GN Local is recruiting

Hi all, just thought I'd clear up a few things here. Obviously we haven't been entirely clear about what Local is all about - so apologies about that! It's useful for us to know.

Local is not a revenue stream for us. They were actually initially set about as a response to gransnetters asking for 'local' forums where they could chat to other people closer to them and organise more convenient meet-ups. We received funding to set up Gransnet Local from the Nominet Trust, a social tech funder.

Including local listings and things to do seemed like a natural extension in terms of making them more useful to you. We also hope they will help in reaching more people who don't yet know about Gransnet so that more people will find the support and friendship that so many of you have already found over the past few years (3rd birthday coming soon... !) And this is also how Gransnet benefits (not entirely altruistic ) - by increasing our audience.

The idea is that the sites are populated by other gransnetters in the local area, so the sites that are working best are those where gransnetters are taking the sites into their own hands.

The local editors are great in that they organise meet-ups, get the sites off to a start in terms of listings, and promote the sites to local businesses who are then encouraged to make special offers to local gransnetters. They work very hard in promoting the sites too and aside from a small monthly payment (again funded by Nominet) they also have the opportunity to keep 100% of any local advertising on their sites - not Gransnet.

No one needs to work in isolation on this by they way - you are most welcome to take on a joint editor role with a friend or friends.

The sites are constantly evolving and improving - there are some updates due out in the next few weeks in fact - but at the end of the day for them to be successful, gransnetters need to make the most of them too. Post on the local forums, put up a listing (we've put together a handy FAQs page here if you're struggling), or review something that is already there. One of the most surprising things to come out of the survey is that people weren't aware that anyone can add a listing - it's not just for businesses (or editors) - and that's something we're working on making clearer.

One of the other things that came out of the survey is that some people were not aware Local existed - so apologies if we're overdoing the promotion - we thought perhaps we were missing a trick there!

Please do sign up to receive your Local newsletter and email us at [email protected] if you have any thoughts on what you'd like to see more/less of.

And check out some of our busier sites: Colchester, West Sussex, Somerset, North Staffordshire among others to see the potential. All these sites are full of things to do and see in the local area as well as discussions on the forums, and meet-ups.

Gransnet took a while to get going - as does any new site - and in this case obviously we're working with much smaller areas. But we still think the gransnetters who suggested Local were 100% right to do so.

Whereabouts in East Midlands are you, kittylester? The Lincolnshire site has a local editor I think in case that's any good to you. Can check on Monday.
Tegan, do you think they're probably all sitting at home thinking the same thing? Clearly my area is buzzing too - which is why I'm on GN on my night off...

Rosesarered and Greenfinch, Oxford has an editor so sure she'd be happy to organise a meet-up if a few of you are interested.