At this summit I went to the other day we were talking about how we as a community can work together to get people to join social networks that lurk? I remember once that we had 1149 guests on juvenation why do you think they lurk and not join in on the conversation? and how do we engage users to keep coming back that are already members? the last question is how can we can get members to join that are not even online at all?
I am curious to get this communities take on these.
It is probably just a numbers thing- there will always be guests lurking and just the more people who know about it, the more will join- also keep the site technologically relevant- for the teens make the site as fun as possible- and simple to use for all of us.
If you have literature or posters, I would be happy to post them in the local endo's here in Orange County, CA and I have contacts at CHOC in Orange County and Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach (Hoag is opening up a new diabetes center and I know the director there)
I would be happy to do that.
Laura
Hey Laura - Gina posted some flyers here we could use. Here's the link: http://juvenation.org/forums/p/2611/22003.aspx#22003
[quote user="Laura"]
If you have literature or posters, I would be happy to post them in the local endo's here in Orange County, CA and I have contacts at CHOC in Orange County and Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach (Hoag is opening up a new diabetes center and I know the director there)
I would be happy to do that.
Laura
[/quote]Hey, Laura!
All three of our boys were born at Hoag, and I had an emergency appendectomy there during my third pregnancy. What a fabulous place to be sick or laid up! I especially appreciated the room with a view of the ocean :)
Mo
Hey, Gina!
I'm on the site every day because we're so new to T1. Every day I learn something new, and am able to get questions answered. But, I can see where after several months I'll be burned out on T1 and not necessarily be over here as frequently. And, I know that there are lots of folks here who are incredibly generous in sharing their experiences and expertise. So, I suppose identifying the primary motivation of regular contributors could give some ideas of how to better serve the needs of those who do not contribute.
One thing that could definitely keep people (okay, me) interested longer-term is having an e-mail notification each time a new topic is started. I only receive notifications of additional comments made after I have made a comment on a topic. If there's some way to change the notification, please let me know. And, is it possible to make a new topic notification the default setting for all new users?
I found out about the site through Red's blog, and have a link to Juvenation and other T1 sites on my personal blog. Everyone who would like to help expand the network could include links on their blogs, FB, e-mail signature lines, etc. Using the term "diabetes" in the tag line of relevant posts can bring new readers to your blog who have set their readers to alert them to that term (did that make sense?).
I'll have to go through my piles of "new T1" stuff and see if there was a flyer for Juvenation in there. If there was, it was one of waaaaay too many flyers, so did not get enough of my attention to get me to join. Juvenation was listed on a list of web resources given to me at my T1 class, but it was listed as a site for "young people" with T1...that would have prevented me from joining if I had not already been here.
Mo
People come here because Type ! diabetes has some how touched their life, a loved one or themselves. But they don't join or post because they are just too overwhelmed by everything to know where to start or what to ask. My youngest child was diagnosed July 10 in the ER. Sometimes my head still swims. I mostly read to see what her life (and ours) will/could be like.
I agree that just given time people will join/post. It's part of the greif/acceptance process that goes along with the diagnosis.
At my Diabetes 101 class at Nationwide Childrens Hospital here in Columbus I told the others in the class about the site as a source of information. Word of mouth will be the best advertisement though I will print out and take the poster with me to the next appointment.
I see some really nice messages from experienced people on the site to welcome new members. I think we (me included!) need to do a better job of answering messages in the "introductions" group. Could we put these intros in a more obvious spot, like in the forums?
about the flyers... I went to see my endo yesterday and she had no clue about Juvenation. So I told her how wonderful and beneficial this online community is for us T1's. I also talked to the nurse about it and she said she'd tell other T1's about it. She hung the flyer in her office in my town and made copies for her 3 other locations. The flyers are definitely a good start !
We talked a little about Lantus and she wanted to know how people on here have reacted. I told her there is concern but hopefully she'll join to find out for herself : )
[quote user="Doug D"]
Hey Laura - Gina posted some flyers here we could use. Here's the link: http://juvenation.org/forums/p/2611/22003.aspx#22003
[/quote]Thanks Doug.
Those flyers will help for sure..........I wish I had heard about Juvenation when my son was first dx. I will take some to his next apt. in August and post them.
Another option would be to reach out to the camps. I know that if this was brought up to me at diabetes camp, I would have signed up right away.
Spread the word at Education Centres and Clinics. When I was first diagnosed I was given a huge binder of information about everything diabetes. I was also given a letter from a family who's son had been diagnosed, encouraging newly diagnosed and their families to contact them with any questions or if they needed support. If you could get CDE on board to hand out Juvenation flyers to newly diagnosed patients, I bet that would help! Or to returning patients too....
In terms of people already visiting the site, I think the typical makeup of an online community is mostly lurkers. A majority of the content is from a small vocal minority. I did an internship examining social networking communities, if anyone is interested in more info or references. One way to get more people active is to add more options, forums, blogs, and wikis are all different from each other and contributors have different motivations for using them.
In addition to getting more people to visit initially, some attention needs to be focused on preventing "churn". People join for a short period of time and then quit. Perhaps they return for a brief period of time, perhaps not. Instead of having 1 million dedicated users, a community may be recycling the same vaguely interested users over and over.
Eric -- that makes total sense from other sites I've been on!
I guess an important part is retaining those of us who are here. (: