Reflections on a Challenge!
The whole idea began in February and blossomed in early March. I waited until the Roots Tech 2022 conference had finished and began the challenge activities on March 10. The purpose was to engage a group of people from anywhere in the country and the world to network with each other in a brand new community on Facebook: the Personal Genealogy Network.
Each day of the challenge I planned and streamed a Live Cast focussing on one online space (a challenge topic) where Genealogists could be found and networks harvested.
The Live Casts were sometimes co-hosted with existing or new friends in my Personal Genealogy Network, using the StreamYard program to schedule and stream directly to the PGN community. This enabled me to practice yet another skill in facilitation and moderation of using another piece of technology and to provide a variety of interest to those watching the Live Casts.
Lessons Learned about StreamYard!
- Ensure that you have a collection of thumbnail images, sized correctly to upload when scheduling
- Schedule at least a day ahead to alert the community of upcoming Live Casts (include a list showing dates and times with time zone conversions)
- Utilise the Banners and Branding tools in Streamyard to highlight website urls mentioned in the session
- Ensure that you enter the StreamYard Studio in plenty of time to begin the cast on time (can be early, but never late)
- Download the recordings (video and audio) and re-purpose (eg upload video to YouTube and take the audio to edit and use in a podcast)
Results
The PGN community grew to almost 50 in membership and there were about 15 others who were following the challenge via email reminders each day and watching videos on YouTube. This enabled those who were not into Facebook to still take part in the challenge.
Each person was able to learn how to develop their Personal Genealogy Network in Trello and build in a number of ‘cards’ to their ‘lists’ which will now act as their go-to place to find their networks. Trello is a great tool for organising, categorising, and storing specific links to the many Genealogy networks online.
I now have templates for sharing both a Trello board as a PGN and a suite of emails used in Active Campaign to notify the challengers who had opted in. My confidence in Live Casting had grown and I have now outlined a new Coaching Course for my Academy, How to Expand your PGN, which I plan to have ready for May. Pre-enrolment is available now.
My own PGN has grown and reformed and now looks like this.
Are you interested in trying a new Challenge for marketing your Courses, go no further than this new course from Sarah Cordiner:
Leads and Sales Accelerator
If you are looking for self-paced or guided courses in Genealogy Research, Ancestral Storytelling, or Specialist tools for Genealogists, to suit your budget, visit the Preserving Family History Academy.
