Getting Your Chapter Online and Making the Most of It Rebecca Sills Audubon Chapter Services

Getting Your Chapter Online and Making the Most of It Rebecca 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 More and more often, people are looking to the Web as their first and/or main source of information. Data from

Getting Your Chapter Online and Making the Most of It Rebecca Sills, Audubon Chapter Services Why take your Chapter online?

Getting Your Chapter Online and Making the Most of It Rebecca 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 It Rebecca Sills, Audubon Chapter Services Steps for Establishing an 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 It Rebecca Sills, Audubon Chapter Services Create a Chapter Website

Getting Your Chapter Online and Making the Most of It Rebecca 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 It Rebecca 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 It Rebecca 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

Getting Your Chapter Online and Making the Most of It Rebecca Sills, Audubon Chapter Services Chapter Example: Tucson Audubon Society

Getting Your Chapter Online and Making the Most of It Rebecca Sills, Audubon Chapter Services Obtain Links & Post Chapter Information to Directories

Getting Your Chapter Online and Making the Most of It Rebecca 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 It Rebecca Sills, Audubon Chapter Services A Few Examples Google, Yahoo, DMOZ and other major search engines or directories; add physical locations to Google MapsGoogleYahooDMOZ Any regional, state or local directories that list conservation organizations, non-profits, or birding resources ( 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 It Rebecca Sills, Audubon Chapter Services Automatic Online Presence with Audubon Chapter contact information is posted in Audubon’s online directory.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 It Rebecca Sills, Audubon Chapter Services Social Media

Getting Your Chapter Online and Making the Most of It Rebecca 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 It Rebecca Sills, Audubon Chapter Services Examples of Social Media

Getting Your Chapter Online and Making the Most of It Rebecca Sills, Audubon Chapter Services Examples of Social Media Social Networking Services (Facebook, MySpace)Facebook MySpace Social Messaging Services (Twitter)Twitter Blogging Services (Blogger, WordPress)BloggerWordPress Forums/Message Boards (FreeForums.org)FreeForums.org Photo/Video Sharing Sites (Flickr, YouTube)Flickr YouTube

Getting Your Chapter Online and Making the Most of It Rebecca 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 It Rebecca 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 The “average” user:

Getting Your Chapter Online and Making the Most of It Rebecca 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 Chapter Photo courtesy of Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society (CA)

Getting Your Chapter Online and Making the Most of It Rebecca 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 It Rebecca 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 It Rebecca 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 pageHuntington Audubon Society

Getting Your Chapter Online and Making the Most of It Rebecca 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)E-Outreach & Networkingchapterservices.audubon.org

Getting Your Chapter Online and Making the Most of It Rebecca Sills, Audubon Chapter Services Additional Resources Social Media Sites: A Handy Reference Guide rch_marketing_gurus/2007/03/while_mode ratin.html rch_marketing_gurus/2007/03/while_mode ratin.html Techsoup.org: source of discounted software, useful articles and webinars for non-profits

Getting Your Chapter Online and Making the Most of It Rebecca Sills, Audubon Chapter Services Questions?