1. RI Convention, Bangkok, Thailand
Best Practices for Club
Websites
9 May 2012
@rotary #ricon12
www.facebook.com/rotary
Presentation on
www.slideshare.net/Rotary_International
2. Moderator Per Hylander – D-1440
Rotarian since 1991
Rotary Coordinator 2010-13
District trainer 2006-09 + 2012-
Chair Rotary Denmark 2006-07
District governor 2005-06
Club president 1998-99
Management consultant
3. Panelist John Borst
Retired director of education, 1996
Took blog “Tomorrows Trust” to top 1% of all
blogs, 2006-10.
Took “Communities in Bloom-Dryden” blog to #3
CiB site in Canada, 2009-10
Joined Rotary Club of Dryden in December 2009
– est. ClubRunner website Jan. 2010
Communications director D5550 July 2011 – June
2014 – updated district ClubRunner site Nov.
2010
4. Panelist Brian Hall
15 Years in high-tech (programmer)
2011 RI Convention HOC Technical
Chair (HOC ticketing website)
Multiple club and district websites
and Facebook pages
D6840 District governor-designate
5. Panelist Philippe Lamoise
Governor District 5340
in 2006-07
Web developer and programmer
specialized in online registration and
payments, calendars, directories, etc.
Creator of the Matching Grants website
Webmaster of District 5340 since 2001
6. Rotary Showcase – A new way to
share projects online
http://map.rotary.org/en/project/pages/project_showcase.aspx
7. Rotary Showcase
Rotary Showcase has Facebook updates to show
that you have an active club.
See a demo in the Rotary Bookstore in the
HOF.
9. Content – Understanding the
websites and social media connection
Twitter – Short-lived, conversational
Facebook – More durable,
conversational
Website – Most durable, less
conversational (blogs blur this!)
10. Update news frequently. You can use
RSS feeds: www.rotary.org/rss.xml
Twitter feeds
Newsletter content
Announcements and news items
11. Club information may change less
frequently, such as
Major projects
Club history
Club meeting place, time, state,
and country
Club contact info, including for
membership
13. Highlight your differences
What’s different about your
club? Highlight it!
Envision your target audience
Build your site to create interest for that
audience
Use social media to link people to your website
15. OneRotary
Integration between Rotary
International and your club/district
Vendors currently integrating:
ClubRunner (www.clubrunner.ca)
DaCdb (www.dacdb.com)
Svensk Rotary Service (webmaster.rotary.se)
Additional info:
contact.center@rotary.org or
1-866-976-8279
17. District 5340 website stats
Over 500 visits per day
Over 2,500 pages per day
Over 14,000 hits per day
18. Target audience
Club members
Rotary visitors
Potential members
Potential donors
Cash for project, items for auctions
Press
19. Development and maintenance
Webmaster is a club member
Pros: free, flexible
Cons: you rely on a volunteer, level of expertise
Off-the-shelf commercial system
Pros: easy to use, moderate price
Cons: limited features
Custom developments
Pros: very flexible, unique look
Cons: expensive
22. Minimum features
Online calendar
List display
Grid display
Categories of items
Club programs
Club events
Fundraisers
Social events
Board meetings
District/RI events
Club programs on district website
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29. Minimum features
Meeting time and location
Newsletters
Links
RI, district
Other clubs nearby
Social media pages
30.
31.
32. Useful features
News center
Fliers
Press releases
Leadership information
Picture galleries
Directory (password protected)
Event registration
Signup form
50. Website management
Web editor responsible for choosing CMS, overall design,
monitoring , training assistants, SEO, and audience focus.
Train other club members on a task
Program, news, selling ads, stories, photo-journals, opinion
pieces, calendar, menu management, and so forth
Gather content
(1) weekly newsletter (2) RI newsletters (3) RI website (4) Google
Alerts (5) other clubs (6) create original material
Study other club & newspaper websites for design ideas
Think photos, choose wisely, all the time
Plan for succession –
(1) person(s) (2) to mobile (3) to upgrades
51. Website consistency
Use one font, one size for stories.
Use one font, size & color for title & subtitles.
Think white space, monitor, observe.
Assign one person to read after you post – for errors.
Check photos do not move borders or columns.
Know column widths.
Ideally size photos before uploading.
Keep site up to date, post weekly as minimum.
Honor Rotary logo standards.
Use club or RI photos – give credit.
52. Website design choices
Use words or *buttons* for links?
Use “Home page” for the story or *Home page as
draw* into “Story Page”
Maximize use of pull-down menus
Minimize duplication unless promoting a program
Choose photos with emotion & engagement
Increase white space in text – short paragraphs
Design “site pages” as mini-websites
If no picture, incorporate pull quotes
Number of columns one, two, *three*
53. Text vs. buttons
CR custom design
CR default design From newspaper using buttons
using text
54. Study other club & newspaper websites
for design ideas
Toronto
Star
3 column
55. Study other club & newspaper websites for
design ideas
Dryden
Rotary
Club
in
ClubRunner
3 column
56. Study other club & newspaper websites
for design ideas
Dryden Rotary
Club in
ClubRunner
from iPad
57. Three columns are more
mobile friendly
You can now
pinch a column
into the mobile
screen at a
readable level
and scroll down
the entire
column.
From iPad
58. Archive design examples
Example of story archive. Here’s the default :
• Continues to
scroll to
bottom
• Not
necessarily in
order or
dated
• No categories
• Over time
just gets
longer
60. Archive design examples
Issue of newsletter archive & record
•In this example
appears on
home page for
limited time
Other stuff
•
mixed in.
61. Archive design examples
Issue of newsletter archive & record
•
•In this
example,
appears on a
site page for an
archive
Not in order
•
62. Archive design examples
Issue of newsletter archive & record
•
•Using
pull-down
menu,
issues
ordered by
year &
month.
If hover
•
over
number,
date
appears.
63. Merge club, district & RI
Conceptualize club site for community first, Rotarians
second.
Conceptualize district site for Rotarians first,
community second.
Use club website to drive traffic to the district & RI
sites.
Use district site to drive traffic to club & RI sites.
Create the district site as a “news” site about all clubs
in the district.
68. Five things to ask about club website providers
Are the CMS & ISP going to be around for the long
term?
Does the CMS have the added value of both web
content management & enterprise content
management? Additional enterprise add-ons?
Does your club CMS have data integration with the
district & RI?
Does the CMS firm have good online & phone
training & trouble shooting support?
Is your CMS moving toward implementing social
media and mobile design features?
69. Your website tells the Rotary story –
for everyone
Your website may be the first Rotary
website a visitor encounters.
70. Resources
Convention presentations --
http://www.slideshare.net/Rotary_International
www.rotary.org/newsletters
Rotarians on Social Networks Fellowship -- http://rosnf.net
RI’s official social networking sites -- www.rotary.org/socialnetworking
Rotary Images – www.rotary.org/images
Official Rotary graphics – www.rotary.org/graphics
Rotary’s blog, Rotary Voices -- http://blog.rotary.org/
Project Showcase --
http://map.rotary.org/en/project/pages/project_showcase.aspx
RI webinars -- www.rotary.org/webinars
RSS feeds -- www.rotary.org/rss.xml
36 years in education, blog niche Catholic education, data supplied by Technorati CiB –Dryden town of 8000, only CiB Canada, & CiB Ontario had more visits. Data by Google
Rotary Showcase allows any authenticated member of the Rotary family to post information about a service project with pictures, video and participating clubs. While Rotary Showcase will reside on rotary.org, users will also have the option to update their Facebook status with their Rotary Showcase projects. This is the landing page on Rotary.org This page has: Featured projects: Staff will review and select completed projects to feature at the top of the page – but any member of the Rotary family can post any project; RI approval is not required. Project Showcase also has Projects can be filtered by category (the 6 areas of focus, polio, new generations, vocational service or other), country, foundation, status (open/closed) The Impact Tracker will eventually be dynamic, calculating the aggregate impact of money raised, number of volunteers and volunteer hours and the estimated value of in-kind donations
If the user has a Facebook account and gives permission, then project updates will be posted to Facebook status: When project is first posted When any updates are made, e.g. add photos or video, member joins a project, impact data is added
Brian Hall’s slide
Brian Hall’s Free RI newsletters: www.rotary.org/newsletters
For Rotary information, you can link to www.rotary.org Brian Hall’s slide
Brian’s slides
Brian Hall’s slide
It highlights what’s different as well as diversity. Meeting times, projects, and social media sites are on the front page. Brian Hall’s slide
Brian Hall’s slide Brian’s last slide. Transitions to Philip to talk about some additional tools and features a club or district website could have.
Philippe’s slide
Philippe’s slide
Philippe’s slide
Philippe’s slide
Philippe’s slide
Philippe’s slide
Philippe’s slide
Philippe’s slide
Philippe’s slide
Philippe’s slide
36 years in education, blog niche Catholic education, data supplied by Technorati CiB –Dryden town of 8000, only CiB Canada, & CiB Ontario had more visits. Data by Google
John Borst slide Bullet 5: show slide example of screen shots from three iPad formatted newspapers
John Borst slide
John Borst slide Each of these bullets is best illustrated with examples as bullets 1,2,3, & 9 are illustrated in the extra slides I have attached.
John Borst slide Buttons make websites more mobile friendly because the button is easier to touch on a smart phone than a link.
John Borst slide – Look at the Toronto Star to see the three-column layout.