Introducing the Web Challenge
The ACNM Massachusetts Chapter is issuing a national challenge to all chapters: Promote the profession of midwifery by developing and marketing a state web site!
How many of you still have to answer these questions: Is midwifery legal? Do you deliver at home? After you explain what you do, do you hear I am too old for a midwife, or I am done having my children, or I plan to have drugs in labor so I don’t want to use a midwife.
The Web offers a powerful way in which to reach millions of women and with the use of social marketing techniques, the Web offers a means to create change.
We believe that this medium can be utilized to expose more people to midwifery and in doing so bring our profession closer to the goal of making midwifery the first choice for women for their obstetric and gynecologic healthcare.
The Present State
A review of the ACNM Web site, found that approximately 32 percent of the states have Web sites and some of these Web sites contain outdated information.
The Challenge
For each state to develop a new Web site or update an existing Web site for the purpose of consumer education. States with more than one chapter are encouraged to join forces to have a single state Web site. Identifing chapter representatives to form a working committee and serve as liaisons back to the chapters at large can serve to accomplish this.
In addition to the Web site, the challenge includes the development of a marketing strategy outlining a plan of how the Web site will be marketed to the public.
The goal is to set in motion a far-reaching strategy to increase public awareness about midwifery locally and nationally.
Each state will have the opportunity to
- Get the word out about midwifery, especially bringing attention to local achievements or problems
- Enhance community involvement
- Provide timely up-to-date information on midwifery
- Provide current women’s health information especially pertaining to informed decision-making, i.e. elective primary cesarean, minimizing interventions and poor outcomes
- Address local public health concerns i.e. Katrina, health disparities, obesity, and access to care
- Promote legislative consumer awareness and involvement
Winning the Challenge
By the set deadline (Wednesday, April 30th), each state will submit their Web site and marketing plan to a panel of judges (comprised of midwives and consumers). The amount of money raised will determine the monetary award for the “Best State Web Site.” Presently, some addional donations have been received and 1st place winner will now receive $1,500, 2nd place $500 and 3rd place $250.
Creating a site involves six basic steps:
1. Planning
2. Content development
3. Graphic design
4. Programming
5. Marketing and promotion
6. Maintenance (the most important part of any web site is to keep it up to date)
Getting started
- Set a goal: identify what you are trying to accomplish/communicate. You should also have an idea as to what measure will let you know that your web site was a success.
- Know your audience
- Content: what types of information do you want the site to provide, especially in light of the goals you want to accomplish, the goals should drive the content and the design
- Resources:
need to also determine the amount of money and time needed to not only create but also maintain the state web site
Web site design
- This is where the individuality and creativity of each chapter can come forth
- Need to determine if the mood of the site should be informal, professional, or high tech, what colors, graphics, animation or fonts should be used, the layout and the placement of the navigation buttons
- It is important to keep in mind how visitors will navigate through the site
- Start with planning how the web site will be organized and function, first a home page and then add the pages and sub pages from there
- No website is ever 100% complete. There are always going to be new things added, updates and revisions made.
- Recommendation is to start small, get the web site up and running effectively and then additional pages can be added in the future
Marketing plan
- Having a web site does not help unless people know about it!
- The most important part of this challenge is that each chapter, along with development of their web site, is being asked to also plan a marketing strategy that can be implemented as soon as the site is ready
- This may include utilizing self promotion resources such as search engine key words and key phrases, newsgroups and mailing lists, using the state web address in local advertisements, on bumper stickers etc
Each web site must minimally include
- The official ACNM Logo: get permission to use the logo by submitting the logo usage agreement
- Find a Midwife practice locator maintained by ACNM
- Link to Mymidwife.org and GotMom.org
- Other helpful links of consumer interest
Submitting your site
Send a link to your site to
webchallenge08@gmail.com
The deadline will be on Wednesday April 30th.
Submissions will be judged based on:
- Design
- Layout
- Navigation
- Content
- Accessibility
For any questions contact:
Michele Helgeson, CNM, MPH
Cell: 978-317-1970
email: mahcnm@aol.com
GOOD LUCK!
|
