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| The New website was a year old at the end of March 2012. |
March 2011.
It's been a busy first
year for us here at Upchurch Matters, starting at the end of March 2011 when
the new website went live. We quickly hand delivered promotional flyers to
every home in the village and put up signs in key locations. The launch was also
helped along nicely by various mentions in the local press. Overall, the new
website has been very well received, with just a few negative comments (mainly
against change in the village and advocating the status quo). We did, however, receive
quite a few admiring glances from other nearby villages who asked if they could
have one too. In its first year, the website has grown as more and more people have chosen to get involved. We now regularly receive news items from nearly every village group and organisation, something we are very pleased about. With many print titles in decline, the future of media really is online and we're embracing this together with the use of social media, such as Facebook and Twitter. Our Facebook account has swelled to a huge 1400+ friends, while our Twitter account is acquiring more followers each week. Both are great modern ways to get messages to people fast!
So, what have we actually published
and achieved in our first year?
In just over 12 months,
we've had 51,157 page views from over 7,905 individuals in over 69
countries, and over 700 people regularly read our Facebook updates every
week.
We've posted 216 items on our Notice Board Page – most of
which are emailed and phoned into us from village groups and organisations -
along with messages from our Classified Advertisers. We have promoted many
events and offers from our local pubs, and published 17 excellent
articles from David Wood on the history of Upchurch; some taken from his
book, "Memories of Upchurch". We have also kept residents up to
date with regular neighbourhood watch messages relating to crimes committed in
our village or the immediate surrounding area.
Our Village Diary Page is
filling up nicely now and really is becoming the central online location to discover
what is happening in and around our village. In addition to the Diary Page, the
Village Hall and Twinning Group pages have proved popular too. Don't
forget The "Quick links" on our homepage. This is where we've brought
together all the most commonly searched for Upchurch-related website links
and info, so you can quickly and easily find all things Upchurch related. Just
remember to Start at Upchurch Matters!
In March 2012 we were thrilled to have been featured in the publication "Inside Swale", which is delivered quarterly to over 80,000 homes in the Swale Borough Council area. This was great publicity for our village and the website.
Over the last year, we've been pleased to support The Farmers’ Market by having a regular stall, and we're also involved with the new Upchurch War Memorial Project. Look out for us at other village events this year and please do come and say hello. It's nice to be able to put some faces to names and we're grateful for any feedback or ideas you may have for the site.
Classified Advertisements.
When the new website
launched we had just 4 adverts in the new Classified Advertisements Section, but with lots of hard work we've boosted the number to over 40!
Searching online, we still haven't found anything else like it (certainly not
for the same rates anyway). Economic times are tough, with many people feeling
the squeeze on their standard of living. We truly believe in the benefits of
supporting local businesses, services and tradesman whenever possible, and that
is what our Classified Section is all about.
So,
as you can see it's been a busy first year online for us here at Upchurch Matters.
If you have any
interesting village news, nice photographs or village events you would like publicized,
please get in touch as the more we all contribute the better the website will be!
Once again, thank
you to all our friends, supporters and advertisers and here's looking forward
to many more years of a successful and thriving Upchurch
community both off and online.
Upchurch Matters
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