Bendigo, Maroondah launch for National Youth Week

Victorian councils City of Greater Bendigo and City of Maroondah have launched youth portals as part of National Youth Week celebrations.

Both using Youth Portal Pro, Bendigo has launched a main council Youth Portal ("Yo! Bendigo"), Youth Arts mini-site and Youth Worker Portal all using Youth Portal.

Yo Bendigo's launch was featured on ABC Online Central Victoria article "Yo Bendigo website is go":

"There's a lot of negative media around young people, so a youth specific website is enabling young people to demonstrate the positive things they do in our community," said Kylie Emonson, Youth Development Coordinator with the council.

The Youth Portal websites can be viewed at:

• Yo Bendigo ! - www.yobendigo.com.au
• Bendigo Youth Arts Network - www.bendigoyouthartsnetwork.com.au
• Maroondah Youth Services - www.maroondahyouthservices.com

5 great YOUTH Portal launch strategies

Some steps to a great YOUTH Portal launch.

1. Branding Competition

Competitions in general are good ways to involve young people.  But a branding competition can help enhance the sense of ownership and establish mindshare of the website.  They can begin even before the launch and will instil much anticipation in young people about the new site.

The great thing about the web is it means your online presence can have its own brand and domain name, meaning that you don't have to rename your youth service.

When implementing the City of Greater Bendigo YOUTH Portal, for example, it was decided to begin with a generic brand and open it up to a competition.

The result of the competition was the name "YO! Bendigo" which has been well received.  You will be suprised how young people will use this brand to communicate your service to others - especially if it is short and catchy. I personally think this is a fantastic name for the YOUTH Portal !

2. "Soft Launch"

A "soft launch is always good way to test the water.  It involves putting the site up but not publicising it to local young people until you are ready. 

This approach lets search engines like Google gradually pick the site up and for you to optimise it for online searching.  It allows you to continue to test the site with focus groups and make adjustments as necessary.

A soft launch allows you to more thoroughly prepare for a "hard launch" to fully unleash the YOUTH Portal. 

3. Mailout

A mailout is a traditional way to publicise launches and the YOUTH Portal is no different.  The best way to reach young people is through their homes and their parents.  It certainly boosts your PR if their parents know that council is doing something for positive for their children especially since Internet safety is such a big issue, this can allow parents to check the YOUTH Portal and add it to their safe list of websites. 

4. "Hard Launch" Event

A "Hard Launch" involves telling the world in as many ways possible.  But the best hard launch is actually inviting young people to an "event" or launching at an event where the majority of young people will be.

This lets you give the YOUTH Portal a personal face - the youth worker.  But you will only have to show that face once as like SMS on mobile phones ICT breaks down the barriers, making it easier for young people to establish regular contact with you.  The YOUTH Portal can help greatly to establish a sense of the trust relationship you need to do your job.

5. Social Media

Another great way to publicise your launch is to use social media, including Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.  The aim of a YOUTH Portal is not to replace these services, but to bring them together.  So if you have pages on these social media sites by advertising your launch on them will help to establish YOUTH Portal as the first point of call in case young people forget the locations of your social media pages. 

Advertising your YOUTH Portal on these services can be as easy and subtle as posting the web address with a status like: "Check this out!".  It can be a good approach to leave it up to the young people to decide whether the YOUTH Portal is of use to them rather than forcing them onto it.  You'll be suprised by how many will appreciate it and not only visit but voluntarily return to the site.

YOUTH Portal can then become the central platform from which you publish content to these services.  If you don't have such pages, then promoting the YOUTH Portal first is a great way to get people using them.