In Spring 2010, the Arab American Institute (AAI) hired Hotspot to provide consultation on the development of its new website and on its overall online communications strategy. Hotspot quickly became very involved in design and information architecture consultation. AAI suffered from many of the same challenges that other small nonprofits face; there were limited human resources to deploy to web strategies and data management. A new strategy was required. Hotspot offered key strategies for email, social networking and blogging to attempt to put the organization on a new course with its online strategy. It currently is too early to see many results as the site has been up less than 60 days, but we have seen strong growth of more than 50% on AAI’s Facebook page. The positive work that Hotspot has performed on AAIs site led Jim Zogby, President of AAI, to hire Hotspot to provide consultation for the online strategy surrounding his upcoming book, Arab Voices.
AAI represents the policy and community interests of Arab Americans throughout the United States and strives to promote Arab American participation in the U.S. electoral system. The Institute focuses on two areas: campaigns and elections and policy formation and research. AAI strives to serve as a central resource to government officials, the media, political leaders and community groups on a variety of public policy issues that concern Arab Americans and U.S.–Arab relations.