Firstly, thanks for the feedback. It’s pleasing to hear that people are getting buy-in from those above them in the food chain and it’s making their job a) easier and b) more enjoyable.
This time we look at the third tactic at your disposal to get management more involved in your website. Don’t forget to check back on the first two.
Guerilla tactic #3: Get EVERYONE involved.
A website doesn’t belong to the web team. It doesn’t belong to the editor. It doesn’t belong to the person who is responsible for making changes. The website belongs to the whole organisation. So how can you address the issue of your own staff thinking that it’s your problem when it comes to creating good quality content?
We were talking to someone last week about this very problem. She works for a Government department – we won’t say which one – but the website is seen as ‘her’ problem. She needs to educate the staff that the web site belongs to the whole Department – that if they want a great web site, they can help by contributing. This is what we told her … and we’re now telling you.
- Get your organisation involved. Your staff (and management) don’t need to be running the show themselves but they do need to understand that they have input they can provide to the website and they need to know the negative impact if they are not involved.
- Talk about your wins. In a previous blog post we talked about making sure management understood what was happening when your website worked well. This needs to be continued with your staff so they know what the website does the business and how it works. And unfortunately a number of conversations we have in business surrounding the web are when things go wrong. People in our workshops rarely tell us that their web site is great. 99% of them tell us what’s wrong with it. We, as an industry, need to address that. (If you are embracing social media within your business this is something you also need to do. We have talked to countless clients where staff are somewhat cynical of social media efforts because they don’t understand what it is doing for the business. What they end up doing is overlaying their own issues, concerns or perceptions of social media on top of a business tool when in reality they may know very little about it). If you have a customer who has joined your business as a customer as a direct result of your website, that needs to be filtered through to staff. It needs to go in the staff newsletter, it needs to be included in meeting agendas as a way of reporting back to staff of when things go well. Talk about how you have managed to save an organisation dollars in real terms based on an internal process you have streamlined on the web. If you have reworked your intranet so that is an effective business tool and not a graveyard where PDFs go to die, measure it and then communicate it.
- Ask for their ideas. How could staff be contributing to the overall website experience for your customers and community? How could they be providing information for you? What information could they be providing for you? Throw the strategy back to them – what ideas could they come up with to maintain and run an effective corporate blog for sample? Get three or four of them to become admins of your Facebook group. And then, make sure you follow through with the important last step.
- If they are contributing they need to be recognised. Getting them involved excites them about the web and what can be achieved but it also relieves the pressure on the person who is responsible for maintaining all of it. So recognise that fact. Give them kudos for the great idea or the shortcut they devised or the social media tool they have helped develop.
So these are just some of the ideas of getting your organisation involved and engaged in your website. There are significant benefits and in our experience, a website or online strategy (including social media) that is embraced by whole organisation rather than just one person one team is significantly more successful.
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