Finding Your Organization’s Digital Road Map

Creating and maintaining a cohesive digital communications strategy – one that brings together proprietary websites, external outlets for content (e.g. Huffington Post, Forbes or Tumblr) and popular social networking platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat to name a few) – is a critical way for organizations to connect with audiences and solidify their online presence. However, with thousands of platforms and apps to choose from, and new ones emerging every week, it is becoming increasingly challenging for organizations to effectively utilize these communication channels.

As early adapters to new technologies, our team at the Case Foundation has learned from experience that juggling too many platforms can become a distraction when your goal is quality engagement with your target audience. What is an organization to do? The answer—start by creating your own digital road map.

Collaborating with our partners at Weber Shandwick for the Communications Network’s publication Change Agent (in conjunction with the ComNet15 conference), we’ve identified five simple steps for anyone looking to streamline their online channels and more effectively engage their audiences.

  • Define your audience
  • Map out your digital ecosystem
  • Leave room for experimentation
  • Define and realign your content strategy
  • Make adjustments as you go

Our hope is that these tips will help you focus your efforts in the ever-evolving digital sphere!

Digital Road Map 1

Digital Road Map2

Welcome to Our New Website!

This post was written by Allyson Burns and Brian Sasscer on behalf of the Case Foundation:

After a few weeks of being in “stealth mode,” we’re incredibly excited today to unveil a new look and feel here at CaseFoundation.org! This is the first step in the rollout of our new “Digital Roadmap” to ensure we’re putting our best digital foot forward on all fronts.

Last year, we embarked on a full audit of the Case Foundation’s digital presence to understand how our entire web portfolio, including CaseFoundation.org, as well as our social media outlets, could serve as a more effective tool for engaging with our key constituents. The audit process involved gathering detailed feedback from our partners, friends and peers in the sector – without which this new digital roadmap would not be possible.

The newly designed CaseFoundation.org draws on some of the latest tools and technologies, and is designed to more clearly highlight our work and provide valuable resources for the sector based on what we’re learning. Our hope is that this new design will make it easier for users like you to find the information they want.

And as our CEO, Jean Case, has explained, related to the work of the new website – and this inquisitive process – is a new way we’ll talk about our work going forward. It was a high priority for us to take the learnings from our audit process and translate them into a user-friendly website design, content and strategy. Engaging a creative web design team, we set out to provide a fresh look with bold features, engaging content and imagery and an intuitive flow of information. You will now see an intuitive speaking navigation at the top of every page with easy-to-use drop-down menus to help you explore the site. There is also a new “Who We Are” section that features language explaining our philosophy, team structure and history (be sure to check out the interactive timeline at the bottom of the page). Another significant addition to the site is a new section titled, “What We Do” that introduces the three pillars that ground the work of the Foundation, including: civic engagement, entrepreneurship and philanthropy. We invite you to explore these pillars and the evolving program areas that are built upon them including Impact Investing, Be Fearless, Economic Mobility, Millennial Engagement and more.

We took design inspiration from a number of sites, including: TED Ed, Kickstarter and Apple, and embraced new features such as conversational filters, immersive images and “sticky” fixed navigation. The site is also now responsive, meaning you can easily view on your desktop, laptop, tablet or mobile device without compromising the viewer experience.

You’ll also see us continue to roll out changes across our digital platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, some of which we’ve already begun to implement. For example, you may have noticed a shift away from sweepstakes and contests as a way to interact with our communities and attract new members. Rather, we are now focused on publishing more targeted posts related to relevant social sector content tailored for each platform in an effort to garner more meaningful engagement. While we still actively review analytics related to our social media outreach, engagement is the name of the game and trumps impressions and likes.

We also heard loud and clear from the digital audit that you wanted to hear more from the individuals on our awesome team – so you’ll see us making a more concerted effort to lift up the diverse viewpoints and experiences of our team members across digital platforms. This also translates into our email strategy. Feedback from users indicated that email is a vehicle through which they want to receive updates, news and information from the Foundation. So we’ve made it easier to sign up for email and have started implementing a detailed segmentation process to make sure the information becomes more targeted and specific to reader’s needs and wants. (If you’re not signed up for our email list already, please make sure to do so in the form provided at the bottom of this page!)

That’s it for now, but the new website is a work in progress to be sure. Check back with us regularly to see what other changes and improvements we have made. And after you’ve taken a spin within the new pages, we invite you to share any feedback, as that will help us continue to improve the site.

Let us know what you think on Twitter using the hashtag #NewCFsite!