What I learned as VP of Public Relations

I joined Toastmasters to improve my public speaking skills. What I didn't expect was to become the Vice President of Public Relations for a club that desperately needed digital help. The thing about clubs is that they dont run themselves - some of the people in the club are pulling at various administrative strings, which ensures that the club exists, attracts new members etc. 

In toastmasters, these people have official roles: President, Vice President of Education, Treasurer, Vice President of Public Relations, Vice President of Membership, Secretary and Sergeant at Arms (calls the meeting to order). Which means if you are apart of a TM club, you will likely be serving in one of these roles at some point in time. If you stay for long enough, you'll fill most of them. 

When I took on Vice President of Public Relations, I had only been a member for a few months. I had zero PR experience. I barely posted on social media. But I had an outsider's perspective and could see the obvious problem: our website sucked.

The Problem

Our existing site was created by a well-meaning member who used it to post awards and flyers. That was it. No explanation of what we did, no information about our members, no reason for prospective members to choose us over the dozen other clubs in the area.

This mattered because when people look for a Toastmasters club, they Google. They're trying to figure out which club to actually show up to. Our website was supposed to be our digital storefront, but it looked like an abandoned bulletin board.

Despite living in the middle of a digital revolution, most Toastmasters clubs don't have real websites. So the opportunity was obvious: update the site and use it to actually sell people on why they should visit us.

The Solution

I'm not a web developer. I know some HTML and CSS but I'm not building anything from scratch. The website is built using Googles free website builder, so I re-did the site there. It took a few iterations to get everyone's approval, but within a few weeks, we launched the new site.

What Changed

• Consistent theme and branding

• Clear organization by page category

• Homepage explains what Toastmasters is and why communication skills matter

• Information about our club, meeting times, and how to contact us

• Actual reasons why someone should visit us

The Results

Our analytics show steady traffic. More importantly, we almost always have new guests at our meetings now.

The lesson: You don't need to be a technical expert to solve a product problem. You just need to see the gap between what exists and what should exist and figure out how to close it.

Old Website

Current Site

It has a consistent theme. Information is organized by page category.  The written content on the homepage explains what Toastmasters is and the benefits of good communication.  The website tells you about the club and when it meets and how to get in touch. 

Website 2.0:  SUCCESS.  🏆