Website/Twitter Management Discussion

Comment from Beth via email:

Do we know who has access to the current Market website? Even if we’re not ready to change it a whole lot, it should be updated with new content and stuff in the meantime. The most recent Alexander update is from mid-October and the last Board meeting minutes are from July. The new Board members are mentioned but it still says the secretary is jennie and the president is Shannon. Other things could use more info, like there’s no info on bulk special order case discounts on the membership page, and there’s a typo that says “respectfully” instead of “respectively”. There’s also no info about member privileges other than the discounts. The Google calendar embedded in the “community” page doesn’t have anything on it but first Mondays. The sales page still has November sales, and the About section still has a paragraph about Simply Living. “Meet the Board candidates” is still an item on the front page. The Twitter stream hasn’t been updated since Oct. 22nd. The Facebook seems to be pretty up to date though. Maybe we should have a Secretary of Social Media or Events Promotion or whatever you want to call it, appointed by the Communications Committee, to keep on top of the events and stuff and make sure they get posted to the calendar and the social media sites in a timely fashion?

Also, how do we determine who gets linked on the “links” page, just out of curiosity?

Do we know who has access to the current Market website?
There are three important access points for the website:

1. Domain Name (communitymarket.org): Network Solutions LLC is the current registrar. The whois.net information shows Chuck Lynd as the tech contact. Ideally, we will want to gain access to be able to modify settings for this.
2. Website Hosting: We now have access to this. We have the ability to create @communitymarket.org email addresses, modify and/or delete existing email addresses, and create a new website or delete the current website.
3. Wordpress Installation: Currently, communitymarket.org is pointing to a Wordpress installation as our Content Management / Blogging System. We now have admin access for the current installation. I will work on the changes Beth mentions above.

The Google calendar embedded in the “community” page doesn’t have anything on it but first Mondays.
Once we gain access to the Wordpress installation, we will need to gain access to the current Google Calendar or replace it with a Google Calendar (or other calendar) that we have access to.

The Twitter stream hasn’t been updated since Oct. 22nd.
We now have access to the @ccmcoop Twitter account and I recently updated it and followed a bunch of people who had not previously been followed for some reason. I set up a CoTweet account that we can use in order to share access to the @ccmcoop Twitter account. So, if you’re interested in helping with Twitter, let me know.

The Facebook seems to be pretty up to date though.
Kevin at the market is currently doing a great job of updating the Facebook page. He says he’ll give admin access to anyone who wants it. I don’t know how to contact him about it though. Maybe try calling the market?

Maybe we should have a Secretary of Social Media or Events Promotion or whatever you want to call it, appointed by the Communications Committee, to keep on top of the events and stuff and make sure they get posted to the calendar and the social media sites in a timely fashion?
I like this idea and I think it can be fleshed out more here or at one of the communications committee meetings.

Also, how do we determine who gets linked on the “links” page, just out of curiosity?
This is a good question. We need to have access to the Wordpress install in order to change the links, but in the meantime we can discuss which links should and should not be included.

Good news!

We now have access to and full control over the communitymarket.org domain name. Chuck Lynd was very helpful in getting the domain name transferred over to a new Network Solutions account that is paid for till October 1, 2013. There was no upfront cost to do the transfer.

So, we now have complete control over the website (domain name, website host, and Wordpress installation) and the Twitter account (ccmcoop). Kevin has access to the Facebook page and said (he told Karen?) he’d transfer admin access when asked.

Now we can move on to updating the content, design, and feature-set of the website. So, if you all have any suggestions on what needs to be updated/added first, or sooner rather than later, let me know.

Updated the website with a new post about Holiday Hours and Raven Rocks Christmas trees.

Added new Google calendar to the Community Page with Holiday hours. We can start filling in events on this calendar. Let me know if you want access to be able to add events to the calendar.

Added Member Forum link/form to the Community Page.

Added Next Board Meeting to Board Page

Also, I backed up the Wordpress site and database and updated it to the most recent version, 3.0.2. I also updated the plugins.

Updated website from Wordpress 3.0.2 to Wordpress 3.0.3

I think it would be nice to change some if not all of the outdated pictures on the site and start fresh with some new employee/ shoppers pics, perhaps a pic of recovering alexander in addition to the pic already there. Maybe even a picture page of the new board and the employees, and perhaps a brief profile of each written by the board and employees respectively.

Steve

After viewing the website, the pictures I think should be changed are the shopper pic,upper left page 2. And the healthy pet pic on page one. I like all the other pics. And again I think new pics of board members, employees and other aspects of the market would be nice, especially real life pictures of day to day happenings.

Steve

Steve, these are good ideas. I can change pictures but I need pictures in order to make the change. Can you post picture files as an attachment to this discussion, explaining which pictures you want replaced with which pictures?

Updated the “About” page to put contact information and store hours prominently at the top of the page. Added holiday hours to the page as well. Also added the phone number in the footer of each page.

Updated Akismet plugin as well.

The updates to the website look great! Good work! I like Steve’s ideas also. Would love to see a picture of the staff, either collectively or individually…. Maybe a “Get to know co-op workers” topic that can be updated with worker news. It would be fun to picture the new workers also so members can get to know them! Steve: Do you have a digital camera??

Thanks for all this great work and the great ideas!

I do not have a digital camera, but I would help if one was available, is it possible to have an entire picture page of workers and shoppers? Are there limits on the # of pages our website can have? page 2 of the website shopper pic upper left is very outdated. And I believe the page one healthy pet pic is of a former employees pet, we have lots of pet owner workers, perhaps as long as we are featuring healthy pets on the website ,that picture could be of all our pets on a rotating basis, bringing more people into the process. I like the idea of people being members to help on the website, and I like the proposed form, Im not sure if its necessary or not to be a member, perhaps this could be discussed at the board level. I did like the newsletter we used to have, it was a paid position to the tune of 20 hrs or more, and it would take a lot of work, and ad space was sold to help fund it. Im not sure how everyone feels about this returning, esp the paid position part. So with the limitations of the website in mind, perhaps it could function as a newsletter, with employees and or volunteers submitting short articles about their departments or exciting projects. Thanks for all the work you have all put in. John L said he may have access to a service that allows for phone conferences up to 20 people at a time, would that be helpful in more planning oppertunities??
I do actually have a digi camera that was compatible with windows 98 and I dont use it anymore, I dont know if I have the disc for it anymore , but I would donate it to the cause if it would work, it takes decent pics and could be kept at the co-op for all to use. I will look for the disc.

Steve

The camera is a bell and howell BH 21