0 Purpose: Why do you have a website?

When I ask people why their organisation has a website, they are often lost for words!  Is it really the first time they’ve been asked?  They’ve paid for it and possibly invested hours of work into it but don’t know why!

Sometimes it seems the site offers a web presence or ‘improves our image’.  What does this mean?  How do you know whether you’re getting your moneys worth?

Or perhaps it’s so that the public can download information.   Sometimes sites accumulate pictures of meetings from long ago.  It’s hard to see why anyone would spend time there, let alone visit for a second time.  Take a hard look at your site and ask why any visitor might return!

I can only conclude some sites exist because someone was told they should have a website.

Websites are powerful tools and if yours isn’t working for you perhaps you shouldn’t have one.  It would at least save you some money.  Alternatively, the task is to get your online presence working for you.

Consultancy

Why do organisations have websites with no purpose?  I’m sure the problem lies in the relationship between organisations and their website designers.  They need to guide each other into understanding the emerging purpose of the site.  At the beginning of their relationship, neither  knows the purpose of the site and design should not start until they understand and agree the site’s purpose.

So, I will explore the nature of non-directive consultancy as it relates to web design.  I will cover the roles of consultant (designer) and consultor (you) so that both get the most from the relationship.

A consultancy relationship might result in a range of online approaches, possibly not including a website.  Various uses of social media may be all an organisation needs.

Relationships

Raising finance in various ways is important for many organisations and it is important to understand the relationship between finance and the social aims of third sector organisations.

Building relationships with your visitors is essential whether or not your purpose is financial.  You need a clear grasp of how you want your visitors to respond to your site and then to design your site to meet your purpose.

This category covers a sequence about websites and donations only.

Conversation

An effective web presence implies a conversation between your visitor and your organisation. This may be implicit as the visitor follows a route through your site, clicking in your links and finally reaching a destination, if their interest carries them that far.  Or else it may be more explicit, such as where the visitor responds to comments and debates the issues your site raises.

However you approach this conversation, you need to understand in any conversation both parties transform.  Exploration of this will lead us into some interesting philosophical and spiritual by-ways because if we’re serious about our online presence, we need to appreciate its impact upon real life.

Core to this is the role of conversation as an encounter with the other.  It is through developed conversation that real change happens.

0 Web Design in the Third Sector

If you’re involved with third sector organisations you will know how it is difficult to find good advice and guidance about creating and maintaining websites.

Some advice, online or from designers, offers technical solutions.  Sometimes this is welcome but often problems have nothing to do with technology and everything to do with organisational culture or human relationships.

Where writers go beyond the technical, they usually offer advice about online marketing.  This is more helpful but focuses upon maximising financial income from your site.  Great if finance is what you’re after but not so helpful if you want something else from your market.  Certainly, if you want to generate income you need to build relationships but for many third sector organisations relationships themselves outweigh the finance they generate.

This blog aims to offer you the support you need to get your online presence working for your organisation.  Do comment and let me know when it is helpful and the issues you would like me to write about.

There are four main categories covering the areas of support I cover on this blog and through my community web consultancy.

Purpose

It is a common mistake to rush to getting a site online, without a thorough understanding of the organisation’s context.  In an ideal world websites and social media would be planned alongside development of the organisation’s mission or remit.  This way real life and online presence can be made to work together.

I’ve looked at many third sector websites and too often they lack a sense of purpose.  Site content is dull and sometimes it is not clear why the site exists at all!  Where the reason for the site is clear, often it is not clear what the site offers the visitor.

Marketing

When you set about designing a site, it is crucial that you understand

• your market (particularly if you have nothing to sell) (because you do, otherwise why are you online?), and
• content that will engage your market.

Your site’s appearance is important although perhaps not as important as you might think.  A lot of money spent on high quality graphics might do nothing to further an organisation’s aims.

If you’re working with your site’s Content Management System (CMS) balancing competing demands of search engine optimisation, compelling content and accessibility can be taxing.  What strategies can you use to reconcile these competing demands?

This category will show you how to design an excellent site with or without the support of a web designer.

Technique

This category will cover things you need to know to make your website work.  I shall explore strategies for using your CMS to best advantage and other online tools to help you navigate your way to an effective site.

Mutuality

This category is about the nature of third sector organisations.  To be effective online, third sector organisations need to understand themselves  and their relationships with partner organisations, followers and customers.

The things that go wrong with websites are often as much to do with the sponsoring organisation as it is with the technical details.  Understanding how organisations work can help restore broken relationships and build new creative ones.  Mutuality is an aspiration for many third sector organisations and so better understanding of what it means and how it can be expressed online is an exciting area to explore.