An ideal downtown web site, component parts

In preparing my three presentations for the National Trust Main Street Center conference to be held in Chicago on March 1-4, 2009, I looked at probably 50 web sites from Main Street organizations around the country. I was interested in the ways they organize their sites, recruit volunteers, take donations and generally present information about their communities. Based on this unofficial survey, here are some the component parts that would create an exceptionally useful and helpful web site for any downtown or Main Street organization.

Background

This list is meant to help you identify a wide range of items to post to your web site so that it serves as the crucial information and communication tool for the organization. By driving all your online presence to your web site such as social media (Facebook or MySpace) as well as your blog (if you have one), the web site becomes the central repository for information about the organization. Your web site must be able to be updated in house on a regular basis so that visitors get the most up to date information.

• Home/intro page. Should contain most up to date news, information and event highlights, and lots of photos of people. The page should be easy to navigate with tabs or click throughs to get further into the site as noted below. This page could have links to Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn or other social networking sites, and your blog. If you have pod casts about downtown, have a click through from the home page to their location on your web site. If you want people to sign up for your mailing list, have a link from the homepage to the location for mailing list sign up on your web site.

• About us page. General information about your local program and a contact information for all committees, list of all board (and advisory board) and staff members, pages on basic introduction to Main Street and your structure and downtown organization chart, current vision and mission statements, IRS 990 form for current year and previous year, current work plan, any current strategic plan, annual reports since inception, link to Press Room for PDF of all newsletters. Could have a member sign in area here to include PDFs of all board, executive committee agendas and minutes as well as all committee meetings and agendas. If you are a municipal agency and must post all your minutes and agendas, this page would be the correct place to do so.

• Press room page. All press releases in PDF or click through format, any good recent articles from local paper about organization (reproduced with permission or link to the newspaper’s web site), downloadable photos for press to use (with credit line), how the press can reach you: phone, fax, cell, email addresses. All of your newsletters in PDF format since inception and/or the archive of all of the e-mail newsletters you send (if you do).

• Photo album pages. Photos of events (could be a click through to Fickr, Shutterfly or other photo sharing web site or click through to Facebook page with photo albums)

• Committee pages. One for each of the four committees, with lists of projects, work plan for current year and list of who to contact for each committee if someone is interested in volunteering.

• Event pages. Your larger events may merit their own web pages with more photos and descriptions. Perhaps put vendor contracts, sponsor packages on these pages that can be downloaded and sent back.

• Business directory, parking and downtown map page. Ideal if there is a click through from biz directory to individual biz (some towns do this only for paid members)

• Business/Property incentives page. This page should identify what incentives are available. Either with a click through to state and city web sites with applications and information, or brief overviews of each incentive and contact info and click through for applications and forms. Describe the process that the local Main Street organization uses to counsel applicants before submitting application, and explain the application process, fees (if any) and time lines.

• Guidelines/regulations page. Pages containing any regulations or controls in the downtown such as sign controls, design guidelines, historic preservation ordinance, and any local regulatory controls. These can be click through to local government web sites where these documents or information is located or reproduced on your web site. Include any information about how the local Main Street organization will help applicants to submit better proposals to these regulatory bodies.

• Donate NOW page or Member page. Include an application/donation form. This could either be a PDF to fill out and send or a click through to PayPal, Network for Good, Members on Main or any other entity to permit people to donate NOW on a secure page for taking credit cards for donations. Ideally you should be able to use the secure page to take any kind of payment, including co-op ad fees, vendor fees, sponsorships, and event and ticket sales.

• Volunteer pages. A list of short job descriptions for volunteer projects that need volunteers now. Also include a volunteer interest/application form which could be interactive or PDF they can fill out and send to the office. List all projects that can be done on-line exclusively rather than require one on one meetings.

• Available properties page. A list with photos of all vacancies and properties for sale with links to real estate broker or manager of the property

• Resources page. A list with links to other organizations and other resources people should know about.

• Mailing list sign up page. Tell people why they should sign up to get your e-mail newsletter or other special communications from your organization

• Privacy policy, copyright information, web master contact, web designer credit (at bottom of each page)

This list is by no means exhaustive; I would love to hear about how you use your web site to communicate about your local Main Street program.