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Note: This is an unapproved draft and it should not be referenced or quoted under any circumstances.

[Draft] March 2011 Promotion

Last updated $Date: 2011/03/04 00:19:27 $

Quickies

Some things we can do easily:

From Sandi

WAI Promotional Activity March 2011

With SXSW and CSUN [WritersUA, e-accessibility, and other conferences] around the corner, there is an opportunity for EOWG to raise awareness about both existing and new resources available on the WAI website.

As the needs of the distinct target audiences that WAI would like to reach are wide and varied, creating generic promotional materials will dilute the messaging to the point where it will be accurate at a very high level, but not effective. In order for the necessary calls to action to be effective, they must be appropriately targeted.

With the current time and resource constraints, we would like to explore the possibility of doing peer to peer outreach during the conferences - on a one to one and a one to many basis - and would like to create a "toolkit" for those participating, which will contain the key messaging for each target group, the agreed methods of delivery and the protocols for delivering messaging appropriately.

What we need to do

In the first instance, we need to identify and categorise the different target audience groups and determine what the objectives of the outreach activity are for each group.

Audiences already identified

We have already identified several different audience groups, but need to further group these in such a way that we can easily signpost people to the relevant resources without shoehorning them into content areas that prevent them from "impulse buying".

Although we can classify WAI content in terms of suitability for each group, individuals' skills, knowledge and expertise will be determining factors in the breadth and depth of content they want to access.

As awareness raising activity serves to peak interest, rather than provide solutions to predefined problems, creating a maximum of 6 categories and signposting to content based on the shared interests and level of expertise within each group will provide the best outcomes.

As a first stab, we have created the following categories for the already identified prospective users.

Web Design & Development

User Agent Development

Authoring Tool Development

Website Owners & Managers

Advocates & Educators

End Users

Identifying & segmenting WAI content by group and skill level

We will need to agree the top three key resources for each group based on their level of expertise.

Web Design & Build

User Agent Development

Authoring Tool Development

Website Owners & Managers

Advocates & Educators

End Users

Messaging

We will then need to create key messaging for each level within the groups by creating the key messaging for the group overall and then tweaking it based on level.

Once we have segmented the audiences, we will need to have a brainstorm to determine the content of the messaging for Sandi to create the first passes for EOWG review.

Channels

Taking a two pronged approach will yield the best results: we can control messaging delivered through social media channels, such as Twitter, LinkedIn or Blogs, but cannot predetermine the exact nature of face to face activities and will need to have the tools available to be dynamic and responsive.

Face to Face

Opportunities will be available for speakers to interact with their audiences during Q & A and during the conferences in general and both speakers and attendees will be able to seek out networking opportunities where awareness raising will be welcomed.

At CSUN, the entire conference is a captive audience and the expectation will be for those doing outreach to have a good knowledge of the resources available, as the expectation will be that people will ask specific questions.

Whereas at SXSW, although there will be accessibility folk about, as it is a mainstream conference, seeking out opportunities to engage with people who may not be accessibility practitioners, but who work in a complimentary discipline, such as Usability or User Experience would be ideal. However, we need to be aware of which buttons to press and know which approaches are best - business case, ethical, legal, etc.

Social Media

We will need to determine which social media channels are available under WAI governance and then create messaging and a timetable for delivery. We can create the core content in advance and then determine what additional work is required in order to be responsive to needs identified as each conference progresses.

Ideally, the bulk of the predefined social media output can be managed by those not attending the conferences and then dynamic content can be either created by those attending or briefed into those not attending, dependant on time constraints.