.orgSource helps the American Society of
Anesthesiologists by Redesigning and Realigning its
Website
Redesign and realign
The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) is the
professional society of physicians who raise and maintain the
standards of the medical practice of anesthesiology and improve the
care of their patients. The organization's most recent brand
campaign produced this tagline: Physicians providing the
lifeline of modern medicine. The Society needed to make sure that
this message was widely communicated to both the public and its
members. Also, its online presence was not emblematic of the vital
role the ASA plays in the advancement of anesthesiology care and
practice.
.orgSource was brought in to:
- Assist the ASA develop a website that would be a primary
communication vehicle to key constituents.
- Make sure a new site promoted the ASA brand among key
stakeholders, establishing it as THE resource for information
pertaining to anesthesiology treatments and practice.
- Ensure that the site supported membership and educational
initiatives.
- Provide ASA members with a more user-friendly and interactive
experience.
- Expand and update pertinent content for members and other key
target audiences.
- Build an online community for members to collaborate and share
knowledge.
- Evaluate its overall member communications and electronic
messaging strategies.
The Results
.orgSource began the process by presenting the Society with an
overview of a Web strategy. Explaining that a large part of the
strategy must be about building the ASA brand, engaging
constituents, improving member loyalty and enabling users to taking
action. Organizational goals needed to be at the root of the
strategy. By going through a series of telephone interviews with
leadership, then an online survey of the entire membership,
.orgSource was able to determine perceptions and usage habits of
members. .orgSource measured not only online experiences, but
conducted an overall member communications audit for the ASA as
well. This was a critical component in order to determine what
communication vehicles were working well and which ones were not as
effective. The Society wanted to move forward with new
e-communication vehicles, yet alter or eliminate ones that were not
working.
"The communications audit .orgSource provided to ASA was
invaluable in shaping our communication efforts with our
membership. With their guidance and keen eye, we were able to
use the results to maximize our efforts and enhance our current
communications. .orgSource gave us the perspective we needed
to move forward with our membership recruitment and retention
strategies for years to come." says Dawn Glossa, Director of
Communications and Marketing.
It was also necessary to obtain highly active volunteer
feedback, as part of the project was to build a place online where
such members could engage others (committees, blogs, etc).
Extensive work was done with the ASA committees and one recurring
theme was that the website was outdated and that the search engine
was not effective. Basically, members could not find things easily
on the ASA website, thereby causing frustration and steered them
away from the site … the exact opposite of what the ASA
desired.
.orgSource assisted in vendor selection for a new infrastructure
for the Society as well as a complete with an overhaul of the
information architecture and taxonomy. Additional content was
written specifically for the ASA website.
.orgSource also presented the ASA with an overall digital
strategy, which included the framework for online professional
communities in which members could easily engage one another. Of
all the findings that .orgSource was able to share with the ASA,
one that rang out loudly was that ASA members are mobile (as
physicians, they are not often behind desks or at personal
computers); this meant finding a way to create a presence that was
easily accessible from PDAs or laptops. ASA projects have focused
on mobile accessibility.
The new site will clearly communicate the value of ASA
membership by presenting an image that differntiates itself from
its competitors.
It will also build community among members by providing an
environment conducive to collaboration through implementation of
appropriate tools
The first phase of the website will launch October of 2010.