Website Development and Facebook Page Launch – 99s of New England
Gillis Marketing’s Trish Gillis (me) is a private pilot. In January 2008, I joined a great organization called the Ninety-Nines. Amelia Earhart founded this group with 98 Charter Members 80 years ago. I have met many amazing women pilots as a member of this organization.
Like many membership-based organizations, the New England Section of the 99s strives to build membership for the organization, the Section, and the three Chapters that support the New England Section. They also promote scholarships for people pursuing aviation certificates and ratings.
When I joined, the New England Section had a basic, 5-page Go Daddy Website Tonite website with a web address that would be difficult for search engines to index and for people to remember. The Eastern New England Chapter, which I am now Treasurer, did not have a website. The Section and the Chapter have an opportunity to build their membership with young pilots. Recruitment would be more effective if information about the organization was readily available using online tools.
Websites
I volunteered my services as a marketer to build the Eastern New England Chapter and the New England Section each a website. I registered SEO-friendly web addresses to help people find the sites to learn more about the organization:
New England Section New Address: http://www.womenpilotsnewengland.org/
Easter New England Chapter New Address: http://www.womenpilotsene.org/
I used the look and colors of the Ninety-Nines International Headquarter site for each new website to complement the Headquarter site.
The Eastern New England Chapter site was launched last year. I continue to collect content, including photos to build a photo gallery, to enhance the visitor experience and encourage non-members to join the 99s. The site is optimized for search engines and utilizes Google Analytics.
Facebook “Business” Page
My experience finds utilizing social media tools to be important to communicate with your audience and, when necessary, have a dialogue with them. While their website is under development as I collect content, last year I created a Facebook Page for the New England Section. It is another communication point to promote events, meetings, 99 information, and aviation websites. The photo gallery has become a popular destination on the Facebook Page.
In the back-end, a Facebook Page offers managers of a company an opportunity to create their own content and post it without delay. When I created the New England Section Facebook Page, I linked the officers of the three Chapters and the Section with Admin rights. The settings are set so anyone can add content. All the Admins have the ability to delete inappropriate content. When Admins post updates on the Wall or answer questions, they are presented to the audience as the brand – not their individual names, offering a sense of “authority” to the audience.
These online promotional tools provide a proactive communication method with the Ninety-Nine members and members-to-be.