Website Development
An active, up-to-date and inviting chapter or council website is one of the effective communication tools we can utilize in this digital age. Developing and maintaining an online presences is an great way to spread the word about the work in your community. There are literally thousands of options for getting a website off the ground through various providers, among them WordPress, Web.com, Weebly, Squarespace and others. TU offers a variety of online tools from the Find Your Chapter page to the TU Events Center that works with your Chapter’s Facebook Group page, Instagram page, and the TU Bulk Email tool.
One of the key considerations when thinking about building or rebuilding your website and deciding on a platform to use is choosing a service that is affordable, easy to use, and offers a mobile-friendly design for visitors on smart phones and tablets. Be sure that security updates are a part of the service as well.
Focus on the Key Components Your Visitors Want
For most chapters and councils, a simple, straight-forward and clean website is the best choice. Visitors typically come to your chapters site to find coming events, chapter contacts, and learn about your local conservation and education work. Having these basic pages and content that easy to find is key to making your website work for the members and supporters. Keeping the event calendar up to date is essential and is easy with a TU Events Center widget. Adding the Events Center widget on your website shows all events in your state and makes it easy for visitors to find and register for TU events close to where they live and enjoy the outdoors.
Consider Complexity and Additional Features with Care
Many chapters and councils choose to add specialty content, such as blog posts, message board, local river conditions and fishing reports and more. These features can make the site more robust and attractive, but they often require a volunteer admins willing to add blogs, generate conversations and update reports on a weekly or monthly basis. This can become burdensome over the long run, so adding these features should only be done when you have a strategy for developing frequent and timely content, and the volunteers willing to do it.
Your Volunteer Operations Staff is always here to help you consider the TU engagement tools to find what’s right for you. For more tips and information on building your Chapter’s online engagement with tools like these, please reach out to Doug.Agee@tu.org.