For this week’s continuation assignment, I will address questions raised from week 8, and I will further explain my proposal.
First, my responses to questions from my week 8 post:
First, what will be in it for young alumni to participate? How will their involvement be incented? Encouraged?
Like any online forum, there won’t be any outward incentive to participate. Compelling content will be the main attraction, in addition to the social networking options available. I expect this feature to be heavy on viral marketing – I intend to exploit facebook and myspace alumni groups to both promote and solicit content. Whether in contributing their own content or just readinig, I expect alumni to keep up with this feature because of the content and because of the opportunities to share in common experiences with other alumni. I talked a lot about promotion in my week 8 post: I hope to promote this feature through the General Alumni Association as well as facebook and myspace. I expect young alumni to be aware of the platform, and we’ll work to demystify the entire concept to encourage submissions as well as to attract readers. This isn’t going to be a passive reading experience as led by one person. This will be a dynamic arena for young alumni to share in their experiences together. I see it as a more centralized, professional facebook experience.
You mention that in your target audience the diversity is “even more unique” online. I didn’t catch what is unique about the audience offline. You mention percentages, but is this breakdown unique? Do you mean unique from general interest sites? Or unique within academia? And how is it yet more unique online?
I mean that the audience of the dailytarheel.com comes from all over. Referrers originate from some 25+ countries and every state in the U.S. While this aspect of online readership is common, I believe the diversity is even stronger with the DTH Web site, because of the alumni factor. People associate dailytarheel.com, like www.unc.edu, with their alma mater and they visit the sites with increasing regularity to “keep up.” The emergence of RSS and mobility, as well as the greater investment of both the University and the DTH in their online operations also has provided a boost in general traffic.
Using DTH blogs as examples, you see you will have to promote effectively and develop better content. I wonder if even those steps would significantly boost DTH blog traffic. Isn’t it possible people just don’t look to a campus paper for that kind of content? IT’s worth asking.
I think this is a valid point, which is why I propose the external partnerships I do. Facebook, www.unc.edu.edu – these will be vital to the success of such an initiative. We can’t expect all our readership potential to be realized through promotion on JUST dailytarheel.com
For your FAQs, continue to flesh these out. And I strongly suggest using language regular people use. “Platform” is not one of these words. I can’t get too warm and fuzzy about my “platform” of choice. I dive off one; I launch rockets from one. I relate to communities of interest. If that makes sense.
Yep. These were a bit jargon-y, as I didn’t know if I was preparing them for you or for the actual audience. Look to my new detailed proposal for more questions, as well as the answers!
Online communities line this current media landscape. There are more than 1,000 “citizen journalism” Web sites in the United States. Millions of people rely on facebook.com and myspace.com for their social interactions. Social networking communities exist for photos, video, instant messaging – you name it. In this age of customization, people are forming communities based on similar interests and shared experiences. Our network will leverage this experience for UNC young alumni, a cohort that is very Web savvy and already accustomed to this sort of online experience.
The dailytarheel.com Web site will host this young alumni blog network. The DTH site usership has grown steadily in recent years, and alumni make up a strong percentage of that readership. Attracting existing readers to this new feature won’t be difficult, as the blog will be promoted heavily on the home page and will contain content of interest to readers. I won’t be the sole author. We will enable submissions as well as content from other alumni blogs and news centers. We’ll seek affiliations with facebook.com and myspace groups related to UNC alumni, as well as the University Web site and the General Alumni Association Web site. My own connections, as well as the DTH reputation, should make this easy. In the facebook arena, there are more than 39,000 users registered to UNC alumni groups. Connecting this audience with this new feature will be vital to its success. As I envision this blog operating similarly to a facebook news syndicate, we should be able to successfully piggyback on the facebook networks. We’ll also look to reverse publishing opportunities in both the DTH and the Carolina Alumni Review to promote content and the site itself.
The point of this site is to stimulate conversation about young alumni issues, as well as to create a network for UNC alums. Many young people move constantly after graduation, missing that strong toehold in their lives. This feature could be one anchor for their thoughts and experiences. Participation will be key, which is why the affiliations I mentioned will be so important. As the original proposal stated, I plan to have three to four original posts a week, PLUS all those contributions. A similar site I started in Brunswick County, NC, averages 15 submissions a day on myriad topics. I’d expect this site to exceed that, especially when factoring in content we will syndicate. Expanding the platform to include facebook-like functionality, as well as tagging, will improve the experience. The more interactive, the bigger the audience we’ll attract.
My posts will cover myriad subject matter. Some will be highly personal, including topics like I mentioned in last week’s post. There also will be an aggregate post feature on the site – “news that matters” to our audience in terms of a round-up of University news (as provided by the DTH) and alumni notes (as provided by the GAA). Guest posts and contributions also will run the gamut in terms of subject area. I envision posts covering everything from recent trip photos to personal commentaries on life. As successful citizen journalism Web sites and facebook-type networks have shown, diversity is key. Giving users as many tools as possible is key. This initiative should be successful in both of these ways.
Some expanded FAQs about the site:
What is the mission of this Web site?
The mission of The Young Alumni Network is to bring together recent alumni of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in discussions about life, common issues and experiences since graduation. This is an online network to read about young alumni news; to discuss common themes of post-college life; and to share news, photos and notes from your world. This is a place for young alumni to stay in touch with their alma mater and other alums. This is a place to stay connected.
How can I submit to this Web site?
Submitting to The Young Alumni Network is simple. You can contribute photos, words or commentary by just using our visitor submission form. You can also register an existing blog or RSS account to be updated on the Network. Or, you can simply use our tagging, comment and rate-it functions as a visitor to the site. Submissions are free and voluntary. All posts are approved by site administrators according to our terms of service.
Can I become a regular contributor?
If you desire, The Young Alumni Network offers blog accounts to alumni who want to regularly contribute posts. Otherwise, you can use our users submission form whenever you like. As mentioned earlier, we also can pull in RSS feeds from an existing blog account or network. Click “Sign up for a blog” on our community submission form to start the process.
What is RSS syndication?
RSS, or real simple syndication, enables people to keep up with their favorite Web sites in an automated manner through an RSS player or feed, such as on Net Vibes or facebook.com. It’s a quick way to receive updates on favorite Web sites or networks.
What is social networking?
Social networking, as made popular through Web sites like facebook.com and myspace.com, refers to a Web site or platform that enables people of similar interests to stay connected. Employing tools like ratings, polls, tagging and more, social network sites allow online communities of users to stay in touch and to interact with “friends” or other users. The Young Alumni Network wants to enable the tools of social networking to allow young UNC alumni to stay connected, much like groups on facebook.com but with more tools, greater visibility, as well as greater publishing power.
Who are the site operators?
The Daily Tar Heel began this site in partnership with 2006 alum Ryan Tuck as a way to enable alumni connections. Facebook.com and other Web sites offer ways for UNC alumni to stay in touch, but there isn’t one targeted place online for University alum to go and discuss life. In partnership with the General Alumni Association and the University, the Young Alumni Network is your destination online to discuss your life post-Carolina. As Carolinablue.com is a place to discuss UNC sports, the Network is your online community to keep up with all things related to post-Carolina life. Please contact us with any suggestions for how we can improve your experience, and how we can better create a place for alumni to stay in touch. Just because we leave Chapel Hill doesn’t mean we have to leave each other.
How is this site related to the General Alumni Association and the University?
The GAA and University sponsor the site along with The Daily Tar Heel, as it is a not-for-profit forum for all alumni. The Network also is pursuing official partnerships with facebook.com and myspace.com.
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ryan, i looked back at my notes and found absolutely nothing. so, from scratch here, here goes:
I do like your responses to my concerns and questions, and i find your answers quite plausible.
I especially liked the plans to leverage social networking sites where young alumni are likely to be congregating already. Of course collaborating with GAA makes sense, and it should be welcomed by GAA provided it isn’t turned into sausage by bureaucracy and turf issues.
The expansion of FAQs is good, though I’m not sure you need to explain rather mundane terms like RSS and social networking, particularly given your relatively young audience.
Finally, any plan or method to give young Heels ownership of the site, to leverage the affinity we have with the university and its mission, will be rewarded, and I see you do have plans to do that.
That’s all I can think of; the plan looks solid. I’m saving this entry just in case …
[...] November 26, 2007 by rctuck1224 I have created at least a beta version of my young UNC alumni network Web site, now called Tar Nation. With this assignment, I wanted to do more than some simple writings, though I have plenty on the site. I wanted to create an interactive site of interest to young alumni. And even though it’s beta, there’s a lot there. I think this site could be very viable, especially for the audience I outlined in my proposal. [...]