ALDC's popular "MyCouncillor" website system is getting a major upgrade in December. MyCouncillor provides free websites for Lib Dem councillors and local campaigners (who are members of ALDC!).
Three main changes on their way:
You choose what news appears on your site:
At present the system only shows stories that you write on your website. This is great for people who want to update their website every day, but not so great for people who can't do this!
The new system will allow you to choose what news appears on your site, meaning it will always look and be "up to date":
- your own stories
- stories that other Lib Dems in your area have written (e.g. ward colleagues, council colleagues)
- national Lib Dem stories (a "once a week" story that ALDC will write)
- other news "feeds" that are appropriate to you - perhaps news from your MEP, Scottish news, etc etc
Making it easier for voters to interact with you/us online:
We're bringing together the main "voter interactions" that are possible online into one set of "voter contact" buttons. Everything from "join" to "help deliver FOCUS" to "register for a postal vote" or "take our local survey". Hopefully this will make things easier for people to interact with their councillors online, as well as get more helpers, members, email contacts and feedback!
Bringing the system up-to-date:
We've asked for a number of changes to bring the system up-to-date for 2011 and beyond:
- integration with Twitter (your Twitter feeds will show on your front page!)
- integration with Google Analytics (so you can see how many people read your site, and which stories are popular)
- the most up to date version of "Wordpress" - the back end system that runs the website
- up to date themes and designs
- making it easier to have a site which is shared by a few councillors (e.g. ward councillors)
The changes are currently in testing, and we're hoping to roll these out over the next few weeks.
MyCouncillor websites are free for all ALDC members. If you'd like to register for a website click
here. If you're not a member of ALDC and would like to join us click
here.
