Hi everyone a status report from our outreach & engagement work for the past month
Visitors vs Signups: 59.4k visits / 32 signups
Sign up vs Contribution rate: 32 signups / 12 new contributors
New Visitors vs Returning visitors: 87.6% / 12.4%
Organic Search vs Direct vs social Media: 20.83 % / 11.3 %
Social Media Engagement vs Platform signup
Twitter: 98 Tweets / 512 clicks / 32 signups
Facebook: 48 Posts / 695 Clicks / 32 signups
Linkedin: 42 posts / 38 Clicks / 32 signups
How do we engage more of the visitors to signup and contribute to the conversations?
Itās pretty easy to get people to engage in posts like the one of open source coffee sorter, because the benefits are immediate. But that kind of participation does not meet our goals for engaging people in deeper, more thoughtful conversations with one another around topics like care, wellbeing etc.
1. Link contribution to the right benefits
In edgeryders the value people get out of participation is meaningful interactions with others.
Because the value for the individual is co-created by generous interaction with others, this cannot be based on one-on-one transactional logic. Nor can it be custom made around each new for our work to be sustainable as we grow in diversity. This is what I see
A Process with a plan
Individual Benefits
Find the right conversations
Learn from othersā experiences
Co-create new projects and programs
2. Add prompt to action at the bottom of each post.
I believe that when a person has read a post, unless there is a clear prompt to action they are less likely to engage actively. So we need a way for a call to action to be visible reader follows a link from the newsletter, or the weekly summaries, on the page they land they get a call to action. So what should this prompt to action be?
This post is part of a conversation on ā¦ depends on the project (e.g NGI and POPREBEL)
My proposed solution for this would be to go back to the roots. We only have one guaranteed way of ensuring deep online participation, which is linking offline events to online engagement. Itās the only methodology that we have any evidence for. Right now thatās not possible, but itās reasonably low risk to schedule some offline events for November now and start building engagement for them.
Another way to get more engagement is to find people with more engaging opinions and points of view to write on Edgeryders. On way that could work would be to have āopen repliesā challenging popular Medium essays and Twitter threads posted on Edgeryders.
Is there a way t look at the impact of the replacement online events such as the surveillance pandemic or the common precariat research listening session and compare how those fare in comparison to the irl events?
I think the function of time here is important - the time you need to meet people, to keep on participating in the conversation, to get new ideas and benefit from the collective.
Short events like the ones you mention are basically 1 conversation with a limited number of people, and not much followup. Even if the topic is salient and there is more potential.
IRL events get you more time to scout larger nrs of participants, and to discover those who can really benefit from the conversation. Better relationships in our community are really the key to more things happening.
About impact: weāve seen that IRL events organised openly and collectively through sequenced activities brought:
deeper conversations, but also which were contextualized in very different ways (community health and social care is the best example I have).
sociality and learning: testimonials from participants
new collaborative project proposals (Horizon 2020 applications)
new collaborations (ex: Tunisian cluster)
Iām with @Hugi here for the simple reason that IRL meetings are I believe richer in immediate benefits for participants. Itās just a better offer.
That said, I see edgeryders as vibrant in conversations this year as in other years - the only question is: are the relationships as strong and conducive to things good for edgeryders as a wholeā¦? or not? Weāre only half way though,ā¦ so it could be that all this differently paced preparation for an online summit will pay off nicely, as we will learn of new things that get people excited about online events!
I think here we could add Support for your project in a custom session - you curate it and Edgeryders coordinates participation from peers around the globe.
Iām not fully aware of everything that EdgeRyders does, so excuse me if you have some of these already in place.
Iām just having a look at the stats. The 32 signups and 12 new contributors figure is the one Iād be focused on first. Itās a pretty high ratio. One in every 2.6 sign ups is contributing to conversations on here. Iād focus on encouraging the 20 remainder to contribute too. They are already interested in EdgeRyders and have signed up. It took a bit of time to do that from their day. Iād try and get them involved. Whatās stopping them from engaging? Are they cautious, are they really busy with other commitments in their life?
Iām taking an example from a community newspaper I subscribed to recently. I got a welcome email from the editor, explaining what the newspaper was aiming to do and how it operates (on a subscription basis. It is completely dependendant on the community it provides the service for, not taking advertisinig to remain independent). The email encouraged me to get in contact the editor if I had any story ideas or would like something covered by the publication. She left her contact number at the end. It was very personable and almost intimate.
In the context of EdgeRyders, if I was perhaps cautious in contributing to the site, an email like that would abate any fears Iād have, and encourage me to contribute. I know some of the community managers directly message through the platform, could you send it to individualsā emails? EdgeRyders is based on community and a welcome email that explains what the organisation is doing, how it aims to do it, would be a good.
The email could show the person who signs up, how important they are to this ecosystem. For those who are busy (and a little impatient) Iād showcase some of the outcomes that have taken place from participaton on the platform. Some people are more visual so a link to a website or a photograph of a previous project could work.
If you look at the social media engagement too - 512 clicks from Twitter, and 695 from Facebook are very high volumes of people. Would you be interested in doing ācall to actionā pieces on social media and a few explainers on what EdgeRyders does and why people should get involved. Social media could be a place where you put more focus on outcomes. Perhaps direct to a page that explains what EdgeRyders does, explans how the process works and details some of the outcomes to give an overview. Then also encourage people to sign up and join in the conversation.
From the data can you see if people are more likely to sign up when they visit on a desktop or a mobile? Sometimes that can give you an idea on user experience etc.
How it works: you put this text together which I think is a good summaryā¦
A 2hr process of online activities that accelerates offline activitiesā¦
Discussion & Co-creation
The EdgeRyders events process begins when an idea or solution is posted on the platform, sparking discussion among community members. Some join in, actively listening, asking questions or giving thoughtful responses. (This is a safe place and not for debating opinions or speaking for others.)
The discussion begins with first hand accounts of attempts taken to solve societal issues and moves to navigating the personal challenges experienced by members. Nuances and the various different contexts surrounding these challenges begins to show.
Listening sessions around key issues.
Webinars to present and discuss case studies.
Special P2P support sessions dedicated to individual members projects
Online co-creation workshops to design and plan joint actions.
Online hackathons and adaptathons to accelerate existing initiatives through technical support
Information analysis & Action
Next open source technology is used to make connections between topics being discussed, the people discussing them, places, projects, solutions and struggles. When we put this together, patterns start to emerge that help join these ideas and people to each other and to other information, skill and resources.
By the end of the process, our community members have gained a richer knowledge and understanding of the issue they wish to tackle and have a blueprint to put their idea into action.
Preparation: Collecting and discussing case studies, preparing initiatives for the hackathon, Pre-event introductions and networking
During the event: Rigorous documentation, definition of a list of follow up action points with clear allocation of roles and responsibilities, open participatory budgeting for the activities.
Follow up: Rapid deployment of the actions (1 week cycles), followed by open participatory evaluation and codesign of next cycle based on lessons learned.
Find the right conversations
Learn from othersā experiences
Co-create new projects and programs