I’ve been told I could/should be a professional organizer. So when the Board Chair for the IMPACT Conference came to me wanting a website redesign, for a website with nearly 100 pages, it became a fun marriage between my organizing and WordPress skills. By the end of the process, we went live with 20 pages and a look that better expressed the youthful activism of the national conference.
Here are the details of how that happened.
Many non-profit staffers and small business owners start blogging because they “know” they “need” to do it or because someone suggested it would help their cause. These are innocent nudges in the right direction, often doled out by a board member with marketing experience or a CEO who wants to write or by a consultant who is ready to set you up with a blog, whether it’s right or wrong for your needs.
I’ve personally cautioned more people out of blogging than into blogging because a blog wouldn’t best serve their goals or because they just wouldn’t be able to devote the appropriate time to it. Blogging can be a huge undertaking and first one needs to ask if a blog is right for your cause or your business.
Here are some questions to ask before starting a blog:
Coastal Maine Getaways was a great opportunity to start a website from scratch. Lindsey, the owner, had been managing vacation rental properties for some time, but hadn’t yet named her company and had only advertised her listings on VRBO (Vacation Rentals By Owner). It was working fairly well for her, but she wanted more control over her web presence, including the name of the company, SEO (search engine optimization), and the ability to add and highlight more options than VRBO allowed.
Lindsey engaged me to do some market research and to eventually design and populate the site.
LinkedIn makes it very easy to add new skills to your professional profile – and this is what makes this section of the site irrelevant.
As of today, I have 11 skills for which colleagues have endorsed me. By clicking “Add to Profile,” these words will quickly appear on my profile and position me as an expert in Facebook, WordPress, Teaching, Research and more.
Facebook? Yes, I’m a pro. WordPress? Yes, I’m very good at that too. Teaching? Well, I’ve run some good workshops and I enjoy mentoring, but I dislike most forms of “teaching” and wouldn’t use that word to describe my skills. Research? Hmm, I like to learn and I Google a heck of a lot of stuff every day. Does that make me skilled at research?