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Here is a good example of webpage content. The Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce has a good image and supporting text with links. Click the image to see the rest of the page, which contains several useful resources, such as their Relocation Kit, Relocation Testmonials, and Employee Relocation Resources. Your content should aid or support your visitors, and here are 9 ways to bring them quality content!
1) Webpage text
When you first sit down to create your website content, you?ll probably begin by writing a short ?welcome? paragraph for your homepage. Though web text is the most obvious type of content, it isn?t necessarily the easiest to produce. Check out last week?s post for 7 Tips For Writing Web Content.
2) Images
Images have a powerful impact on user actions. You can influence website traffic simply by placing focal images next to your most important pieces of content. Photos are particularly eye-catching, and can be used to enhance news releases, blog posts, and the text-heavy subpages of your website.
3) Video
Top-flight video editing software, such as Adobe After Effects and Adobe Premier, is available for those who are skilled in video editing. But thanks to the invention of user-friendly software like iMovie and Windows Movie Maker, it is easier than ever for the less experienced of us to create and edit our own videos.
Try this ? set up interviews with different chamber members and create a ?business spotlight? video series. In addition to posting them on your chamber website, the videos will also make great blog posts.
4) Blog posts
A blog can serve many purposes. It can be your way of broadcasting news to your community. It can be a thought-leadership tool for sharing original ideas. Or it can be a combination of the two. This is a big topic, and we?ll dive deeper into the subject of blogging in a future post.
5) Podcasts
Your chamber probably brings in important speakers from time to time. Take advantage of these information-rich events by repurposing them into your own web content! Record the speaker, get a release form signed, and create a podcast of the event. Make it available for download on your chamber website, and soon people will be listening to your content on their iPhones as they drive to work!
6) Events
Every chamber website should feature a calendar of events. In addition to promoting chamber events, you should also allow members to submit and promote their own company events. And it always helps to promote upcoming events in a side-column on your home page.
7) Feeds
You can also use your website?s side-column to feature an RSS feed of your blog or Twitter posts. Because RSS feeds automatically display content as it is published, they assist in the task of constantly updating your web content.
8) News
All news releases pertaining to your chamber should be housed in your website?s newsroom. (Your newsroom can also be used to republish other types of content, such as photos, videos, blog posts and podcasts.)
9) Free resources
Provide your visitors with downloadable web content like webinars, whitepapers, e-books and study reports. And the price to pay for such exclusive content? Merely the completion of a non-intrusive registration form, which will convert ?just a visitor? into a registered member of your online network. Your members will appreciate the free documents, and you?ll build your email list!
Your ideas?
These are just a few of the many types of web content that would be appropriate for a chamber website. I?d love to hear your ideas!
- What other types of content are featured on your chamber website?
- Is there a particular type of web content you find difficult to produce?
- What do you find to be the most successful type of content, in terms of user engagement?
Leave a comment below or email me!
What types of content are missing from your website? To find out, sign up for a FREE Web Content Assessment from one of our digital content strategists at Accrinet!
A Flawless Finish
Your chamber might have the most stunningly beautiful website in the world ? but if your content is sloppy, the credibility of your chamber will tank. Even small mistakes, such as typos or poor word choices, will scuff up your formerly polished image.
Consider this blog post a preventative measure against ?scuffmarks? on your website. Read these 7 tips for writing web content, and remember them every time you sit down to write.
1) Write like a 14-year-old honor student.
Aim for a ninth grade reading level. This will allow you to communicate with a broad audience without insulting anyone?s intelligence.
2) Make lists.
Bulleted and numbered lists make content easier to scan. Extra points if you use bolded headings! Also, search engines tend to favor this type of formatting.
3) Use common language and terms.
Skip the flowery language and chamber jargon. Don?t assume your members and visitors will understand the meaning of phrases like ?work force development.? Use familiar vocabulary for a quick and easy read.
4) Limit the use of acronyms.
Within your chamber, LAC might stand for ?Legislative Action Committee.? But in the minds of your hospital members, the same acronym means ?long arm cast.? It?s best to keep industry acronyms to a minimum, and be sure to explain any confusing or unclear terms.
5) Keep it short and sweet.
Use short sentences and short paragraphs to account for short attention spans. Get to the point before your readers lose interest!
6) But not too short.
If you can?t produce at least 300 good words, you may need to reconsider whether that content deserves an entire page.
7) Find the right tone.
Write with a tone that reflects the personality of your chamber. This typically means being colloquial yet professional. Try this trick ? think about how you would speak to a relative you don?t know very well.
***
A well-written website is much more likely to capture and hold a reader?s attention. So the next time you sit down to write, as you flex your wrists and take a sip of coffee, think back to these seven tips for writing web content. Remember ? a little scuff-prevention goes a long way.
FREE WEB CONTENT WRITING ASSESSMENT
Could your written web content use a little polishing? Sign up for a FREE Writing Assessment from one of our digital content writers at Accrinet!
But first, before we dive into what content your chamber should create, you must understand how to generate it.
The loneliest number
Three Dog Night said it best. One really is the loneliest number ? especially when you are the sole manager of your chamber?s content creation process.
Chambers of commerce and other nonprofit organizations sometimes try to employ just one person to manage their entire online presence ? and not just the website! This person is also responsible for the blog, Facebook page and Twitter account. The outcome is often the same ? an overworked employee and an underwhelming chamber website.
If this situation sounds familiar, I suggest you try crowdsourcing your content creation. Here at Accrinet, we use a company Wiki to house all of our collective ideas and knowledge.
Crowdsourcing & user-generated chamber content
Instead of putting all the work on one person, use crowdsourcing to instigate chamber-wide contribution. By publishing user-generated content (UGC), you will not only save your lone content manager a ton of time, but you?ll also provide your readers with diverse perspectives.
I suggest using an online forum or email list to share your chamber's content creation needs. Send requests to your executive committee and all of your members. In fact, your entire local community can be a ?crowd? from which to ?source? user-generated chamber content.
Be sure to publicly recognize individuals who choose to submit content. This can be as simple as adding a byline to their piece, thanking them in a news release or tagging them on Facebook.
Crowdsourcing your chamber's content creation ideas
Be creative when deciding what types of user-generated content you would like to receive from your community. Here are a few ideas (inspired by clickz.com ) to get you started:
- Allow local businesses and organizations to submit events to your community calendar.
- Request that your chamber members fill out profile pages, and display their information in a member directory.
- Invite local bloggers to write guest posts addressing various issues in your community.
- Ask members to share customer testimonials. Use this content to enhance your member-to-member discounts page.
- Encourage local business owners to interview their customers. Publish the interview as a series of blog posts.
Before you put any of these content creation plans into action, be sure you have designated one member of your committee as the head content manager. This individual should be responsible for making sure all crowdsourcing efforts support your online marketing goals and publishing schedule.
Share your thoughts
Do you have a great crowdsourcing tip you?d like to share? Have you had previous success with this technique? What were your biggest challenges implementing your content creation plans?
Leave a comment below or send me an email!
Your website is the backbone of your chamber?s marketing strategy. We are living in an age when ?Googling? has become a knee-jerk reaction and an organization?s website is the ultimate means of communicating with its audience. Maintaining a strong digital presence is vital to your chamber?s survival.
Choose a marketing-savvy CMS that will provide your chamber website with valuable communication tools ? particularly, an email marketing service, options for social media integration and daily statistics.
EMAIL MARKETING
One of the most effective and inexpensive digital marketing strategies is email marketing.
Be sure your CMS?s email marketing module is integrated with all of your other CMS modules, such as your forms, e-commerce, blog, newsletter, etc.
This integration will enable you to:
- Increase top line revenue
- Contact perspective new members
- Better serve your existing members
(More on this subject later, when I post my Email Marketing series. If you?d like this topic sooner rather than later, let me know!)
SOCIAL MEDIA INTEGRATION
Whether they?ll admit it or not, just about everyone is on Facebook. And that makes social networking the perfect strategy for engaging your chamber website visitors.
Your CMS should include a social media module that integrates with all of your other CMS tools. For example, when you publish an event on your website, your social media module should automatically post the event link to your Facebook and Twitter profile pages.
STATISTICS
Marketing is useless if you can?t measure it.
That?s why your CMS must include a statistics module. In addition to measuring your chamber website?s daily visits and page views, your statistics module should also allow you to analyze metrics of specific content, such as banner ad clickthrough rates, top blog posts and email open rates.
CHOOSING A CMS: SERIES WRAP-UP
I hope you have enjoyed my series on ?Choosing A CMS.? In the last several weeks, you have learned about taking control of your web content management, the importance of CMS upgradability, and valuable CMS content development tools for your chamber website. Today?s post about CMS marketing tools concludes this series.
UP NEXT: CONTENT IS KING
Now that you have the expertise to select a CMS (and know how to use it!), it?s time to focus on the first step of your digital marketing plan ? creating content for your chamber website. The Content Is King series starts next week!
YOUR THOUGHTS?
- What do you love or hate about your current CMS?
- What is your biggest challenge in creating engaging content?
I respond to everyone who contacts me, so leave a comment or drop me an email!
Choose a CMS that simplifies the content development process by providing a unified user interface, a ?What You See Is What You Get? editor, and a few easy-to-use tools.
UNIFIED USER INTERFACE
It takes different CMS modules to create different types of content (blog posts, news articles, photos etc). For some CMS systems, this means you?ll have to pick and choose different plug-ins from different developers, and learn how to use each. This equates to having learn how to operate several different software packages to simply manage your website.
You can save yourself quite a bit of trouble by choosing a CMS that contains a unified user interface ? one where every tool is created by the same development team. Each module (blog, ecommerce, email marketing etc) should be consistent in the way it looks and feels. This will enable you to spend more time creating great content as opposed to racking your brain try to learn the way in which different modules/plug ins work.
?WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET? EDITOR
A WYSIWYG editor (?What You See Is What You Get?) allows a person with no HTML experience to create beautifully formatted web content. Rather than forcing you to decipher HTML code, a WYSIWYG editor allows you to work within an interface that closely resembles how the final product will look. And if at any time you do decide to tweak the coding, you can simply toggle over to the HTML view, then switch back to the webpage view when you?re done.
Now that I?ve discussed the importance of a unified interface and a WYSIWYG editor, I?d like to point out some content development tools to look for when choosing a CMS.
4 CRUCIAL CMS TOOLS FOR CONTENT DEVELOPMENT
Custom Directories
Your chamber must be able generate many different types of directories. As your website functions largely as a resource guide and, it?s important that your chamber?s CMS enables you to create custom directories when you need them. Further potential directories are listed below:
- Staff directories
- Board of directors directories
- Coupon directories
- Interactive maps of businesses
- Business directories
- Featured businesses
- Restaurant guides
Blog
To rank higher in search engine results, you must publish fresh content to your chamber website on a regular basis. The easiest way to do this is with a blog. Look for a blogging platform that enables tagging, comments and RSS subscriptions.
The goal of your blog should be to teach your public about your chamber, its programs, its benefits and its significance within the community. Your community has little idea of the role your chamber plays, so educate them in an engaging and entertaining manner.
Newsroom (Your Online Media Room)
Your chamber website serves as a news source for multiple audiences. A good ?Newsroom? tool will, to borrow a phrase from David Meerman Scott, allow your chamber to create multiple Online Media Rooms (Member news, Community news, etc) that feature multimedia content (including text, photos, video and audio).
The concept of an Online Media Room, as opposed to the old newsroom, is that it functions as your very own publishing space, designed for the media. You, as a publisher, control the wealth of your content, and should include audio, video, photos, news releases, background information, financial data, contact information and anything else that would interest and benefit a journalist looking for a story.
When anyone, not just journalists, want to know what?s current with an organization, they go to the Online Media Room to find out. Turn this room into a marketing tool, update it often and make sure that it is easily navigable, searchable, and visually appealing.
Interactive Calendars
Keep your members informed of upcoming events by maintaining an interactive event calendar. Look for a calendar tool that also includes a ?lister? that posts upcoming events on your chamber home page. Your calendar tool should also allow you to include event details ? not just when, but also who, where, why and how much.
An interactive calendar is a great tool for making your chamber website user friendly and intuitive.
UP NEXT: CHOOSING A CMS, PART 3 - MARKETING TOOLS
I hope today?s post demonstrated how the right CMS can empower you to create dynamic, original content for your chamber. Next week, I will continue my discussion on choosing the perfect CMS by pointing out the most important marketing capabilities that will enable your chamber to draw in its target audience.
What do you think so far of these features? Can your chamber utilize them?
3 Factors to Consider When Choosing a Chamber CMS
I am a frequent flier, so I?m always comforted when I notice the airline going to great lengths to ensure a safe flight.
The best safety measure is planning ahead, such as ensuring that the plane will make it to the next stop without running out of fuel. Likewise, you should plan ahead for your chamber website by choosing a CMS that won?t run out of capabilities.
To select a CMS that will benefit your chamber website for years to come, choose one that has these 3 capabilities:
When you watch TV, would you rather be the person holding the remote control, or the person begging to turn off Dancing with the Stars?
I?m guessing you?d prefer to be the one in control.
You should also be in control when it comes to managing your chamber website content. Now that we?ve covered best practices in designing your website, it?s time to switch gears and begin discussing the process of filling your chamber website with content. To do so, your CMS must be powerful and flexible.
User-friendly navigation for your Chamber website
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The time I spent backpacking in Yellowstone National Park was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. The entire trip, I relied solely on color-coded trail markers to guide me through the primitive Wyoming wilderness. I emerged ten days later, dirt-streaked and enlightened ? and realized I had never once needed to use my compass.
Likewise, web users shouldn?t need a compass to navigate your chamber of commerce website. Your website navigation design should be just as visible as the trail markers that guided me through Yellowstone. Today I will cover exactly what constitutes valuable chamber navigation form (as opposed to function): Top/sub-level design, intuitive placement, style, and color.
How to use eye-tracking to test your chamber website
After reading last week?s post, you should have a basic understanding of the principles of web usability. Now it?s time to put your user interface to the test with a method called eye tracking.
The goal of eye tracking is actually very simple: it determines where your website visitors are focusing their attention.
Knowing where visitors are looking on your website can give you tons of clues about the effectiveness of your chamber website. If visitors aren't looking at the right things, they're not interacting, learning or buying.
Continue reading at Jeff Kline Online...
How to build a user-friendly chamber website
Think back to the last time you bought a car - when you first sat down in your new driver?s seat, did you need an owner?s manual to figure out how to start the ignition? Of course not. Instead, you relied on previous driving experience to get your new ride rolling.
Just as every car is built with certain operating standards, so too are chamber websites. How well your website has implemented these standards greatly determines its level of usability .