Since their last post on March 14, they posted on Facebook one time on March 29. The post on March 14 was a shared event from a partner organization called Trans Ohio and the post did not receive any like or interactions. On March 29, they posted about the event occurring that evening, which was a free Name and Gender Marker Change Clinic held at HTWG's center at 6pm. This post received 11 reactions and 4 shares, which is much more than many of their other posts. 

While their events do receive some attention, they do virtually no promotion for the events. They had one single post two weeks before the event and then one of the very day of the event. The lack of promotion or reminders might mean a low turnout and of course, minimal exposure. HTWG would seriously benefit from regular updates and promotions of events to make sure people have plenty of notice. Also, it would be nice to see them post after the event has taken place. What happened? How did it go? What did I miss? Posting pictures, quotes, or testimonials would be a great way to draw more attention to events and to have members interact with the posts about their experience at the event, I think this is a very important piece of running a social media account for an organization: promotion and reflection of events. 


As always, I'm glad for what they do share and I've loved keeping up with them each week. 

Heartland Trans Wellness hasn't posted anything since their last post on 3/14. However, the page has managed to earn three more likes. 

For our next assignment in English 3074, I will be analyzing a video. Unfortunately, HTWG doesn't have any published videos, so I decided to analyze a competitor's video instead. (Also, surprisingly, LGBT+ organizations that have published videos are actually kind of hard to find.) Here's the link to a video published by The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Community Center of NYC. I will eventually create my own video for HTWG, and this serves as an excellent model. 

Here's the vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhdLuj856Mo

For another assignment in my English 3069: Web Authoring class, I have to create a website for a client coded from scratch. I decided I would re-do HTWG's website since their current website has some dead links and outdated information. It seems daunting now, but I'm sure it'll be fun! 

​See you next week!

Since their last post on February 27, more than two weeks ago, Heartland Trans Wellness Group shared one event from a partner organization called Trans Ohio on March 14. This post did not receive any like or interactions. 

Interestingly, Trans Ohio, which is based in Columbus and serves only Ohio, has about 7200 likes (about 5,000 more than HTWG). Trans Ohio posts more frequently on both their Facebook page and website, are better at engaging with their users, and share more images. Also, Trans Ohio has a minimal Twitter and Instagram presence, which to me means that the Trans Ohio Facebook page likes were gained mostly by their posts and interactions with users. This is all HTWG needs to gain more attention on social media: frequency and availability! 

At last, Heartland Trans Wellness Group posted and shared several things this week on their Facebook page. In light of recent controversy about the Trump administration's action to rescind federal protections for transgender students in public schools, HTWG was full of love and warmth in their posts. On February 25, 2017, they posted a banner that said "Protect Trans Kids" with a kind message, which received mild interaction, and 20 shares. 

The next day, they shared an event for a trans rally in the community with clear details and several hashtags, however, the post only received 10 likes, even though the event had 2000-2500 people interested (meaning that the traffic wasn't coming from their page). On February 27, they created an event page to make signs for the rally, which had very few people interested and even fewer likes. The event page was made only two days before the event was supposed to occur. 

Their most recent post is another share of the trans rally later that evening, which received no interaction whatsoever. There was no further promotion or posting about the trans rally, even on the event day, March 2. 

Although their recent posts gave them a small boost in likes and visibility, their presence online is inconsistent. They go for a long time without posting, post a few things in short bursts, and then disappear again for a few weeks. While I certainly understand that their team is busy, this is why they need a social media coordinator of some kind. They could build a much bigger fanbase if they were frequently interacting with other users' and organizations' posts, and posting often and consistently with a mixture of activism, support, and fun. They could run more event promotions both before, during, and after an event, post more photos or interactive posts, and generate more comments to which they can respond. Consistency and availability is the key!  

Suggestions aside, I'm so glad they posted so much this week! It's good to see them reaching out with love to their community in these difficult times! Looking forward to next week! 

HTWG still has no new posts, events, tweets, or other activity on any of their social media sites. However, I did reach out to them about the project and got in touch with their project manager, Amanda Wetenkamp. We've been corresponding about the project and I hope to ask her some questions over the phone or face-to-face very soon. Also, I'm hoping to apply for some of their social media volunteer positions this summer. 

Again, no updates on Facebook or Twitter.
​Check out some analytics stuff since we just learned about that. 

While searching Facebook for some related organizations for HTW to get connected with, I've looked at various LGBTQ+ and feminist groups. I shouldn't have even considered looking at radical feminist groups (some are very anti-trans, some not), but I stumbled upon Radical Feminist Collective's Page. This page has about 6,400 likes, the most I have seen for any other radical feminist page or organization. Their page is full of horribly mean, degrading, and uninformed rhetoric about transgender people. 

My new goal for HTW is to get their Facebook page to 6,500 likes. In no competitive way, but to make sure we are spreading even more positivity, support, and community than others can spread hate. I want it to be easier for a trans person to find HWT than RadFem Collective, and easier for them to find love instead of a bully.

​The internet has power. 

The drought continues! Heartland Trans Wellness has not posted anything on their website, Facebook, or Twitter since January 18th, almost a month ago. 

I would recommend that this company post 2-4 times weekly on each of its social media sites, but posting every day probably isn't necessary. HTW events should be shared and promoted often, and they should also be sharing and promoting related events, shows, and organizations. Weekly events and groups should also have a closed, but often-shared event page. The more active this group is on social media, it will draw more community members, create more events, and recruit more volunteers. However, this organization has the added challenge that the more its presence grows, the more it will be subject to backlash, hate mail, and possibly worse. For this reason, it is imperative to keep certain features open to the public, and others for members only. This is something that will require more thought and planning. 

The website needs a total re-design. It needs a section that is clearer about what the organization actually provides, and more concise event, resources, and volunteer opportunities pages. The organization also needs an active Instagram where it can feature it's members and events. Once HTW's social media outlets are more connected and stable, we could implement more fun and interesting features like a weekly newsletter or event calendar, polls, user-created memes and gifts, etc. 

I see so much potential for this amazing organization!! Until next time...

Sad times! Heartland Trans has not posted anything on any social media site in the last week. Their website is not updated and still has an old location. 

I have some ideas to begin my strategy: 
-Getting on social media (duh) - i.e. an active facebook, twitter, instagram, and website
-Better identification of location, services, and contact
-To generate a bigger following: polls, new events, retweeting/reposting from other related organizations, user-uploaded photos, etc.
-Perhaps an online instant messaging feature for support and questions? 


Until next week!

Admittedly, I might have accidentally made this project pretty easy on myself. Heartland Trans Wellness only has about 1200 likes on Facebook and only 71 followers on their Twitter account, both to which they rarely post (their twitter has only a single tweet). The organization does not have an Instagram or Tumblr, but they can be found at their website, transwellness.org. The website is updated, although it has minimal information and most pages require you to call them to perform a function, rather than an online option. 

The most recent and consistent activity from the group is on Facebook. Since January 3, 2017, they've had 3 FB posts: a post about an event, the event page for said event, and a different event page. Event pages do not have captions. I notice that they are well-connected with other local organizations who share their events, and they do post high-quality original and stock photos. They RULE at making and sharing events (which is actually how I found out about this group - through their event). Other than that, they have no other activity. 

Notice how these posts garner a whopping 3 likes. Also, the link to their Tumblr doesn't work. 

We'll get there. :) ​