In my first post, I discussed social media entry pages. I’d like to revisit this.

Your homepage is not necessarily the first interaction your visitors have with your organization, or the interaction they want to have with you in a subsequent communication from your organization.

People can and should become aware of your site and latest initiatives through multiple marketing channels, including (when appropriate and within budget) radio, television, billboards, email, search, and trade publications. But driving visitors to your online space must not be directed entirely at your homepage. Your homepage can only say so much about you, and is designed to capture as many people as possible in your target audience.

Your accounts on MySpace, Facebook, or Squidoo may be more appropriate avenues for some outlets and audiences, and microsites could have the same effect for keeping people engaged with you in more than a “one-to-many” (push content to the audience) fashion.

Here are some steps to driving through Web 1.0 on your way to Web 1.5 and through to Web 2.0 and beyond.

Beyond Web 1.0 (a social media strategy comes first.)
1. Embrace what is social, even if it’s still one-to-many communication.
Email still works wonders. Give your subscribers reason to react, and a means of reacting through email, forms, surveys, and more. Embrace RSS. RSS is a pull-technology (your visitors have to request it just like email), so syndicate the news and content that could spread throughout the Internet and receive links.

Web 1.5+ Camp
2. Interact with others as you’d like them to interact with you! There are easy ways to become involved, and we highlighted 5 easy social media wins.
Comment on blogs, make videos of supporters, tag content in social bookmarking sites, submit content to social news sites, and ask your membership to engage others. Social news links where voting and commenting is allowed can bring links, visitors, and great brand awareness, as well as involve brand evangelists. I really recommend this! While you’re at it, create a Squidoo lens, a Facebook group, and a MySpace page.

Web 2.0
3. Let people seize control and enjoy the ride! Content is created by the community.
It takes time to build and nurture relationships for co-created content, but it can be done. Start with a blog, add social plugins to review, rate, vote, and submit content, and you’re taking the plunge.

Filed under: Non-Profits, Social Marketing on Friday, September 21st, 2007 by Jacob Wolfsheimer |
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