Louise Brooks, Southern Highlands Occasional Orienteers
Louise's contribution to orienteering publicity through electronic media posts and information have been very effective in encouraging others to participate in and contribute to orienteering.
· Throughout 2024, Louise has continuously added encouraging content to ONSW social media, including posts about upcoming events and results.
· Louise has also added events to third party platforms for promotion.
· There are many examples where Louise has made encouraging posts - for local events, regional events, the AOC, the Schools Champs, the Qld Champs and many more.
· However, one thing Louise did that really stands out, in addition to Facebook posts, was adding race information about the inaugural Sydney City Race to two third party websites (www.runningcalendar.com.au and the City of Sydney What's On site https://whatson.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/events) on her own initiative. Together these sites accounted for more than half of the subsequent hits on the Sydney City Race webpage, and ultimately a third of the entries received to the Sydney City Race.
· Louise's initiative and efforts here transformed both the exposure to and entries in the Sydney City Race. After the race, Louise posted an image on the ONSW Facebook page of the 15km winners, which received 95 "Likes". This seems to be the largest number of "Likes" of any ONSW post. A great example of how Louise really encourages people to participate in and contribute to our sport.
Promotion through social media is essential to the future success of our sport, evolving from the more traditional form of magazines and newsletters. It is very time consuming and requires constant attention to what is going on and who is doing what. It requires a huge commitment, and Louise does such a good job of this that she makes it look easy.
