Long time readers of this blog know that when it comes to private advocacy, I preach the gospel of learning to run a business. I know – it seems counter-intuitive sometimes. But it’s true; that being a successful business owner is often less about being good at the core business, products and services one offers, and more about practicing good business tenets.
So, I have spent the last week leading by example. And today, I am so very ready to get back to working with advocates instead!
APHA Members may remember the announcement a few months ago:
That the world of the web was getting ready for a seismic shift, and that any business with a website needed to sit up and pay attention. That is, that search engine behemoth google was getting ready to penalize websites that it did not consider to be “mobile-friendly.”
Like we needed one other pressure to keep up!
For you, the private advocate, we provided you with tools to assess whether you needed to make changes… we then proceeded to assess our own APHA and advocacy-related websites and found that not one of them – literally – was considered by google to be mobile-friendly. Not one.
And so – it was time to focus on the business of making sure our members, and our patient and caregiver searchers, would be better served by bowing to Google’s requirements and redeveloping all our websites to be mobile-friendly – all 7 of them.
Today’s update regards the two most important ones – now updated, mobile-friendly (also called “responsive” – meaning – they respond to the size of the screen on which they are being viewed: computer monitor, or phone or tablet, or even a watch!)
The new AdvoConnection site was launched almost two months ago: www.AdvoConnection.com As the vehicle for matching patients and caregivers to the advocates who can help them, it took priority – it’s about that connection.
Today we announce the update and relaunch of the APHA site – well, at least part of it!
There are two major parts of the APHA site. The meat of the site is the hundreds of resources and pieces of information we offer to members – the area a member finds after he or she logs in. Except for the normal, and constant updates through additions of new resources, there is no change to this part of the site. You’ll find once you log in, that it looks and behaves just the same. (We honestly don’t care WHAT google thinks about it!)
But the public face, from the homepage, through the explanation of membership benefits, to the applications for new members – those are all updated. You can see the new homepage from here: www.APHAdvocates.org
Yes – there are still a number of loose ends we must tie up, which we’ll do over the next few weeks. Bear with us please! Once we feel like we’ve completed the clean up, we’ll invite feedback for problems you may still find.
Onward. We still have three more of the APHA sites that need updating… and we do so not just to march to google’s huge, swinging, sharpened axe (no business can afford to anger the google gods!). We do so because we believe in what we preach: that taking care of the business of being in business is just as important to our business health as serving our clients – you!
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