If you need urgent support, call 999 or go to your nearest A&E. To contact our Crisis Messenger (open 24/7) text THEMIX to 85258.
Options
Making TheSite.org more visible outside the YouthNet network.
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
in General Chat
Hi guys,
I'm posting this because I'm being held hostage at YouthNet HQ by Helen...
OR because I am part of the TheSite.org Leaders project, which some of you may know about already. For those that don't - the Leaders project is run by YouthNet (who run TheSite.org, as well as the site do-it.org (the largest national database of volunteering opportunities!)) to allow young people to give views and feedback on the content of TheSite.
This post in particular is to get feedback from the whole community regarding the visibility of TheSite.org outside of YouthNet and their network (i.e. TheSite's Facebook and Twitter, the Leaders network, and the YouthNet run sites). What we would really like to know is how we can make TheSite and its content more widespread and well-known to the WHOLE OF THE INTERNETZ.
What are your views on this? What we'd really like to know first of all is whether or not you use other, similar communities or are a part of other sites where promotion (whether blatant or just posting a link from here to support a post) of TheSite.org would be possible, and whether liaison between the two communities would be welcomed. The flip side is also true - do you know of places we should avoid approaching in this capacity?
Secondly, we'd like to know how you would recommend us promoting ourselves as a community. Have you recommended TheSite to your friends? Have you used it when writing on other sites or communities? Do you think it would be useful for us to advertise TheSite in (for example) newspapers or in high-profile environments such as YouTube or Facebook? What do you think the most effective advertising medium would be for promoting a community like ours?
Any feedback you can give on the subject of promoting TheSite would be really appreciated and means we can provide feedback to the staff at YouthNet and the Leaders network.
Thanks guys
Franki
(and Sophie)
(No, really though. Helen is keeping me hostage. HELP!)
I'm posting this because I'm being held hostage at YouthNet HQ by Helen...
OR because I am part of the TheSite.org Leaders project, which some of you may know about already. For those that don't - the Leaders project is run by YouthNet (who run TheSite.org, as well as the site do-it.org (the largest national database of volunteering opportunities!)) to allow young people to give views and feedback on the content of TheSite.
This post in particular is to get feedback from the whole community regarding the visibility of TheSite.org outside of YouthNet and their network (i.e. TheSite's Facebook and Twitter, the Leaders network, and the YouthNet run sites). What we would really like to know is how we can make TheSite and its content more widespread and well-known to the WHOLE OF THE INTERNETZ.
What are your views on this? What we'd really like to know first of all is whether or not you use other, similar communities or are a part of other sites where promotion (whether blatant or just posting a link from here to support a post) of TheSite.org would be possible, and whether liaison between the two communities would be welcomed. The flip side is also true - do you know of places we should avoid approaching in this capacity?
Secondly, we'd like to know how you would recommend us promoting ourselves as a community. Have you recommended TheSite to your friends? Have you used it when writing on other sites or communities? Do you think it would be useful for us to advertise TheSite in (for example) newspapers or in high-profile environments such as YouTube or Facebook? What do you think the most effective advertising medium would be for promoting a community like ours?
Any feedback you can give on the subject of promoting TheSite would be really appreciated and means we can provide feedback to the staff at YouthNet and the Leaders network.
Thanks guys
Franki
(and Sophie)
(No, really though. Helen is keeping me hostage. HELP!)
0
Comments
I know a while back Youthnet people went around universities or something and dropped off themed pint glasses and postcards etc and stuff. Anything like that directly targeting the target age group is welcome. Work permitting I'd happily get involved in being manpower for doing something like this.
I'll have a bit of a think about this and get back to you Franki.
I have recommended specific articles from TS to friends before and they have really benefitted from the info
I like G-Raffe's idea of targeting schools/colleges/unis and also would be prepared to give up the time (work and uni dependent) to help promote TS at my local schools/colleges/uni.
This is also a bit "outside the box" but you could also consider linking up with the Student Union's and College/Uni counselling services to promote TS. When I went to counselling I was given information about web forums but TS was never mentioned - I myself looked up some of the other forums that were mentioned; therefore, how many others have too but haven't heard of this one??
I'm sure I could think of some other ideas but thats all I can think of at the moment...!
As has been said, it would be a really good idea to promote thesite in universities and colleges. I think school would probably be a bit young, maybe workshops or something similar with just the last year i.e 15/16 year olds could work I guess.
I've had thesite mentioned to me on pretty much every occasion I've had support in the past three years. I was looking for work in Grimsby and a agency/charity that was helping me get into employment had thesite.org and do-it.org as resources - the first ones they signposted me to.
I've been given little postcards with thesite website on when I had counselling about 2+ years ago now. I've seen thesite mentioned in news stories from time to time as well. So it seems to me that the offline activities are working too.
As for 'social' advertising which is becoming more important the problem is that a lot of what is discussed or read about on thesite, is by nature personal. I have wrote in pretty much every testimonial for thesite ever, that the reason I like thesite, is its unlinked from my personal life. Obviously there is some crossover, people I know on the boards I know in real life and vice versa. But, for example, none of my uni friends, none of my friends from home, none of my work colleagues know about this.
I would say that since the traffic through to thesite is probably already pretty good (you guys would know better), what you need, is a reason for people to stay. Moneysavingexpert.com, for example, has an email campaign they run every week with the best deals on it. The 24 hour chat room suggested by Megan again would be another idea to keep people lurking about, although obviously creates more issues. Competitions, events, giveaways, new articles, focused discussions on said new articles etc. could be pushed out to try to include more people instead of the board regulars.
Just some thoughts anyway.
I have also recommended TS to friends and they have came back to me and told me that they have really found it so helpful, and found the information that they have needed. And would use TS again.
When my little sister is older (9 at the minute) I will be recommending TS to her, it's awesome
I would love to get involved with promoting TS at local schools, however I am really unsure how I could do that with work commitments, but I could try think of something
Also not sure it's been mentioned but maybe people putting links to TS on their personal Facebook accounts. This could be quite a good idea as many young people have other young people on their Facebook, so maybe they could need TS but not necessarily know how to access it. But if other YP post links on their own Facebook it could be more approachable for YP to get that support. (Hope that makes some sense)
You have a very active Twitter account, and a widely-read blog...
Take right now for example - 'There are currently 2973 users online. 37 members and 2936 guests' Just look at that. The problem isn't that there aren't enough people coming here but that something is going wrong somewhere to stop them becoming members. Maybe they've stopped by just to have a nosey but we want them to think 'I want to be a member here' instead of 'that was helpful, i'm glad'.
*shrugs* maybe the christmas thing we'll have going on will get people interested
I've noticed thesite has really good presence on google searches and I think thesite having it's own facebook page and youtube is a really good idea. I think thesite may have done this before but documentaries, particularly those on bbc3 about real life isues made by young people seem to be really popular at the moment. I'm not sure if there's any scope to work more with these documentary makers. I can imagine thesite's input would be really valid and it might increase awareness of thesite's existence.
As for advertising thesite and youthnet more at sixth forms and colleges. I would have welcomed knowing more about a website like this. And probably would have felt secretly smug about already being a member
Seriously though, I think the site already does pretty well when it comes to search engines. The amount of times i've run a search through google and the site pop up within the first ten results is incredible.