When this website went through reconceptualization and redesign, there were many unknowns and uncertainties.
Thankfully, the worst unknowns were about abandoning a familiar website and taking a leap of faith into the foggy void of installing and using WordPress. Now that we’re up and running for nearly three months now, we’re losing our training wheels and embarking on an interesting journey with lots of twists and turns.
Now our problems are more complex ones to address. Questions such as:
- Can we translate the enthusiasm and esprit de corps felt after every meeting into our writing about it?
- How do we reach a larger audience?
- How do we make this website relevant and useful to our members and the Toastmasters community at large?
With Social Media such a buzzword these days, I wanted to take advantage of WordPress’ more advanced plugins to push our postings to the world at large – where our Facebook friends, Twitter followers, and LinkedIn contacts can see what we’re about and where we are headed. Let’s not forget that WordPress includes comments with every post, a common feature of blogging platforms these days.
It was a scattershot experiment at best and so far here is what is interesting.
From where do we get most comments and responses?
Not Facebook. Not Twitter. Not comments within our blog.
LinkedIn. Specifically LinkedIn groups:
- Toastmasters International — District 26
- Toastmasters International
- The Official Toastmasters International Members Group
- Parker Toastmasters
It’s all so obvious, don’t you see. We have a captive audience to share our posts with those groups. Experienced Toastmasters with a breadth of personal and professional experience have weighed in on many of our posts to provide insight and new thoughts.
That’s not the entire story.
Did you know that a member of District 26 is a Brand Ambassador with the Toastmasters’ International rebranding coming later this summer? Meet Brenda Smull, DTM. A member of the District 26 group, and an active member of Toastmasters in the Denver area.
Want to follow threads involving technology and website advice? Meet Matthew Kleinosky, a Toastmaster from Toronto Canada. You will find him on the The Official Toastmasters International Members Group.
We all have a lot to learn in our journey as Toastmasters. What is amazing to me is that in just a few months of getting these posts out, that I’ve discovered there is an active and engaged online community working on important and relevant topics that can help you in your role as a Member or Officer. I strongly encourage you to join them to enhance your Toastmasters experience.
After you sign in to www.linkedin.com, be sure to search for the following groups, and then join them.
- Toastmasters International — District 26
- Toastmasters International
- The Official Toastmasters International Members Group
- Parker Toastmasters
You’ll be glad you did!