AWETISM
Posted on Thu, 20 Mar 2008

Wow good question. I love foggyrock and even told people about it on a web conference. We all gain so much from this site!

shannonj
Posted on Thu, 20 Mar 2008

Hi- Thanks for your interest in growing Foggyrock. Of course, as you can imagine, I would love for it to continue to grow as well. So far, we have almost 700 members and we receive about 2200 unique visits a day. We also get over one million hits per month--so, even though not everyone here is posting, at least they are stopping in to browse the site. I hear from many members that they aren't comfortable posting but love checking in to see what the latest topics are, to check the library postings for recent news and to have access to autism resources. There are several ways that members can encourage growth: 1) Add contacts--make friends. When you see that a new member has joined and you might have something in common, add them as a contact to show your interest. 2) Start a group--and then invite members and non-members to join 3) When you post something in the library, blog or composition, send an invite out to other members (easy to do when you have a list of contacts already) to come back and read and post your submission. When I post a composition, I might get between 2 and 7 comments. But when I post and also send out invitations to come and read, I can receive up to 18 or more comments--so it does make a difference. 4) Click on the Invite tab and easily send invitations to people you know that might be interested in joining. 5) Contact your local chapters of autism resources (like your local Autism of America chapter) and let them know about Foggyrock. They can post a link to Foggyrock on their site as a resource for their site's visitors. 6) If you belong to any yahoo-groups, or other groups (on MySpace or Facebook), invite the other members/contacts to join us here. 7) April is Autism Awareness month---so contact your local paper and ask them to be sure and cover autism as a feature sometime during the month. Mention Foggyrock as a helpful resource for families and providers. 8) Ask ALL of your friends and family to download the new Autism Awareness Toolbar featured on the Homepage. 9) Encourage members that are not actively posting to share their thoughts, questions and experiences in the various locations around the site. 10) Ask good questions. The Forum is an especially good place to ask for advice because the content stays available and easily accessible. There are so many topics worth discussing--so throw out the questions and see what others can bring to the table. If you have any other suggestions, please feel free to let me know! I'm glad you all are here- Shannon Johnson Founder and Editor

Motherof4
Posted on Thu, 20 Mar 2008

I'm curious, too. I'm guessing by the number of visits and lack of comments so far that nobody else, so far, really knows either.