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VIRTUAL PRESENCE
What is Virtual Presence?
Having a "Virtual Presence" means establishing awareness of your organization through a very powerful and versatile marketing, public relations, and outreach tool: the internet. Creating a virtual presence may also include giving people appropriate outlets to communicate with your organization.
Why is Virtual Presence Important?
With students relying more and more on the internet to access information and communicate with others, student groups need to harness the power of the internet to increase awareness of and enhance accessibility to their organizations. The internet also provides a quicker and cheaper medium to disseminate information and gain feedback compared to traditional paper methods such as flyers, letters, and brochures. In addition, virtual or online methods of accessibility and communication keep resources and efforts centralized under one website or listserv, for example.
resources for VIRTUAL PRESENCE >
websites || listservs || discussion boards & chat rooms || yahoo groups
Website
Why Have a Website?
A website serves as one of the best ways to centralize information about your organization for others to view and access at anytime. Websites are relatively easy to update as well as cost very little (if anything) to produce and maintain.
How Can We Get a Website?
Duke offers web server space for student groups to host websites
(more information is at right). Websites established through this
option tend to have the following web address:
http://www.duke.edu/web/groupname/
You can also establish an independent website through commercial
companies that sell web addresses and server space. In addition,
many student groups are part of regional or national organizations
that may offer server space for Duke chapters of each respective
organization.
What Should Be on Our Website?
Websites can be very simple or quite intricate. Simple websites
tend to contain basic information about the group while intricate
websites tend to include features such as discussion boards, photo
albums, multimedia, and forms.
- Basic website content:
* Mission statement
* Executive board
* Contact information
* Calendar of events
* Announcements
- Other popular website content:
* Discussion boards
* Photo albums
* Audio and video clips
* Forms
* Links to other websites of interest
* Online resources
* Archives of files
Keys to a Strong Website
* Advertise your web address: There's no use in having a
website if you don't tell people about it. Advertise your web
address as often as possible. Your web address should be included
on virtually all marketing material.
* Update regularly: A large percentage of websites are
functionally obsolete because the information contained in them is
out-of-date. Updating your website regularly keeps people
constantly and accurately informed. Also, people tend to re-visit
websites that are regularly updated. Conversely, people won't
re-visit a website that hasn't been updated in a long time.
* Keep your website organized: There's nothing more
frustrating than going to a website that is hard to navigate, which
makes finding information difficult. Create a logical menu bar for
your website. Think of your website as a textbook. To make finding
information easy, organize the individual webpages of the website
like chapters and sections of a book. Group related webpages and
create categories that make sense.
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Listservs
Why Have a Listserv?
A listserv, or electronic mailing list, is the simplest way to
communicate with everyone subscribed to the listserv (i.e. your
general membership). Listservs are used to send out information via
email messages and attachments. In addition, listservs are useful
in creating dialogue amongst listserv subscribers (members) and
giving them an avenue to ask questions and/or offer suggestions and
feedback. Lastly, listservs are fairly easy to manage once you
understand the parameters of the listserv.
How Can We Get a Listserv?
Duke offers student groups a listserv service - click here for more
information. Another popular option for listservs is Yahoo
Groups (see here for a discussion of the
benefits of yahoo groups vs. listservs). In general, Yahoo Groups
are more versatile than listservs.
What Should We Use Our Listserv For?
Here are some basic uses of a listserv:
* To communicate information
* To advertise programs
* To announce updates
* To post attachments (i.e. applications, forms, etc)
* To have a virtual discussion via email correspondences
* To give subscribers/members an avenue to ask questions
* To give subscribers/members an avenue to offer suggestions and
feedback
Keys to a Strong Listserv
* Communicate purpose: When new members join the
listserv, they should receive a welcome message that explains the
purpose of the listserv. Also, periodic messages should be sent out
that remind all members of the purpose of the listserv (i.e. once a
semester).
* Know the parameters: The person in charge of your
organization's listserv should know and understand the parameters
of how to manage the listserv including how to subscribe and
unsubcribe members as well as who has the ability to post
messages.
* Balance usage: Although listservs give you the freedom to
post messages as often as you like, sending out an exorbitant
amount of listserv messages per day can often turn off a lot of
members. This may cause the listserv to lose its power because
these members start deleting messages before even reading them. To
avoid this, one alternative is to regulate messages by
consolidating emails into one longer email (be careful, though, not
to exceed the size limit of an individual email message).
* Create multiple listservs: Another way to avoid inundating
the general listserv with messages is to create multiple listservs
that each serve a different purpose. For example, one listserv
could be for general announcements, another listserv could be for
discussions, and a few other listservs could be for committees
within the organization. This is a worthwhile alternative since
listservs are free and relatively easy to manage.
* Avoid listserv abuse: As stated above, the purpose of the
listserv should be clearly communicated to all members. Anyone who
abuses the listserv should be immediately reprimanded with a
warning to properly use the listserv (a general message to the
entire listserv with this warning instead is encouraged so as not
to single out the abusing member). Abuses tend to come in the form
of commercial advertisements (i.e. "I need someone to sublet my
apartment" or "Who wants to buy my textbooks?").
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Discussion Boards &
Chat Rooms
What's the Difference Between a Discussion Board and a Chat
Room?
Discussion boards and chat rooms are similar in that they are
both tools that facilitate dialogue. The main difference between
the two, however, is that a chat room tends to occur in real-time
like a face-to-face conversation. On the other hand, a discussion
board is often delayed in that you can post a question or comment
at one point in time and have others respond to your question at
other points in time.
- Which is better:
Both are equally strong in terms of their basic purpose of facilitating dialogue. However, chat rooms are often difficult to moderate because members type their responses while others are also typing so it is hard to concentrate on one particular conversation. Thus, many comments are often ignored because of the overload of comments at one time. Also, to make chat rooms more effective, there needs to be a set date and time for the discussion. Discussion boards, on the other hand, allow for delayed responses (see above) as well as adequate time to read all responses before posting a new response.
Why Have a Discussion Board/Chat Room?
Discussion boards and chat rooms are ideal to have as formal
online forums for dialogues amongst members of your student group.
Such forums can be used for members to post questions, offer
suggestions, start discussions, and state opinions.
How Can We Get a Discussion Board?
Duke offers
a Newsgroup service, which is the same thing as a discussion
board. There are a variety of free discussion boards that you
can find on the internet by running a simple web search.
How Can We Get a Chat Room?
There are a variety of free chat rooms that you can find on the
internet by running a simple web search.
Advantages of a Discussion Board/Chat Room
* Organized dialogue: Discussion boards and chat rooms
are two outlets for organizing dialogues around a theme, topic, or
issue. In addition, multiple members can engage in the dialogue at
any level they feel comfortable. Some members just want to read
responses while others want to be able to respond to what they
read.
* Archived dialogue: Many discussion boards and chat rooms
allow you to archive dialogues so that you can refer to the
responses at a later date. In other words, archived dialogues give
you a transcript of responses that may prove useful in planning
programs and developing proposals.
Keys to a Strong Discussion Board/Chat Room
* Have a moderator: In order to have an organized
dialogue, it helps to have at least one person moderate. For either
a discussion board, the moderator ensures that members maintain
civility in their responses and use the discussion board or chat
room appropriately.
* Have ground rules: Members should abide to a general set
of ground rules to keep dialogue civil and orderly. Ground rules
should be easily viewable and reiterated periodically.
* Encourage usage: Members of your organization may often
forget that a discussion board and/or chat room exists so periodic
reminders of how to access and use these resources are
recommended.
* Enforce freedom of speech: It is inevitable that a
member's comments or opinions may not be well received by other
members. Although the knee-jerk reaction is to bar this member from
the discussion board or chat room, it is imperative that freedom of
speech is afforded to this member. Everyone is entitled to their
own beliefs and opinions so freedom of speech must be enforced,
especially since discussion boards and chat rooms are open forums
for dialogue. However, if a member starts to become overbearing and
inflammatory, you do have the right to ban this member due to
uncivil discourse. Seek assistance from administration if you are
unsure of how to handle such situations.
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Yahoo Groups
What is Yahoo Groups?
A Yahoo Group is a free service offered by Yahoo to facilitate
communication and information sharing amongst a community. Yahoo
Groups are registered according to categories such as Schools &
Education, Cultures & Community, Science, Recreation &
Sports, and Music.
Why Would We Get a Yahoo Group?
A Yahoo Group has several advantages over a listserv and a
website.
* vs Listservs: A Yahoo Group is more versatile than a listserv because in addition to having a listserv feature it also has a variety of other features as well. Additional features include a discussion board, attachments section, photo album, database capabilities, online polls, address book, and calendar.
* vs Websites: A Yahoo Group is easier to start and maintain than a website because it has a basic design and is user-friendly. Web-design experience is not required. In addition, Yahoo Groups is free. If you were to use a commercial web server, you would need to pay an annual fee.
How Can We Get a Yahoo Group?
Go to the Yahoo Groups
website for more information.
Keys to a Strong Yahoo Group
* Advertise your Yahoo Group: There's no use in having a
Yahoo Group if you don't tell people about it. Advertise your Yahoo
Group web address as often as possible. Your web address should be
included on virtually all marketing material.
* Update regularly: A large percentage of websites,
including Yahoo Groups, are functionally obsolete because the
information contained in them is out-of-date. Updating your website
regularly keeps people constantly and accurately informed. Also,
people tend to re-visit websites that are regularly updated.
Conversely, people won't re-visit a website that hasn't been
updated in a long time.
* Take advantage of the features: Yahoo Groups offers a
wide variety of features that facilitate communication and
information sharing. Maximize the utility of your Yahoo Group by
learning about each feature and using each to meet your
organization's needs.
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