When you need to keep your Web presence on track, over the long haul...
It’s likely you’ve heard the expression, “it’s like herding cats.” An impossible task, I’m sure, even for them most devote feline lovers. For some organization, keeping all their Web presence consistent, up-to-date, usable, and in line with the organizations goals can feel just like that – an impossible task. Effective Web governance can help.
Web governance defines the people, roles, responsibilities, policies and procedures to keep your website on track.
The Web has become prolific and many people surf the Web every day of the week, from home, work and while they are mobile. Because they use the Web so much, many feel they have become experts on Web design, development and marketing. End-user driven technology means practically anyone can buy a domain name, crop a graphic image, create a Web page, set up a blog, or start tweeting. When these forces converge, it can be easy for your Web presence to diverge. The larger the organization, the more likely you’ll have a problem.
In fact, renegade sites, pages, and social media channels can develop, negatively impacting your organization and the Web users you’re trying to serve.
- Your marketing messages can become unclear and less effective when all your internet marketing efforts are not aligned.
- If your visual signature or design isn’t consistent, you decrease brand awareness and recognition.
- It can be less cost effective in the long run to maintain a large variety of web development, publishing and hosting environments.
- Keeping information consistent and current across a diverse set of internet outlets can be challenging. Inconsistent and out-of-date information can confuse and frustrate your target audience.
- In some cases, you might lose permanent control of a particular outlet. For example, without guidance and planning, the employee who creates your Facebook business page is the permanent “owner” of that page and can delete it at any time. What could happen to that page happens if the employee leaves your organization?
While there are best practices for web governance, including a common set of deliverables, governance only works when it’s customized to fit the size, culture and goals of the organization. What would work for a small sole proprietorship probably won’t work for a small municipality. Large organizations and municipalities face their own challenges when establishing a governance model.
We collaborate with you to combine our knowledge of best practices with your knowledge of your organization to develop a governance model that will work for your organization. We typically work together to:
- Create the governance charter and select participating roles or members
- Identify a target list of deliverables, including policies and procedures
- Develop a meeting schedule and agenda template
- Coach on the development of a governance calendar, including editorial content and routine maintenance tasks