[il-talk] FW: [Nfb-newsline-sponsors] July 2009 NFB-NEWSLINE Happenings - TheNewsletter for Sponsors

Thu Jul 23 00:53:20 UTC 2009

-----Original Message-----
From: nfb-newsline-sponsors-bounces at nfbnet.org
[mailto:nfb-newsline-sponsors-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of West, Renee
Sent: Wednesday, July 22, 2009 3:18 PM
To: nfb-newsline-sponsors at nfbnet.org
Subject: [Nfb-newsline-sponsors] July 2009 NFB-NEWSLINE Happenings -
TheNewsletter for Sponsors

NFB-NEWSLINE® Sponsors:

Please find attached and below (in plain-text format) the July 2009 issue of
NFB-NEWSLINE® Happenings.  Should you have any questions or comments
regarding the newsletter or contents therein, please don't hesitate to call
or e-mail me; my contact details are available in my signature block. 

Thank you!

Renee West
Manager, Marketing and Outreach
Sponsored Technology Programs
NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
1800 Johnson Street
Baltimore MD 21230
Phone: (410) 659-9314 ext. 2411
Fax: (410) 659-5129
Websites: www.nfb.org <http://www.nfb.org/> ; www.nfbnewsline.org
<http://www.nfbnewsline.org/> ; www.nfbnewslineonline.org
<http://www.nfbnewslineonline.org/> 

There is a Braille literacy crisis in America.
You can be part of the solution.
Buy the Louis Braille Bicentennial Silver Dollar now!
<https://catalog.usmint.gov/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?langId
=-1&storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&identifier=4000> 

Text of the July NFB-NEWSLINE Happenings follows:

NFB-NEWSLINE® HAPPENINGS-JULY 2009

Main Menu

            The NFB-NEWSLINE® Team is back from convention, where we enjoyed
ourselves and had great success in promoting our service to attendees.  The
NFB-NEWSLINE® parlor hosted several group-specific gatherings and many
open-house sessions where people could drop by and get hands-on experience
with our new initiatives. 

            Before we left for convention, we created a new handout and a
new CD to provide information on NFB-NEWSLINE® Online's new features.  The
colorful handout covers basic information on the four new features, answers
questions about subscribing, and provides contact details; while the CD
gives very detailed information on the two new features currently available
(NFB-NEWSLINE® In Your Pocket and Web News on Demand).  The CD fully
describes our new Web site (www.nfbnewslineonline.org) and walks through the
steps of installing and/or using the new features so that interested
subscribers can easily begin using the initiatives on their own.  If you
would like to receive these new promotional items please contact Renee West
at rwest at nfb.org.  

            As noted in the statistics section, we are seeing a great
increase in the usage of our Internet bandwidth as a result of our new
initiatives. To allow for this current usage and in anticipation of
increased demand in the future, we have augmented our capacity fivefold. We
are happy to make this adjustment!

            If you just can't get your fill of news about NFB-NEWSLINE®, if
this monthly newsletter is just not enough, you can now get frequent updates
by following us on Twitter!  While this newsletter will always provide you
with a monthly banquet of interesting news and helpful ideas, you can follow
us to get the freshest dish by signing up at
http://twitter.com/NFB¬¬_NEWSLINE!

Channel Chat

We provided added value to NFB-NEWSLINE® during the last month by providing
both the ACB and NFB convention agendas on the service.  The agendas
received a good reception by members of both organizations. You can
similarly serve your subscribers by placing organizational convention
agendas on your local channel.  Most affiliate organizations will have at
least one statewide convention per year, so be sure to contact the
individual organization's affiliate president to help coordinate this
effort.  Besides the NFB and ACB, there are many other state branches of
national organizations (as noted in last month's Chat) that also might
appreciate access to this valuable venue. 

Remember...this is YOUR space, so get out YOUR message!

JUST THE STATS, MA'AM

            It is July, and things are getting pretty hot in Newsline Town!
Speaking of hot, we've got some sizzling statistics for you this month.  We
received a total of 143,344 calls in June, and looking over the past
quarter, we're increasing steadily with nearly 550 more than when the second
quarter began.  Also excellent is the number of new subscribers--779 this
month!  Check out my challenge under the "New Subscribers" category.  The
progress we're making is just swell(tering!)

Top Ten Minutes Used:

A total of 2,622,576 minutes of service were enjoyed in June.  Two states
with scorching stats are Texas, whose minutes are up by 4,688 over May's
usage, and Virginia, who had

82,375 in May, jumped 5,645 more over the past month.  That's nearly a 7
percent increase!  Brilliant!

1.         California                     270,534

2.         New York                    177,421

3.         Massachusetts 165,962

4.         Florida             159,826

5.         Illinois             132,695

6.         Ohio                            131,676

7.         Texas                           126,314

8.         Maryland                     108,983

9.         Pennsylvania   95,178

10.       Virginia                        88,020

Top Ten New Subscribers:

Did you know that we are at the edge of breaking the 68,000 mark?  We need
just 111 more new subscribers and we're there!  We have seen this statistic
rays, er, raise significantly over the last year as we started out 2009 with
64,371 subscribers, and over the past six months we've had an average of 718
new subscribers per month.  My challenge is to end the year with a total of
72,500 new users, which means we'll need to add about 922 new subscribers
each month from August through December.  It's definitely a challenge, but
with a little effort we can make it.  We just need to add 204 more new
subscribers than we do on average (just 5 more per state!) each month to
reach this goal--I know we can do that!  I'll even be a pep squad for your
efforts!  Ra Ra Ra!

1.         Florida, with 296

2.         California and Pennsylvania tied with 53 new members each

3.         Texas   , with 41

4.         Illinois, with 33

5.         Georgia, with 27

6.         New York, with 21

7.         North Carolina, with 19

8.         Massachusetts, with 16

9.         Michigan, with 14

10.       Maryland & Wisconsin tied with 13 new members each

E-mail Superstars:

While we still are working on resolving statistics for this area, I can tell
you that our e-mail usage is burning up the charts!  A total of 174,443
e-mails were sent in June; this figure is up by 15,595 (nearly 10 precent!)
over May's numbers!  Hot! Hot! Hot!

Top Ten Registered Subscribers:

All the usual stars are here, and as predicted Maryland did indeed blaze
past the 3,000 mark.  Way to glow, gang!

1.         Florida             10,885

2.         California                     6,590

3.         Maryland                     3,001

4.         Texas                           2,786

5.         Michigan                      2,606

6.         North Carolina            2,579

7.         Wisconsin                    2,360

8.         New York                    2,332

9.         Ohio                            2,244

10.       Massachusetts       2,014

 Congratulations, Everyone!

Subscriber's Corner

            I'd like you to meet Ima NuWon, who has just signed up for
NFB-NEWSLINE®.  Ima will receive, as all new subscribers do, a welcome
letter providing her with her login codes and access phone numbers.  This is
a good first step, but unfortunately Mrs. NuWon cannot read print, and if
she's not quite sure what NFB-NEWSLINE® is she may disregard this letter
entirely.  Even if Ima does get her login codes and access numbers (through
a reader, say), she may put off calling the service if she wasn't made aware
of how easy and valuable it is.  When she does call, she might find she
needs a little help, but doesn't know what to do to get it.  Eventually, Ima
may quit trying and forget about NFB-NEWSLINE® entirely.  Poor Ima!  What
can you as a sponsor do to help her?  Three words make all the difference:
follow-up calls.  If you call Mrs. NuWon a week after she is to have
received her welcome letter, you will firstly serve to make sure she
received her letter and had access to its content.  If she has either not
received or has lost the letter, you can provide her with her codes and
access phone numbers.  Ima will further appreciate having someone with whom
she can ask questions and receive advice.  When speaking with Ima you may
realize that she might find some material, like a User's Guide or the
Introduction and Instructions tapes and CDs, very valuable in learning about
the service.  It would also greatly help Mrs. NuWon to point out that
context-sensitive help is available throughout the service.  You can help
her navigate through the menu system, tell her about the state papers
option, and also help set up her Favorites list and TV listings.  Perhaps
most importantly, you can help provide encouragement.  Let Ima know that
NFB-NEWSLINE® is truly very easy to use, that the menu choices are fairly
consistent throughout the system, and that she can alter the voice's speed
and tone to suit her preference.  Giving Mrs. NuWon support and confidence
will help her to make the best use of NFB-NEWSLINE® and will in turn create
an individual who will promote the service to her community.  As
word-of-mouth is the best form of advertising, an active subscriber is an
invaluable asset in the promotion of NFB-NEWSLINE®, so helping Ima will in
turn help others.

            It was indeed important to get Mrs. NuWon signed up with
NFB-NEWSLINE®, but it's arguably even more important that Ima actually uses
and enjoys the service.  NFB-NEWSLINE® is not made available to add more
subscribers to the service, but rather to add more value to the subscriber's
life.  You truly play a critical role in fulfilling the promise of
NFB-NEWSLINE® in the lives of the print-disabled community. 

            Now that you know about Mrs. NuWon, you are surely asking how
you can help her and other new subscribers become active users of the
service.  Possibly the best way by which you may do so is to create a
"system" that lists new subscribers with their contact details, and contains
space to assign a date for the follow-up calls.  Such a system should help
identify which new subscribers need to be contacted on the current day, and
will further note what other follow-up tasks may be needed.  You may wish to
share this system with another individual who can help share the calls or
carry out certain tasks, like mailing out instructional materials to a
particular subscriber.  You can use Excel for this purpose, or your Tasks
function on Outlook.  There are also task managing systems available for
free download.  However your system works, simply making a follow-up call
will make all the difference to a new subscriber.  Please contact Renee
West, Marketing and Outreach Manager, for ideas at rwest at nfb.org.      

Your Monthly Helpful Hint

            Does your agency or organization Twitter?  Are you on Facebook
or another social Web site?  If so, please consider doing a tweet or post
about NFB-NEWSLINE®.  This is a simple way to get information out on the
service with a nod to 21st-century communication technologies.  To make
things EVEN SIMPLER, I can also provide you with text for your tweet or
journal entry, including an image with a link to our Web site!

Talk with you next month!

The NFB-NEWSLINE® Team

We Need Your Help!

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