Subject: Age Aid's new campaign

They may not be having the impact they intended with their campaign- but as AgeAid's objectives are to provide support to older people - they seem to be doing well on that!

Could this be a viral campaign that increases the silver surfers on their site?  Or is it just bogus posts that will put off the people they really want to reach?

I agree this could put off the people they really want to reach, but I would really like to know what happened to BingoLinda - did she find what she was looking for!

• The problem of spamming is dealt with operationally quickly by removing the offending posts and disbarring the contributors. There is no point setting up a forum unless there are the resources to moderate it.
  
• The headline in the newspaper is free publicity. 
• The more fundamental issue is going to be sustaining activity, eg to keep the befriending campaign going, beyond the high profile swine flu issue
• AgeAid's management should have been more aware of how the online world works, but they can catch up fast if they themselves participate directly, even if "just" reading the forum.
• Whether it is worth promoting swine flu awareness is more problematic, but it does make sense to use the flu to promote the befriending which IS fundamental for AgeAid.
  

Interesting that this is the second Millcaster tale in succession with viruses in its theme

I think the dating activity only stands to damage the organisation's reputation if:

• (a) there's no attempt at moderation at all (I agree with JonDon that it should be relatively simple to delete irrelevant contributions and indeed that AgeAid should be seen to moderate the forum)
• or (b) there's a complete lack of any relevant activity. 

In general I'd suggest that virtual for a need a critical mass of relevant activity to succeed, and the challenge for Emily and Will is to make sure that they do invite people with something useful to contribute, so the forum is seen to be useful.  Setting up a virtual forum has a lot in common with opening a cafe or bar - you need to have people in there participating right at the beginning to create an atmosphere that will draw more people in.

There are subtle issues around swine flu and the elderly (so far, at least, older people are less likely than others to get the disease, but are more likely to suffer complications if they do get it) and there is plenty of scope for Age Aid to offer some useful and specific guidance

It is Monday morning and Joan has called an emergency meeting to work out what to do about the Find a Friend campaign. What advice would you give her?

(Catch up with developments in the runaway campaign (part 2))

First of all, I don't think they should automatically assume they are going to make the front page of the Millcaster Mercury. But if this is a real fear then they should meet with the Mercury to tell them what they have done. The Millcaster Mercury probably has its own public forums and will have suffered from this problem themselves.

It often happens that something relatively minor gets blown up within an organisation's own  mentality.

I am not sure the issue is the software at all; they should just delete the material that is outside the scope of the forum and make it clearer what the purpose of the forum is, and that inappropriate or irrelevant material will be deleted.

There needs to be an emphasis now on getting the CEO involved and being proactive, both for the immediate problem and to, equally important, to change practices as a result of the lessons learnt.

It is a good thing, as is being done, to engage the trustees (who may be able to see things in a bit less of a panic mode).