Lessons from PTA

It’s been a long time since I’ve blogged…the reasons are vast, but most revolve around a ramped-up PTA workload. We just finished our convention in San Diego, where I co-presented a workshop on “Websites That Work: Creating the Best Online Experience for Your Community.” Anyone interested in the materials can download them from www.pta.org by the end of the week.

The lesson I tried to impart on the attendees was that PTAs have an opportunity to become true community resources—not just repositories of information about the PTA itself, but a resource to help parents with their lives. Without getting into details, I was pushing the Newspaper Next “Jobs to be Done” idea.

I felt an ambitious local PTA could easily establish a website that fulfilled certain needs for information. I used this example: In every single community I’ve ever lived in, I have never found a central resource of contact information for all the government officials who represented me. I had to produce the list myself, referring to half a dozen different sources. A PTA—or any other organized group or individual—could do this easily. They would be one step closer to being a sought-after information resource…one step closer than, say, the local paper or radio station.

Much of the talk surrounding PTA communications was the same as with any other group catering to an audience. Print is old school. People want information delivered electronically. I had a long conversation with a woman who no longer reads newspapers. She gets all of her information and news online. She is not a Gen Xer—she’s in the generation that provides the bulk of newspaper readership now.

While I am not involved with the newspaper industry as I was with Inland, readership is still a priority for me. I still have readers and their needs must be fulfilled. So I have applied the same readership knowledge I learned in work with newspapers to my products targeting parents and PTA leaders.

We are redesigning and revamping both print and online products. We are integrating them both to supply readers/users with what they want when they want it. We are exploring social networking to continue pushing our information to those who seek it.

This is our strategy. Will it work?