Monday, March 8, 2010

Friends, Fans, Followers and Subscribers on the Rise

So an update on how we're working to build community at The Rambler. Part of my strategic plan for the next few years is to increase our web presence. To that end, the students have created a YouTube channel, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter sites, with more in the works. We also signed an agreement with College Publisher to host our web site, which is going all right. Could be better, could be worse.

As part of the service provided by College Publisher, there is a news digest that can be sent to members who sign up. In the past couple of weeks, we've had an all out push to increase those numbers. First, students and professional staffers have been using their Facebook and Twitter feeds to point people in the direction of The Rambler online, www.therambler.org and one of its many social networking sites.

Next, an email was sent campuswide to all students, inviting them to sign up for the news digest. The results, a 100% increase in registered users in the week following the campuswide email.

A story appeared in the campus internal email newsletter, and a slight increase in users followed.

For Facebook, etc., The Rambler has sent invitations to members and sent links to other Texas Wesleyan entities to belong. Our followers, friends and fans are increasing steadily.

Next is this blog, and the entire time, we have been running a 1/4 page advertisement in the printed edition of The Rambler to encourage new friends, fans, followers, and subscribers.

We're continuing our onslaught of the campus community on a weekly basis, and now we're about to expand into the alumni realm. An update on that strategy for next edition.