The Power of Promotion! On-line Marketing For Toastmasters Club Growth. Rae Stonehouse

in turn will automatically post to our Twitter profile. We talk about connecting Facebook and Twitter a little later on. I also post the article’s content to our club’s Facebook Page Notes tab. We will talk later about how this is a good way to increase our marketing effectiveness.

      Your contact info should be easily accessible and visible. You don’t want your site visitor to leave without the opportunity to find out even more about your club. I have found that it doesn’t matter how much content I add to the website describing the Toastmasters program, many people want to know if the program is really for them. When they contact me I provide them with the same info that is available on the site.

      Your website should feature an easy to use Contact Us form. Your contact phone number should be readily visible. With the increase of web traffic from mobile devices, your phone number should be hyperlinked so that when somebody clicks on the link, it will call your designated club contact person.

      Your website should also have links to your social media addresses as well. You want to make it easy for your site visitor to find out as much as they can about your club. Social media, specifically Facebook, allows you to show what I call “happy, smiling Toastmasters” in action.

      Here is the top portion of our club website at FreeToastHost illustrating a different tagline … “We put the ‘fun’ in fundamentals of learning communication & leadership skills.“

      I’m finding that this website is appearing higher on the search engine pages than the previously described site but that may be due to it having existed longer. The FreeToastHost site readily substitutes as your club website if you don’t have website development skills or easy access to someone who does.

      The club administrative tools provide enough value on their own to make it worth your while to create one of these sites.

      From a marketing perspective, the front page of your website provides you with the opportunity to be creative in posting promotional copy that attracts your site visitor and entices them to want to learn more about your club and to actually come out and visit. You can easily add graphics and video to add to the excitement.

      One downside that I am aware of is that the Webmaster for this FreeToastHost site must be a current club officer. Access to the Administrative features is restricted to club officers that have been added to the site’s club officer listing through the Administration Panel. It can be accessed by any current club officer that is registered within.

      Section Two: Social Media Explored

      Throughout the next sections we will explore in greater depth, various social media platforms that I have used and have learned about. Each of them can have a fairly steep learning curve. I’m hoping that my experience can flatten that curve for you so that you can decide if a particular social media platform is for you and whether it is actually worth your time to do so.

      Chapter Five: Facebook

      Here is a quick overview courtesy of Wikipedia. “After registering to use the site, users can create a user profile, add other users as “friends”, exchange messages, post status updates and photos, share videos and receive notifications when others update their profiles. Additionally, users may join common-interest user groups, organized by workplace, school or college, or other characteristics, and categorize their friends into lists such as “People From Work” or “Close Friends”. Facebook had over 1.18 billion monthly active users as of August 2015.”

      Advantages:

      

Relatively easy for a Toastmaster to set up a club Toastmasters presence.

      

Good venue for developing a local following and raising awareness of your club in your local community.

      

Many of your Toastmaster’s club members are probably already on Facebook.

      

A person doesn’t have to be a member to view your Facebook Page on-line.

      

Easy for a fan to “Like” and “Share” your posts/content.

      

Likes are more likely to be local.

      

Facebook profile is indexed by most search engines, actual posts/content by some.

      

Invitations can be sent out for friends to Like.

      

Integrates well with Twitter, YouTube and your club website.

      Disadvantages/Considerations:

      

As Administrator it takes considerable amount of work to keep the momentum going.

      

Takes effort to build a following i.e. fans.

      

Requires some graphic artistry skills to add club branding to the Facebook Page.

      

Few Toastmasters clubs maximize their Facebook Page for effectiveness and search engine optimization.

      

Some clubs have created Facebook Groups, instead of Facebook Pages. (Groups are by invitation only and can be restrictive to growing your Toastmasters club).

      

Takes considerable effort to stand out from your competition.

      

If your content is not fresh & regular, you will lose visitors.

      

Likes don’t necessarily mean active followers. Active followers don’t necessarily mean potential new members.

      

Can be attractive to a troll a.k.a. cyberbully to hijack your Facebook Page and post inappropriate/damaging content.

      

Can be challenging to pass on the Administrator role to another member when the time comes. The learning curve can be quite steep for some members.

      Group Page vs Fan page / Open Group vs Closed Group

      Facebook Pages, formerly called ‘fan pages’, enable public figures, businesses & organizations to create a public presence on Facebook.