Learning patterns/Keeping communities engaged

A learning pattern foroutreach

Learning Pattern Library

Keeping communities engaged

problemWikimedia has communities of supporters who are not necessarily of the work carried out by organisations they support.

solutionSend regular updates over email to keep people informed and so they feel invested in the work

creator• Richard Nevell (WMUK)

created on14:56, 19 August 2016 (UTC)

status:DRAFT

What problem does this solve?

With Wikimedia UK's involvement with three Wikipedians in Residence in Scotland since 2013 and strong institutional ties in the country, we are keen to invigorate the community of our supporters. To this end we emailed our contacts in Scotland who have donated to Wikimedia UK. Both the rates for opens and clicks were above the industry average, despite the fact that the donors may not be that familiar with Wikimedia UK’s work or have heard from us for more than a year. This demonstrates there is significant goodwill and support for our work amongst our donors and that they remain a potentially engaged group. It is important to maintain and encourage this audience.

What is the solution?

To accomplish this regular contact needs to be established. Visual content was popular in this email and images from the collections WMUK have uploaded to Commons were of particular interest. Sending our supportersa summary of the work done in the country, with a particular focus on highly visual content, may be a productive means of interacting with this community. The lesson can also be applied to our donors in Wales and England.