPS Washington DC Website

7 Screenshot: Membership In addition to discussing the myriad benefits of SMPS membership and a quick link to SMPS National, the Membership page also features member spotlights, news items about community outreach, committee missions and contacts, information on member award programs, and a new member welcome list that is updated on a monthly basis. 7 SMPS Chapter Communications Awards SMPS Washington DC Website

8 Screenshot: Sponsors The new website has become a value-added benefit for sponsors - and with no rise in sponsorship fees. Not only does a sponsor firm receive prominent placement of their logo and website on the Sponsors page, SMPS DC also offers ad space and the ability to pull in live tweets from sponsor Twitter accounts. 8 SMPS Chapter Communications Awards SMPS Washington DC Website

9 Screenshot: Blog Dynamic Blog Content Slideshow of latest blog posts Posts with images, dates, and number of comments Add This capability allows users to share news items via , Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and more. Subscribe to the Blog function allows users to receive an update when news items are posted to the blog Twitter feed pulls in relevant tweets about the Chapter and the wider SMPS community Blog posts organized by month and categories for easy browsing of blog archives 9 SMPS Chapter Communications Awards SMPS Washington DC Website

10 Screenshot: Blog Left: Sample Post. Above: Comment string. Posts are written by members of the PR/Communications committee as well as guest bloggers from within the industry. A byline is included with each post. On average, the blog is updated with a new article on a weekly basis. Images and video easily embedded using WordPress. 10 SMPS Chapter Communications Awards SMPS Washington DC Website

11 Screenshot: About The About section focuses on the Chapter s mission, its leadership, and successes. This page also offers an opportunity to catch up on the latest news from the wider SMPS Community - through a live feed that pulls in information from all other Chapters with a Twitter account. 11 SMPS Chapter Communications Awards SMPS Washington DC Website

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