The Internet has always been known as the “World Wide Web” and now this has actually come to be the true nature of the web. Yes – you do need a website to represent your organization. It is a key communications tool that if done effectively addresses the needs and interests of your target audiences. You can think of your website as the hub of the web and the various other tools and technologies and methods as the spokes and links on the web – email newsletters, blogs, your facebook and myspace pages, linkedIN, YouTube videos, online radio, eGroups that you belong to and various discussion forums. These online networking methods all work together to strengthen and draw people into your real relationship network. Of course you continue to augment these with the normal methods of meetings and phone calls and groups that you belong to, seminars and conferences and other face-to-face networking. What is exciting is the fact that these face-to-face encounters and new people can be added or invited to your online networks and you can more easily continue with building interest and knowledge about your mission and activities.
Al Gore at a recent conference on web 2.0 spoke eloquently on how the world wide web was an integral part of the strategy in the US election of Barack Obama. His campaign was successful in many ways because of his effective use of web technologies including YouTube with its full channel of videos, and all the interactivity of subscribers, friends, and “connections”. Facebook (One Million Strong for Barack), websites, and integration to television. Lively discussion forums, millions of subscribers, and many ways of interacting reached out in a very personal way to every corner of the nation – and the world. His “web” was integral to communication of mission, informing people, generating funds, and getting people out to vote.
