As mentioned in earlier posts as part of the MA Social Media programme we have been undertaking community projects with organisations within Greater Manchester. In this case this has meant working closely with the St Ann’s Hospice in order to promote their major fundraising event of the year, the Manchester Midnight Walk.

As part of this ongoing project we have started a blog to chronicle the run up to the event on the 2nd of July 2010. The platform chosen to do this is Posterous. This helps provide a simple and easy to use blogging platform, and a system that can be used to maintain the blog once our involvement has come to an end.

Another advantage to using Posterous is that it means the hospice’s staff, fundraisers, patients and supporters can also contribute quickly and easily to the blog by sending posts via e-mail. These posts are sent directly to Posterous and can then be moderated before being published on the site. Hopefully this will help create a community of advocates for St Ann’s and the Manchester Midnight Walk.

Google analytics will be used to monitor and track traffic and referrals to the blog. It is hoped this information can then be used to improve the blog as the project moves forward and to gain increased views.