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> Mark Rushton 13-2-99: > > >As an IPE, I feel frustrated at Chebucto's almost nonexistent public > >image. What P.R. tools do we have? Brochures? Pamphlets? What's > >our method for reaching out to the community that sees Sympatico as > >the only onramp worth looking at? Peter Morgan 14-2-99: > Mark, these are all true statements. However, we are extremelylimited in > what our resources can do. I think we provide a remarkable service. Rather > than asking "where is the brochure?" I'd attend a communications committee > meeting or mail Sue Newhook, the committee chair and ask what the >status is. let me save Mark the trouble... As w/ Mark's earlier caveats, please excuse me if this sounds brusque @ any point. (NB if ccn-ip wants "freenets du jour" let me know--but at this rate your inbox may explode...) This is similar to separate conversations I had last week and I'm glad to have the chance to broaden it. You will note there are lots of <returns> in this doc so you can drop in your comments more easily. =========================== What PR tools *do* we have? It depends (as Mark wd know far better than I, w/his experience in this area) on whommm we want to talk to. I agree--who wouldn't--that we have an almost non-existent public image. So......................... Why is that the case? (please be brief...) What "public image" do we want? Who doesn't know about us--or know enough about us? Who should be first to know more? --Students? --The unemployed? --At-home moms? --Seniors? --Non-profit and not-for-profit community groups? --bureaucrats, politicians, opinion-makers and govt grant-hander-outers? --media? --small business types? --big companies/possible corporate sponsors/partners? --other gps and indiv's who aren't IPs yet and could/should be? --Our own members and users? --The people involved w/ our own IP's who aren't actually IPE's? And what do we want a "public image" to yield? More users? more members? (we know--alas-- there are far more users than members. But maybe that's a good thing IFFFF they're *all* people who can't afford to pay at all? Hands up who believes that...) more sponsors? govt support? more IP's? more visitors to CCN and its IPs' sites? Of course we can say yes to all of those, but we *cannot* do it all at once... The question is, what do we do first and most profitably (in terms of yield on our time and effort)? In my view, the single best, first focus is current members and IPs. And I don't think we're doing as good a job as we could/should/must of communicating with them right now. If we can hold on to what we've got...we'll be doing better than most of the community nets I've found!... and more importantly getting the best bang for our (virtual) buck... because: --it's easier to keep people than to recruit new people; --it's easier to keep people from leaving than trying to get them back; --the people we keep are our best PR resource (or should be; I'll get to that in a sec); --people who leave are our weakest PR link. ============================== I'm really (x 10) glad that these conversations have landed in ccn-ip. Our IPs should be our most important ambassadors. They are a reachable and valuable--no, invaluable-- "PR resource." but I'm given to understand that at some agencies, only the editor knows much--or anything--about Chebucto. Is this true? If so what can we do about it? Would brochures and pamphlets help IP Editors tell others in their IP agencies--NSCUBA, Writers' Fed., Transit 2 (who are...?) et al--who we are, what we offer etc? What do we want to tell them? WHy do we care if they know about us? So they'll join up as individuals? ================================== Current individual users and members: How do we get at them? How can we improve their sense of belonging to something?...because they don't have one. How do we get more users to become members? (ref Pt. 1 rant on "free") How do we create a sense of contact? (Please remember the time and mailouts and phone calls and home userhelp visits take. ) ========================== And what about the libraries? Has anyone looked at the Cdn. Library Association Study findings re: PATs? Who's using the PATs in HRM libraries? Calgary Community Net (see Freenet du Jour) seems to know who's using theirs. Do we? Do the librarians know enough about us?--Michael, Joyline, others--your thoughts on this? How can we help the librarians? What do we want from them? =================================== Excellent existing "PR resources" --The Beacon. Are people reading it? Yes. Are you? Why or why not? Are you contributing to it in big or little bits? Prob. no. Why or why not? How can we support/improve/expand the reach of the Beacon? --Places on CCN that are more interactive than basic websites... mailing lists and newsgroups we host, e.g. modem-moms (the only one I know of but I know there are more?what are they?) How can we tap into and publicize these resources? 'Scuse me. That's gibberish jargon..What I mean is: What can we do for them? What can they do for us? --IP sites.Does Every one have a link to the CCN home page? --what else? ===================================== more to come Sue
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