Sowing the Seeds for a Better Website
The Folly Farm Centre near Bristol is a green conference and environmental learning centre whose website was launched in 2008. With the appointment of Philip Niemand, Centre Director, later last year, it was decided to focus on the website further by expanding and developing its content, and embarking on a brand new SEM (Search Engine Marketing) programme.
The Natural World
The Folly Farm Centre includes a renowned state-of-the-art green conference venue. Also in mind are the general public, who Folly Farm reaches out to with inspiring and engaging arts, crafts and wildlife courses. The Folly Farm Centre also gives schools from across the UK and Europe the opportunity to see nature up close.
Nurturing the Online Community
They wanted to engage the online community and launched their brand new website in 2008. Philip Niemand, the new Centre Director, then decided to focus additional efforts on expanding and developing the website's content, and is in the process of planning a full SEM programme. He also decided to develop a new Web 2.0 enabled media centre on the website.
Philip Niemand, the Folly Farm Centre's Director, approved contact with IT4communities in order to find a skilled volunteer IT professional to provide pointers on how best to move things forward. They needed someone who could review the website and put together a brief overview identifying the key SEM-related areas that the Folly Farm Centre should focus on.
Sowing Better Seeds
They initially worked with iT4Communities volunteer, Raphael Bath, who reviewed the site from a commercial point of view and helped improve the usability. They were in an excellent position to expand into their SEM programme with a new volunteer.
iT4Communities volunteer, Simon Day, saw the Folly Farm opportunity and knew he could help. His IT contractor experience meant he quickly completed a review outlining how the website should be taken forward. On the same day, Simon produced a 5-page review for Philip, which included advice on SEM as well as general web guidance.
Simon stated: As a 'work away from home' professional IT contractor I have a broad skill set and a lot of spare time so I wanted to give something back to the community. I heard about iT4Communities via a tech forum and quickly found a request that exactly matched my skill set. After a brief phone call from the charity to clarify a few points, I completed a 5 page report to help the Folly Farm Centre develop their website further.
Watching it Grow
Thanks to Simon's and Raphael's expert volunteering, the Folly Farm Centre will be able to maximize the success of www.follyfarm.org. Their advice will help Folly Farm achieve its SEM goals.
Philip Niemand says: iT4Communities is a very useful service. Simon's guidelines were excellent and came through the same day! We were impressed by the quick delivery of the high-quality review. Our SEM planning has now been successfully completed.
24th March 2009