Most MonroeTalkers started at monroenews.com
When Evening News Editor Deborah Saul made the suggestion, it was one of those “why didn’t I think of that” moments.
I was wishing I had better information on the “MonroeTalks.com” phenomenom.
When we launched MonroeTalks.com less than a year ago, our expectations were modest. We just wanted to give Monroe County residents a place to talk on-line about topics that mattered to them - any kind of topic.
We would have considerd a few hundred people getting involved in an online conversation a success.
Less than eight months later, literally thousands of area residents are talking on MonroeTalks.com, and thousands of others are listening in (okay, viewing in).
What happened? We didn’t think it was our brilliant marketing . How did so many people get connected to MonroeTalks so quickly?
“Why don’t you ask on MonroeTalks.com,” Deb suggested.
“Good idea,” was all I could say.
Usually, a simple question is all it takes to get pages of responses on MonroeTalks.com. That’s how it works. Someone starts a topic, and anyone and everyone comments.
So I asked last Friday: “How did you hear about MonroeTalks.com and what made you start using it.”
By the end of the day Sunday, there were 50 responses. Not exactly a scientific survey, but some really good feedback.
Like most forum conversations, it got off the topic, got back on, fell off, then back on.
But in the meantime, I had 33 serious responses and some good anecdotes. The largest number of people, 13, said they started using the “Eyes and Ears” forum on the old monroenews.com and just switched over when we changed to MonroeTalks.com. Most of them said they saw the Eyes and Ears forum when they went to monroenews.com.
Another large group, 9 people, said they noticed MonroeTalks.com on the monroenews.com site and got involved that way.
The rest were spread among those who read the ads in the Monroe Evening News, 5; those who heard about the site through word-of-mouth, 4; and a couple who saw our advertisements - on a bus and on a coaster in a restaurant.
The lesson: most people found their way to MonroeTalks through our news Web site, monroenews.com, which isn’t surprising.
An amazing number of people - 80,000 unique visitors in January - spend at least some time on monroenews.com. Since there are only about 65,000 households in Monroe County, that’s pretty much covering the market.
More and more of them are heading over to MonroeTalks.com and BlogsMonroe.com.