Selina
July 27, 2013 9:14 AM
Advertising and new authors by Selina
Dear all,I wanted to open up a discussion on how we advertise and what we do to encourage new authors to stay. As I created an ff account to do advertising last time, I have some numbers. I left 74 reviews (I had a lot of free time), not to mention what anyone else did. This attracted 13 new writers (based on names where I don't know who the author is). 5 showed up and actually posted. Only 2 have posted in the latter half of term one.
I don't want to drag anyone down, or undermine the effort anyone put in to advertising or posting with new authors, as I know people did a lot on both of these counts. Sadly, in spite of everyone's best efforts, it doesn't seem to have worked out, and I feel we need to have a think about whether there is more we can do in either of these areas.
Advertising
I've found that having a registered account was useful, in that several people messaged me to clarify things about the site, which then made them confident enough to sign up.
I do also have some ideas about increasing advertising volume but most would only be applicable if we did something from the section below...
Keeping people
Sadly, we probably can't get much info on why the people who don't show up don't, or why those who leave do, as they aren't around. So, unless we emailed out surveys, I'm not sure what we could do. I feel, therefore, like our best bet is to give people some kind of feedback and something to get stuck into as soon as they've applied. If someone gets a review and applies now, it's going to be about nine weeks before they get any kind of feedback on that, and ten before they're supposed to do anything with that character. I'm sure most of us remember the enthusiasm and utter disorganisation with which we applied for our first characters – they will probably barely remember anything about them by that point, and thus be uncertain and unmotivated about posting them.
I can think of two options for this... One would be to have a mailing list, rather than get people to send applications at this stage, then send a mail out say... three weeks before term to get people to apply. The other option, and they are not mutually exclusive, would be to have some kind of sandbox for new authors or something else for them to do, and for acceptance letters to be sent out straight away, even if it's without a house. I'd really like people's thoughts on what this resource could contain.
I also think we could poll the new authors who have stuck around – perhaps anyone who has their first character in the current year 1-3, to see what they like about the site, what they feel could be improved and whether there is anything else they would have liked as a new first year to help them get into the site.
Staff roles
I'm aware that these ideas add work to the site, and that Kiva is already over stretched. I did wonder whether it would be worth identifying some OOC staff roles, e.g. firstie officer, advertising organiser etc. These jobs would be a specific list of tasks for which the person is responsible. They could be applied for and resigned independently of IC staff positions – e.g. I could apply for one but then, if I feel I don't have time to do extra but could still keep my classes up, I could resign my OOC duties and someone else could apply for them, whilst still keeping Selina as the Transfiguration Professor.
Please contribute to this discussion, as I think we all need to put our heads together and work on this.
Selina
Subthreads: My input by Seth with professor chambers, Lydia
Re: Advertising and new authors by Headmistress Kijewski-Jareau with Seth, Selina
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Selina
Advertising and new authors
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Seth
July 28, 2013 10:01 AM
My input by Seth
I like the ideas about the sandbox and mailing list, though I am not entirely sure how they would work. And definitely, I love the idea of sending out letters quickly, though I do see how that could add additional work to the Headmistress. I'd actually be willing to help send them out, except obviously I can't do the Sorting so I don't know if that would work either.However, if the Sortings are done early, we can also encourage new people to come into Chatzy and speak with us and ask questions. As well as see that Sonora is a genuinely accepting welcoming place. Maybe we can even help encourage further development of their characters by talking to them.
Meanwhile, I will keep advertising the traditional way, and have started adding that people can ask question they have on the OOC board or email the site.
Another thing we can do is assign "buddies" to new authors/characters. Where an old author helps them out. If done IC, it could be done by prefects, Head Students and if needed, volunteers.
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Seth
My input
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Headmistress Kijewski-Jareau
August 02, 2013 5:27 PM
Re: Advertising and new authors by Headmistress Kijewski-Jareau
I know how hard and frustrating it is to advertise with so many potential authors and only find a handful of them had applied to the site and even less post or stay. This past term, with your OOC posts, I had sent out emails to the new authors prior to sorting to allow them some time to get acquainted with how posting works and their characters.No one posted.
I have a potential new author for the new term who has been emailing me. I'm hoping that she will work with us on whatever it is that we decide or help us better understand what we could do to draw people in since she has fresh eyes, she might see something that we cannot.
Still, the sandbox might work, but I'm not going to sort people earlier than I have been. If I have to email them twice as I did for this term, I'll make the time. I'm always hopeful, but I maintain a realistic view of things.
Any help though from the staff as a whole once people are here would be great. I have to play bad guy sometimes, so I have a feeling some of the new authors might not be keen of receiving help from me either IC or OOC. Assigning staff roles to work them through it might help them feel comfortable with someone. Sort of like a mentor.
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Headmistress Kijewski-Jareau
Re: Advertising and new authors
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Headmistress Kijewski-Jareau
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Seth
August 03, 2013 8:21 AM
Re: Advertising and new authors by Seth
Obviously I think the mentor one is a good one and am willing to help do that. I also think that if we get more new people then are on staff, we might want to ask other old authors to volunteer. Especially people who have been at Sonora awhile as obviously there's something they like here. I mean, there are nine staff members and I optimistically hope more people apply, show up and stay, which means either doubling up or asking people not on staff for help.
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Seth
Re: Advertising and new authors
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professor chambers
August 04, 2013 9:49 PM
I like your input by professor chambers
I like the idea of a buddy or mentor program to help out new authors...it shows support for both the new authors and for sonora. I wouldn't mind being a buddy or mentor if it helps.
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professor chambers
I like your input
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professor chambers
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Selina
August 05, 2013 1:04 PM
Re: Advertising and new authors by Selina
I know you sent extra emails for that and really appreciated you doing it. I'm hoping that if we modify the way we do it, it might be more successful - maybe if we had a specific space and encouraged people to access it straight away (i.e. from the moment they are reviewed), that would help.In terms of what it could contain, I think if we had the class and social tutorials from last year on it, and then just made it a board that new people were free to use? All existing authors could also have permission to post there, to ensure that people are getting frequent replies. The only issue I can think of with that is whether it would be confusing once they start as they will think they've already met people... However, it's probably the easiest way to set it up to start with, and we can troubleshoot that bug later if it comes up.
We could also have it that people don't have to have applied to use that space. So, when leaving reviews, people could be encouraged to send an application or to use the sandbox to get to know the site and help them make that decision.
If you would like me to put together a brief survey for new authors (i.e. ones with their first character in years 1-3), I'd be really happy to do that and it might be a good way to sound out various buddy system ideas, as I think it's a good one but that there are lots of ways of doing it.
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Selina
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Seth
August 10, 2013 12:12 AM