Two-Week Report #2

[Jordan Merlo]

Four-weeks ago I started my internship at Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connections. Cabrini Connections is a non-profit organization designed to enrich and further develop the lives of students who live in low-income neighborhoods such as Cabrini Green. They do this by providing tutor/mentor programs for these students after hours, which not only provides alternate learning opportunities but keeps these students out of trouble. At my internship my job is to promote the organization further through social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs, volunteer forums, etc. Through this I will help expand others’ knowledge of Cabrini Connections, get people to either donate or volunteer at Cabrini, as well as increase my own knowledge of certain social media outlets.

These two-weeks I have been focusing on correlating day to day news with Cabrini Connections and promoting upcoming events we are having. As the days go on I am starting to find more ways to promote Cabrini Connections and figure out which methods are more effective in getting people’s attention. For instance it has come to my attention that Facebook has been an effective way of getting people to acknowledge Cabrini Connections’ efforts in developing the lives of students living in low-income housing.

During this internship my duties will not change, I have one goal and that is to promote Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection through social media tactics. During these two-weeks though I had some leverage in that I could track the number of views on my blog versus the past 2 weeks, while also being able to track how many new people joined the Cabrini Connections/Tutor Mentor Connection group and the Cabrini Connection cause on Facebook.
Within the past two-weeks I am proud to say that my blog traffic jumped from 5 views to 20 views, the Cabrini Connections group increased in 39 people, and the cause group from Facebook increased in 22 people. The increases from the Cabrini Connections group and the cause were due to the fact that I invited all my friends on Facebook asking them to view the cause and if they felt compelled to, become a member of the cause and/or group. I was very pleased with the turnout and hope that as the weeks go on that more people start joining these groups to learn more about what we’re doing at Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection.

Currently, the easiest thing about my internship is writing the blogs. The most difficult part about the internship is figuring out what to write about. I want to write things that people will want to read, things that people will find interesting, so that it entices others to read them. I believe that if I write things in a way that resonates with people they will be more likely to either donate to or volunteer at Cabrini Connections. I have shown some progress towards that goal the past several weeks, I can gather that due to the statistics I pulled from each of the sites. I do hope that more people start reading my blogs, as I hope that as a result of my blog someone decides to become a part of the solution and help Cabrini Connections cause.

[Daniel Bassill]

Jordan, your use of numbers to show your impact over the past two weeks is great. When I started Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection in late 1992 we put about 400 people on our database for our first mailing. Each year we added more people to our list and by late 1990s we had more than 13,000 people on the list and receiving our print newsletters. We went on the Internet in 1998 and we've tracked growing visitor traffic to our sites every year since then. Last year, we recorded more than 115,000 visitors and 1.5 million page views.

That is still a small number compared to TV shows like American Idol and the NFL Super Bowl broadcast. But if we recruit more and more people to write about tutor/mentor programs, why they are needed, and where they are needed, that traffic will grow as everyone points to T/MC web sites and maps.

One source of inspiration for articles is the local newspaper. At this link you can see blog articles written in response to media stories. If the major papers in Chicago put a story on their front page, or feature it in a large way, then they are spending their money to get the attention of their half million readers. If we can do our own story, showing "The REST OF the STORY" or what the newspapers are not writing about, we can pull some of those readers to our blogs, and the information we share. Hopefully this will result in a growing number of people who want to end violence, poverty and social inequality, or who want to prepare more kids for jobs and careers, becoming supporters of us, and of similar tutor/mentor programs in Chicago.

What you are doing, is an example for what we hope thousands of writers will do. Thank you.