I just checked and we are up to 62. Looking back at my email history, I pulled the following rankings (in octothorpes):
03 Jan: 52
06 Jan: 85
07 Jan: 92
10 Jan 101
(Flyers distributed here!)
11 Jan 86
14 Jan 75
16 Jan 71
21 Jan 62
So, we stumbled out the gate and dropped 49 places in the first week. I’m not saying that this was anybody’s fault, etc. The fact is that this is new to all of us and we had a learning curve.
Since then, we have distributed flyers, fine-tuned our partnering, and more carefully/succinctly documented the voting process. Lots of people have contributed good ideas, great designs, and hard work. As a result, we’ve steadily gained back 39 places in 11 days.
We are absolutely headed in the right direction, but not fast enough.
I wonder how many other competitors have participated in past months, or had participated in similar contests, and thus have figured out this system before we did. As a corollary to this, I wonder, had we started out soliciting votes and strategically supporting competitors in different brackets like we are today, how much higher our ranking would be.
Do we get another shot at this next month? I am thinking that we might not want to change our processes much from what we are using now, but to hit the gate harder next time based on our past experience and lessons learned. Of course, we still might learn a few things as the final days of this month play out. We might continue to tune our processes a bit from this accrued experience, but it seems to me that we are doing much better recently than our cumulative rankings indicate.
In summary, I am wondering if, instead of considering this a probable “loss”, we should consider this first month to be a learning opportunity and work towards the next month of competition, while still pushing for every vote that we can get. This, of course, assumes that there is a next month.
I also agree that we could use a few more administrators publicizing for this besides “pigeon lady.”
--VH
From: media-advisors-bounces@mickaboo.org [mailto:media-advisors-bounces@mickaboo.org] On Behalf Of Elizabeth Young
Sent: Thursday, January 20, 2011 10:06 AM
To: Mickaboo administrative staff; Mickaboo media advisor team; Catherine Johnston; Katie Wunderlich; Eric Wunderlich; Kymberleigh Richards
Subject: [Media-advisors] I'm worried and wondering...
Hello-
I'm worried and wondering about our too-slow progress in the Pepsi grant contest and wanted to share these thoughts/questions with y'all. In no particular order-
-I'm worried that many/most people think that if they're voting, that's all they need to do when it really requires that we each recruit lots of daily voters. ???
-I'm wondering if there are some other networks that our folks have that could be engaged in supporting us- i.e. neighborhood groups, school groups, workplace groups...? People don't have to know/support Mickaboo & ' Coo. They will vote to support us- the people that ask for that support.
-I'm worried that MY (the pigeon lady) pushing so hard for this could be misunderstood as it is a MickaCOO thing. MickaCoo would only take a small fraction of the grant and, with our much lower bills, we're much less in need of it. I'm pushing it because it is the easiest, quickest way to get $50K for Mickaboo that I've come across to date and it seems like Boo really needs it (and 'Coo really needs and supports 'Boo). Others have spoken up in support of it but no one (rightly or wrongly) as much as me. I'll gladly sit down and shut up if others will take up the charge. ????
-I'm wondering if there is a tactful way/time to ask a block of competitors that are waaay back there to reconsolidate their support behind us?
-We've got 11 days to move up 56 notches in the ranking. Bless our hearts that as small and new-to-this as we are, we're doing as well as we are but, if we don't do some things differently right now, we've lost our halfway-decent chance to win $50K.
-Only 39 folks have signed up for the daily reminders. Out of 1000+ that received it. If Mickaboo really wants support for this effort, we need to ask/inspire/generate it in ways that are more effective.
Here's some language I'm using to try and get help via email (actually phone & personal requests get better results but this is good email follow up info)
YOU can help us to win a MUCH needed Pepsi Refresh Everything Grant by voting for us here every day this month: http://www.refresheverything.com/mickaboobirdrescue
AND you can double your support by texting: 105245 to: 73774 every day as well
AND you can sign up for a daily voting reminder by emailing: pepsichallenge-subscribe@mickaboo.org
AND you can help spread the word by sharing this with your network.
We need Pepsi (nationwide) voters as well as SF/Bay Area fosters and adopters!
Please visit http://www.Mickaboo.org for more information and please share, print and post the attached flyers!
--
Elizabeth
Until they all have homes, don't buy, don't breed- adopt.
www.RescueReport.org
www.MickaCoo.org
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGjyooh3Yo0