APPENDIX C: E-CIRCULAR In general, the E-Circular is well-received, with members feeding back to IDEA staff that they use the links and appreciate the ease and relevance of it. One aim of the E-circular is to direct members to the IDEA website. We can use Google Analytics to see where people are coming to the IDEA site from. Fig 1 below indicates that the majority of people visit the IDEA site by typing the address into their browser, clicking a bookmark or typing words into a google search. In the future an increase in referring sites as sources of traffic would be a positive indicator of other communications (such as the e-circular) successfully bringing visitors to the site.
Fig 1. Sources of traffic to the IDEA website. As mentioned in the report the E-Circular links to new posts (by members themselves) in the Members Events forum, as an incentive for members to post their own content. 30 posts have been made since the forum was st started on 1 Feb. To see if readers of the E-Circular click through to the Members Events we can see if visitors to the Forum correlate with the dates that the E-Circular goes out. The figure below shows that interest in the Members Events forum was strong initially but has tailed off, increasing briefly every two weeks with the release of the e-circular. In the future we should aim to see a general increase with spikes of traffic coinciding with the ecircular.
Fig. 2. Visits to the Members’ Events Forum
IDEA 2010 ANNUAL REPORT