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Many associations, businesses, and other organizations are finding the web to be an outstanding tool for communicating with their members and clients. Unfortunately, if used ineffectively, an advocacy website can simply become a high-priced spam generator. Make sure your site is the former, not the latter.

In particular, a website can be a highly effective tool for providing detailed information on the organization’s policy perspective, as well as helpful tips and techniques on communicating this perspective to opinion leaders and elected officials. And with the wide-availability of information available over the web, these sites can be developed without expensive database programs and other materials.

At AdVanced Consulting, we have extensive knowledge of the resources available on the web, as well as already published content on effective communications techniques (available in “Government by the People: How to Communicate with Congress”). We can design a truly effective site for your organization that will serve as a one-stop shop for people seeking to learn more about your organization’s policy positions, and communicate about them effectively.

Outlined below are two website formats that can be adapted for your cause to serve as effective teaching and advocacy tools. One site is on Effective Communication, and one is on the Legislative Process.

Click here to see the Effective Communication demo page.

Effective Communication Website Outline Section One: Figuring Out What You Want – Resources
One to two paragraphs on why knowing what you want is important in terms of both determining you audience (i.e., federal agency? State? Congress?), as well as figuring out what kinds of things you can ask your elected officials to do. This section would include links to a variety of policy resources.

Section Two: Figuring Out Who to Talk To – Resources for identifying and learning about your elected officials
This section would start with one to two paragraphs on why constituency matters, why it’s important to know something about your elected officials before communicating with them, and what kinds of things are important to know. Incorporated within this section would be a “checklist” of items for users to know about their elected representatives.

This section would include links to resources on the web for finding local, state and federal elected officials as well as tutorials on finding politicians on the web, where to find out about the interests of elected officials, and descriptions of Committee and personal staff.

Section Three: Developing the Message
This section would include mainly instructional materials on how to develop a winning message, including choosing a method of communication, quality over quantity, and offering to be a resource.

Section Four: Delivering the Message
Under Section four, there could be separate pages for effective meetings, effective phone calls, and effective written materials (including letters, faxes and e-mails). In general, this section would provide information on message delivery tips taken from “Government by the People: How to Communicate with Congress”. Some of the links that would be incorporated in this section (either in the general page or under the specific sub-pages) include online courses on writing elected officials, online advocacy links, and phone, address and e-mail directories.

Section Five: Legislative Process
This section would provide a quick overview of legislative process with extensive links to useful resources such as online courses, manuals on legislative procedure, and a glossary of legislative terms.

Section Six: Other Resources
This section would include additional links to interesting and informative sites, such as politicsonline.com, politics.com, allpolitics.com, etc. Your members or clients can even propose additional sites for inclusion in this section.

Chat rooms, discussion boards, and online conferencing capabilities can be added to this section or throughout the site.

Legislative Process Page
The page would include links to existing resources on the web that provide an overview of the legislative process, such as “How a Bill Becomes a Law” from Learn2.com or the House of Representatives manual on legislative procedure, as well as separate sections on: Bill drafting and introduction (House and Senate), Committee consideration (House and Senate), Scheduling for the House floor (including House rules committee consideration, the various methods for bringing a bill to the floor, how to influence the scheduling process, special procedures for budget bills, etc.), Senate floor consideration (including unanimous consent agreements, filibusters, the hold process, etc.), Conference committee consideration and amendments between the houses, Considering the conference report on the floor and, The presidential signature / veto process.