Presentation on Using FTH

Hi Brad,

Thanks for the post here are some thoughts...

It seems more of your presentation is in the selling phase "C'mon people sign up for FTH and here's why" more than in the how to use FTH phase. Is that the biggest challenge in your area?

In our District many clubs do not have a website AT ALL. Many say they don't have the budget. WHAT, IT'S FREE!

I was asked by the Area Governor to focus on how to get started. Since I provide the manual which covers how to create and update the various pages, I am assuming that they will go to this resource and read it. There is not enough time to go over all of that in one TLI session, so I picked some topics that I though would get them excited.

It seems many clubs do not know what to put on their front page.

I took out a section of the presentation on "Front Page Best Practices" because, I am embarrassed to tell you, I got a little lost in the PowerPoint, and it was not an effective presentation. I agree with you that you should assume that visitors are looking at your site. From our stats we know that we lose over 65% of our visitors after 1 page view.

Your visitor needs (1) day and time of meeting (2) location of meeting (enough that the GPS will find it) (3) a personal invitation/call to action. All of this information needs to appear in the visible portion of the screen so visitors can see it without scrolling! Who scrolls? So many times I have seen club sites that feature a humongous picture of people I don't know with no information about what is in the picture.

You should have pictures of happy people engaging with other people but, they just have to convey the club atmosphere. A simple 300px by 200px should be good enough when cropped. I shouldn't be able to count the hair follicles on the person's face, that is just too big.

I think that we should start a new thread in Tips and Trick on "Home Page Best Practices"

At TLI's they pass out a speaker survey.

I really like this idea. I am also the Web Designer and Acting PRO for District48.org. As such, I do an email newsletter to our entire membership of over 2200 members and 130 clubs. I am going to put together a similar survey on our website to the VPPRs. This should provide some insights as well. Maybe you could ask your District leadership to do the same and we could collaborate on the findings?

At our spring TLI my audience was about 1/3 no site/not started, 1/3 have site but don't use and 1/3 use site and want to know more. This time I've decided to mostly ignore the no site/not started and focus on the others. I'm thinking my presentation may inspire that first third to get started. Almost as if I'm a 'commercial' for FTH.

I only had 9 people in my session so it is hard to make generalizations from that session. Feel free to send those people over to my YouTube playlist.

I have tweaked my presentation quite a bit since giving the recorded session. I am giving the talk again on this Saturday and will be videoing it as well. Hopefully, I can stop saying "Okay" this time. I also changed the slides around a little and added pictures of the various other settings.

I am also doing the talk again at the Spring Conference in May. I think that I am going to add a second session on "Getting Free Toast Host to The Next Level" and get more in depth on best practices, using iframes, and similar topics.

Thanks Rob for the use of your FTH (pptx). I used them for District 58 TLI in Charleston 2-9-2013. I modified the presentation and concentrated on setting up and using FTH. Since I had internet connection I was able to use a live site to demonstrate site use. i did direct the class to your download page. I also incorporated some of Brad Smith's information.

Ike Archibald
District 58 Area 14 Governor

Thanks. Great TLI-Survey. We used it for the Charleston TLI 2-9-2013. You should receive the forms.
Dolphin Toastmasters, N. Charleston, SC | #3170

The District 58 (South Carolina) Winter TLI survey results are in!

I asked TLI attendees some questions about FreeToastHost. Most questions circle around what do they already know about FTH and in what method would they like to learn more.

Of all the attendees 42 turned in this survey. Line sum totals are the number who checked yes to each statement.

I've included the results below. Should you want to explore in a bit more details checkout the PDF attachment. In the attachment each respondent is represented by a vertical column. I have this in XL flavor but am having trouble post the file to this forum - msg me if you want it.

Prettier when formatted. Huh?


Some trends:

• Clubs tend to be in two distinct groups: Either use FTH actively or have not requested/setup site.
• In-person learning formats are collectively the most preferred method.
• Seems to be a strong eagerness to do more with the site but users are unsure what is available.
• Dues management is a feature with little awareness.
• Moderate interest in social media and embedding videos.

Results...

Which features are you already aware FreeToastHost can do for your club?
28  Give your club an Internet presence.
22  Post a map and directions to your meeting location for visitors.
26  Members can signup for agenda roles for upcoming meetings.
20  Email agendas to members showing who is signed up for which role.
23  Track which member is in which officer position.
10  Track dues payments for each member.
09  Email dues reminders to members.
11  Log speech history for each member.
12  Log role history for each member.
09  Generate reports showing speech and role history for each member.
11  Print a signup sheet showing who is already signed up for upcoming meeting roles.

How does your club use the FreeToastHost website platform?
11  We do not currently use FreeToastHost but would like to.
05  We do not use FreeToastHost and do not plan to use it.
01  We use FreeToastHost but think we want to switch to something else.
01  We are having trouble requesting our FreeToastHost website.
11  We setup our FreeToastHost website but have not yet added our own content.
15  We have a FreeToastHost website and our club uses it successfully.

If you would like help, what is your preferred assistance method?
10  TLI Presentation (just like the super awesome one I just attended. Brad rocks! He is the best).
09  FreeToastHost support site - discussion forum with other users
08  FreeToastHost support site - documentation guides
03  In-person workshop - lecture format (take notes, do it myself later)
10  In-person workshop - bring my laptop (work on it in a classroom format)
15  Screencast video tutorials (work at your own pace... pause, rewind)
01  10-person group video chat (Google Hangout)

The district would like every club to have a website. What are your needs to get your club online?
03  We don't know where to start. How do I get a FreeToastHost site?
04  Thanks but no assistance is needed. Our club is successfully online. Happy where we are.
15  I want to do more with our FreeToastHost site but not sure what is out there.

What changes would most improve FreeToastHost?

• Rather than download/print the meeting role sign-up history, I'd prefer to be able to create an online interactive spreadsheet as I can in Google docs
• Member management
• What about a person who holds more than one office. Can't do it.
• Make the site more friendly for users and making changes.
• I am not familiar with it but I will look into it when I go home
• Not sure at this time
• Automatic notifications sent to selected officers/TMOD when a member signs up or decommits from a role.
• Email notifications to VPE & TM when someone modifies the agenda
• Still learning all the benefits
• Notification when member changes the agenda
• As VPE I use club scheduler to assign meeting roles. I've found volunteering for roles doesn't work as well as assigning roles.

Thinking outside the box, which of these is your club interested?
07  Learn about setting up a YouTube channel.
09  Learn about setting up a Facebook page.
02  Learn about setting up a FourSquare page.
00  Learn about setting up a Google+ Plus places page.
07  Add YouTube videos to our FreeToastHost website.
12  Add Google analytics to track visitor stats (new vs returning visitors, duration, pages viewed)