Webmaster | American Legion District 22, Texas

Traditional media outlets remain strong, but most people currently serving in the U.S. military do not know of life before the Internet. Young people often learn how to text message before they are taught cursive handwriting. Many base newspapers folded years ago. TV and radio remain popular, but streaming services are gaining troves of subscribers. For the latest news, people pull out their smartphones and visit their favorite websites.

Whether your goal is to recruit new members or to advance a policy position, a vibrant website can be the town square of your communication village. If you don’t know how to build a website, that’s OK. Some posts have relied on the skills of teenaged children or grandchildren of members. Building a website could be a great project for a student intern or outsourced at a reasonable price.

One option popular among American Legion posts, districts and departments is legionsites.com. Established in 2004, Legionsites.com has templates that are conducive to American Legion operations. It is affordable, easy to use and professional in appearance.

Other popular website builders are GoDaddy, Wix and Weebly. Your builder can often provide email accounts connected with the domain name. For instance, The American Legion National Headquarters website is legion.org. Email addresses at National Headquarters all include the domain name@legion.org.

Names are important. The Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is the website address. When it comes to domains and URLs, go simple. American Legion Post 28 in Millsboro, Del., can be found at www.alpost28.com. The website address for the Department of Texas is txlegion.org. A URL should not be difficult to remember. It is not the place for complicated terms or language that would not be easily associated with the name of the place one is searching.

Ideally, an American Legion homepage will have easy-to-find tabs to join, renew memberships and donate to programs. It will include recent news announcements pertaining to the post or veterans community as well as information about recent and upcoming activities.

A good website will also have contact information so visitors can easily communicate with post leaders. It will have compelling photographs and visuals. Remember, an American Legion website can be accessed worldwide. It is about as public as can be. Do not post images or content you would not want reported on page 1 of The New York Times. It just may be.

Some information, such as the biography of your post’s namesake or the history of its founding, can be unchanging. But most material on your website should be updated frequently.

For many visitors, your post’s homepage will be their very first impression of The American Legion. If it includes “announcements” of events that occurred 10 months earlier, the message conveyed is that the post is inactive.

Keep in mind that many visitors will be viewing the website from their smartphones. Too many competing elements on a page will not only aggravate readers but will cause your most important objectives to be lost.

Your website can also be integrated with, and promoted by, an e-newsletter. An e-newsletter has many advantages over a traditional or paper newsletter. Content can be quickly updated and forwarded. If the content is good, the list of subscribers will grow substantially and enhance your ability to magnify your messaging and influence.

The most successful websites not only help a post or American Legion department achieve some of their top objectives, but they can be revenue-generators through online advertising. First, you have to create the traffic. That traffic can be caused by an accident, or it can be the result of providing a destination worth visiting. If you achieve the latter, your American Legion post can reap many rewards.