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Writer's pictureHarm Reduction Victoria

Communications



Website

During 2021-2022, online interaction ruled everything communications and community engagement.

2021 started with our Annual General Meeting being held solely online for the first time ever.

Our Annual Report also appeared in website format. This worked so well that we chose to continue this format for easy access for HRVic members.


The website is slowly morphing into a reliable go-to source of information, education and communication between potential members and members alike.

It is slowly but continuously evolving to respond to our needs and wants as peer workers and as fellow community members.

The 'chat' function has created another anonymous avenue for connection and to ask questions or get quick 'directions' to website content.


Site Sessions

Total Sessions: 25,317


Unique Visitors

Total Unique Visits:  16,619

96% (15,911) New Visits,

4% (708) Return Visits

Pages Viewed:

Our website increased again this year in views and sessions.

All page views increased but unsurprisingly- given the social climate- the biggest increase in page views was the Training page which saw an increase by 103%.


Homepage 8660 ^15%

Resources 5594 ^9%

Dancewize 4483 ^21%

PAMS 4395 ^20%

Training 2268 ^103%

The Most Time was spent perusing the new hep c treatment posters and the Desktop device seems to still be the main way 68% of our community are accessing our website followed by 32% on their mobiles.


We had a 97% increase (14.4k) in our website visitors finding us via Google searches, while a direct traffic (using our web address) increase of 129% (5,974) shows that HRVic's marketing and consistent branding is getting HRVic's name out into the community more than ever.

Targeted and reliable messaging, continuity of a certain level aesthetic and the quality of information combined with non exclusive and non stigmatising language choices has ensured this.

1,111 use Bing search (+269%)

650 from Facebook (+200%)

641 from ADF.org.au link (+401%) * Thank you ADF for spreading the love!


Resources


Although we have the ability and the skill to create and produce our own resources, we have been so busy this past year with moving and recovering from lockdowns that we have put resource creation on hold. This will change in the coming FY as well as hopefully creating some fundraising merch for our programs.

Keep your eyes and ears open for that.


Resource Sales

HRVic's Substance Specific Brochures are still the most popular resource sold to services Australia wide. Reliable, up to date substance info and peer POV resources are still very much in demand.


Social Media


HRVic continues to increase it’s reach through various platforms in 2021-2022.

We engage with community mainly through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube adding Pinterest to share our harm reduction resources with the world.


Facebook

Reach: 32,637 ^ 249.9%

Page Visits: 1,355 ^79.2%

Paid Reach: 10,003 ^39.4%

New Page Likes: 251 ^61.9%

Total Page Likes: 3097

65.9% Women Identity

34.1% Male identity

Geography of demographics:

88% AUSTRALIA

56.6% Melbourne/Naarm, VIC


Twitter

Tweets: 84

Tweet impressions: 74.9k

Profile visits: 8.5k

Mentions: 382

New Followers 193

Top Tweet:

5,509 impressions

Topic: Online Naloxone Training


Twitter Followers: 2,463


Instagram

Reach: 10,257 ^ 229.5%

Profile Visits: 2,755 ^108.7%

Total Followers: 2,699

New IG Follows: 354

68.2% Women Identity

31.8% Male identity

Geography of demographics:

73% AUSTRALIA

57.3% Melbourne VIC


TikTok

294 Followers

622 Likes

Highest reach Post- Vic Drug Alert- Cocaine adulterants: 8519 views



DanceWize regularly engages with its large volunteer pool and committed community via social media and offer their volunteers online training. As mentioned in the DanceWize section, they undertook a number of campaigns and offer education around a range of issues that impact us all, such as sexual assault disclosure, consent and of course drug checking. through the gender based violence project run by Mae Vincent.


Early Warning System


DanceWize and HRVic successfully partnered with the Victorian Dept. of Health & other stakeholders, to put out verifiable and actionable drug alerts again this year. The Dept. of Health has a process that includes a review and input from us as a peer organisation, which contributes to verification, and we ensure that advice can be acted upon by community and by harm reduction workers. These posts are always engaged with on a large scale. (see TikTok Top post stats info above)


WHACK Magazine


Above Left to right: WHACK issue #46 Nov 2021 , issue #47 Dec 2022


The intention was to take WHACK magazine online this year. There are multiple reasons to limit the print run of hard copy magazines; cost being the main one- environmentally and financially. The costs for printing have significantly increased and with increased circulation, and with only the availability for one to two staff working on it, (from story collection and illustration sourcing to editing, layout and graphic design), it was no longer viable to produce four printed copies of 50 pages per year. For this reason we have dropped the amount of WHACKs produced per year in hardcopy to two.

Getting the correct amount of printed mags perfect each issue was a task.

Not unlike the 'Goldilocks & the 3 bears' fable, 3500 copies was too much- we had boxes left over that went to recycling, we tried printing 2000 copies which was too little and we ran out not having any for events or conferences- we settled on 2200-2500 depending on the page numbers which seems to be JUST right!

Although it may disappoint some members that there will only be 2 WHACKS per year to collect now, we WILL be supplementing this with ONLINE articles throughout the waiting times.


We hope this will encourage more community interaction and involvement. We hope to include video interviews and events and other new and exciting additions like a podcast or two - an interactive forum where community members can discuss all things substance and harm reduction. What do YOU want to see? Please let us know!


WHACK Readership:


1002 x Individual members posted WHACK each issue

60 x Organisational/Agency members given between 2 -120 magazines each.

11 x Regional Victorian agencies

7x Interstate Australia

1x International (box of 50 mags)



Events


The year was a bit of a 'dud' for events, but rest assured that if there WAS an event- HRVic did our darndest to attend and engage with our community. Support Don't Punish, International Drug Users Day, World Hepatitis Day, Overdose Awareness Day... we attended what we could but look forward to not only attending events in the coming year but HOSTING events at our new 'Auditorium' space at our new office. And we look forward to seeing all of you at them!





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