The NARU website
The profile of NARU, both nationally and internationally, continues to be enhanced by the “always on” approach to our online activities. Since the launch of the NARU website in April 2012 we have seen steadily growing numbers of visitors to the site.
With new sections and news articles added daily, site visits rose from an average of 25,000 in 2012-13 to 32,500 in 2013-14, a 30% increase. In the past 12 months there have been nearly 95,000 page views on the NARU website alone, from just under 35,000 visitors.
Aside from detailing the work of NARU, the site serves as an up-to-date News Hub for the latest resilience and ambulance services news, as well as broader and urgent care announcements – with high levels of users returning to the site.
The News section is updated every day – both NARU-led stories and also wider emergency healthcare content, sourced and re-published from bodies such as UK Ambulance Trusts, NHS Confederation, DH, Kings Fund and the Health Foundation. We also monitor for relevant Events, Reports and other documents of interest to our members and NARU stakeholders, updating our Resources section as soon as we source this information.
In line with the ever growing readership from mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, the site was recently upgraded to be what’s known as “responsive web design”, ensuring that regardless of the device used to access the content, readers are presented with the optimum experience and thereby stay on site longer and are able to share NARU content more easily. In terms of usability, the NARU site now sets the standard.
If you have anything you wish to share, or feel would be of interest to NARU’s readers, contact Carl Rees on carl.rees@reesps.com or via the contact form on the website.
NARU on Social Media
Our Twitter activity is the main source of external referrals to the NARU site, accounting for almost half of referred traffic. NARU’s presence on Twitter enables us to speak directly to, and share information with, stakeholders who want to know more about EPRR. It is a daily commitment, with a focus on raising NARU’s profile across the most relevant EMS social media communities, ultimately to drive traffic to NARU’s site content.
An increase in the pace of our NARU social media work has resulted in thousands of new connections, links and conversations with a huge and varied new audience, including key emergency and resilience opinion formers. For instance, our Twitter followers alone rose from 750 in 2012-13 to 1,350 in 2013-14, and is currently closing in on the 2,000 milestone.
More tellingly, the quality of our followers, many of whom share our news, is also exceptionally high and directly relevant to our work environment.
In the last 12 months, our targeted Twitter activity has seen NARU regularly featured on daily online newspapers such as Ambulance News Daily, Emergency Services Daily and Independent Ambulance News. This further establishes NARU within the most relevant contexts – alongside other EPRR pre-hospital / emergency groups and thought leaders. This provides endorsement by others and at the same time gives NARU a voice beyond our own website and social media outputs.
If you don’t already do so, please follow us at @NARU_Org