Running an on line campaign
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2006-11-27 07:44:13 - Graham EllisOne of the topics that came up over Geekmas (about which I could post a lot more!) was the running of a successful on line campaign.
Ah - now I will be the first to admit that our "Save the Train" campaign has NOT been 100% successful in that we haven't achieved our ultimate goal of saving the train (always knew it was something that we had a very limited chance with only) but never the less we've got huge interest, huge exposure, questions being asked at Westminster, local press looking to us for answers on anything train related, MP wannabes and present and other senior politicians on side. So we have had quite an element of success.
So - talking with Dan yesterday concerning a new / revamped web site to provide support and help, and to campaign for recognition, for Neuroblastoma - a rare and usually fatal childhood cancer - I felt we could offer some pointers. Some "do as we did" and others "we could have done this better". What did we come up with?A Dynamic front page - one that changes, at least in pictures, every day or two - make it more interesting for people coming back. Page to include:
- A Message of the day / stop press box
- Common navigation to 5 to 10 top topcs
- Date and time that the page was accessed
- Contact details so that people can get support or give money
A handful of pages on background topics - most of the 5 to 10 pages that I've described in the paragraph above, most with dynamic pictures, all with the stoppress box. "What is Neuroblastoma". "Where can I get more information", "Where can I get support", "How Can I help?". AND ALSO ... a search and navigate the forum page, via .html URLs so that it becomes a growing resources written by the people with the most experience - those going through Neuroblastoma.
A forum - an area for anyone to read, and for people (once registered) to chat and contribute. KISS - Keep it Simple, Stupid. Just half a dozen different areas and not a frightening array.
- Notices
- Introduce and chat
- Technical issues on Neuroblastoma
- Neuroblastoma help and support
- fund-raising, meetings and calendar
- Help and support on the use of this board.
Blog feeds page - a lot of people with children going through Neuroblastoma write blogs - keep a page of feeds of some top current blogs on the topic. Probably don't host the blogs on the site, as you want to be able to gently skip pass by a feed if the author is in such a crisis point that they've stopped writing for a few days.
Mailing list and Paypal contribute pages Discussion here on how frequently to mail people (max 6 times a year?) and how much personal information to ask for. Delicate topic but so useful for targeted support.
What's the URL, I hear you ask! Well - Dan will be registering a new one and I'll come back and tell you what that is later. For the moment, have a look here and here. Both of these domains will compliment the new one, with (planned) many crosslinks to that they'll help each other in ranking, traffic, and in the support they can offer.
Good luck, Dan - I hope this "brain dump" of mine from yesterday afternoon helps you. And good luck in your Marathon run too.