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On November 5, a group of web executives around the DC area joined us to hear 4 speakers share their stories and strategies to get return visitors. And boy did we learn a lot! 
 

Michael Edson kicked off the session speaking about how the Smithsonian developed a new strategy to reposition their relationship with their audiences and make a more meaningful user experience. Smithsonian did some investigating and found that many people rarely even visit Smithsonian websites.

In his presentation, Michael tackled:

• Alternative ways to assess your organization's reputation
• Barriers you may face as you change
• Alternative ways to create a strategy to reach your audience
• How a strategy can re-frame your relationship with your audiences.

See Michael's presentation

Next up was Roger Burks from Mercy Corps. He shared Mercy Corps strategy around online storytelling. Five years ago, Mercy Corps realized that they weren't connecting with their audiences in a meaningful way. Instead of spending time on press releases and hard-to-understand program descriptions, they shifted their focus to telling the stories of those they reached. This storytelling strategy has engaged more users, helped increase donations, and made for more meaningful connection with their audiences. See Roger's presentation


After the break, we heard from Jim Hunn from KaBOOM! about lessons learned when building and updating online tools. Some of the lessons included:

 

• Improve your online tools continuously (and be willing to make and learn from your mistakes)
• Learn to tell the difference between picking up the shiny nickel vs missing an important trend
• Trainings must be provided on the trainee's terms - online

In the end, this helped them engage more users online to act offline. To see the full list, check out Jim's presentation.
 

Brian Dunbar, from NASA, wrapped up the session with a presentation that highlighted how audience and stats research has changed the user experience on NASA.gov over the last 10 years.. They use many methods to gather audience feedback, including: emails sent from users, usability testing, statistics review, and customer satisfaction surveys. The changes made over time (as shown in the old and new screenshots) have dramatically improved user satisfaction over the years. To see the screenshots and guidance on gathering audience feedback, check out Brian's presentation.

Overall, it was a great event!