Building the IL Outreach and Network

Essential Questions:

Is Website traffic declining for the IL Site?

How much traffic does the IL site/blog get?
Is this an acceptable amount of traffic?
So how do we get there?
So what are you going to do about it?
You going to do it all?

Willem W. Brooke-deBock
April 22, 2008
Is Website traffic declining for the IL Site?

Probably not. Because the IL blog is embedded in the IL sharepoint site, I have a
record of how many times the blog was viewed. (It should coincide closely to
number of hits IL sharepoint site main page was hit. Roughly, anyway.)

Below is a chart of the number of page views per week. We can see one
anomalous spike in the eighth week of the year --- around the end of February.

I attribute that spike to administrative work being done on the IL by a former

employee. Below is the data for the most-trafficked day for the IL. You will see
that on that day the preponderance of page-views came from within the Kaplan
network.
Below is a month-to-month analysis:

As of 4/22/2008 at 3:30PM, April has seen 127 page views, or an average of 5.77
views per day. With eight days to go in the month, I imagine that we will be in the
140 to 160 page views for the month --- well within normal limits.

How much traffic does the IL site/blog get?

If we take away the anomalous month of February and the kick-off months of
July, August and Sept, we can establish a baseline. The 5 month total (Oct, Nov,
Dec, Jan and March) of page views is 724.

Therefore the IL baseline is: 144.8 page views per month, or, 4.82 page views
per day.

Is this an acceptable amount of traffic?

I don’t think so. Web traffic doesn’t tell us the whole story of the good that the IL
is doing, but it is a powerful indicator of the visibility and outreach of the IL.
Therefore we need to set the bar higher for Innovations Lab.

I would like to see the traffic on the IL increase significantly by the end of the
summer. I am thinking a 3 to 4 fold increase is possible, and that it should at
least double.
 Monthly Page Views Daily Page Views
Baseline 145 5
2X 290 10
3X 435 15
4X 580 20

So my goal is that in August 2008, the IL Blog will get at least 290 page
views during that month. I would like to blow that number away, but let’s be
conservative.

So how do we get there?

Three ways:

1) Improve content and frequency of content

2) Promote the IL in fun and interesting ways
3) Cultivate informal and ad hoc networks within the faculty

#1) Improve content and frequency of content.

• Blog: There should be at least 2 to 3 original content blog articles posted

every week. They can range from first person accounts of using
technology to annotated links of interesting tools or articles.

• The Announcement on the IL Sharepoint page should be updated at least

once a week.

• There should be at least one “presentation”/whitepaper posted to the site

monthly.

• An IL fellow should do at least one Live Event per month. The archive
should be prominently placed on the IL site.

#2) Promote the IL in fun and interesting ways

• The mission statement and the CFP materials should be clearer and more
focused

• An IL CFP landing page (doesn’t have to be in Sharepoint) should be

created and promoted during the CFP. It should show pictures of current
IL member, areas of interest, accomplishments (like TCC presentations),
quotes and maybe audio snippets. It should hook potential applications!
 • Continue to explore ways to reach into the adjunct community.

• Consider use of podcasts, phone in questions, or other innovative

techniques.

#3) Cultivate informal and ad hoc networks within the faculty

Explore and test tools to help faculty network with other faculty members.

• Google Groups
• Twitter
• Diigo (social bookmarking)
• Blog Rolls
• Meebo Chats

This may seem like the least developed of the ideas, but I think it is very
important in the long run. The value that the IL ultimately creates will be
knowledge but also the social networks among faculty. This is worth thinking
about!

So what are you going to do about it?

Funny you should ask!

1) I am going to increase my content production on the IL Blog and

management of the IL Sharepoint site. At least for the next 6 weeks I am
going to produce 3 blog posts a week, and change the announcement of
the IL Site weekly.
2) Engage the IL fellows in a discussion of the Mission and Marketing of the
IL (next meeting)
3) Encourage the IL fellows to write something for the blog or website
monthly.
4) Work with JoAnn to get her presentation more visibility and help her
produce a contextual piece to frame the presentation. Post it to the IL site
as a presentation
5) In May, carefully test a twitter opinion for IL communication
6) Monitor web traffic and twitter adoption carefully.

You going to do it all?

Let’s talk about that. 