The numbers game

posted by: Nick Lowles | on: Monday, 30 March 2009, 17:18

I don't want to give the impression that I'm obsessed with numbers but I do want to throw a couple more into the ring. In the past seven days an amazing 4,556 new people have signed up to the HOPE not hate campaign. Most have been students, following the email sent out by the NUS late on Friday afternoon. However, Wales has been another area of strong growth, with our email list doubling in under a week.

This was due to the fantastic response to our open letter sent out last Thursday. We had an open rate of 440% - by far our highest to date. That means that over four times the number of people opened the email than were originally sent it. Almost a quarter of those sent the original email sent it on to other people and as a result over 500 new people have sined up in Wales alone.

Today has been really busy. The election is ten weeks away but we're already getting inundated with requests for information and assistance. Several more days of action have been arranged and people are contacting us from across the country to ask about setting up a local campaign in their area.

I've managed to find time to explore the 'Events tools' within the Blue State control panel. These will form a major element in getting our 25,000 online supporters to become offline activists. People will be able to find their local activity at a click of a button but, just as importantly, arrange their own local event if there isn't anything organised in their vicinity. It's all exciting stuff.