The 2011 Census is fast approaching us on Sunday 27th March and hyperlocal blogs are in a unique position to inform local residents about the Census and what it means to them.

Many people will know all about the Census, but there will be a generation of people (such as myself) who only have a vague recollection of the last Census in 2001. Back then I was 20 and living at home with my parents and didn't really pay much attention to the whole thing - the most interesting part was being able to state my religion as 'Jedi', which I did along with half of the UK.

Being a bit of a stats geek I'm excited to see the Census results for the area in which I now live, but before we get to that point I want to do everything I can to help promote the Census on my Wolverhampton based hyperlocal site WV11.co.uk.

In the space of an hour or so last night I came up with the following suggestions on how hyperlocal sites can cover the Census, but I'd love to hear from other hyperlocal or localgov folk as I'm sure there are people out there with ideas that are better than mine!

Hyperlocal ideas for the 2011 Census (please add yours in the comments)

• Add a '2011 Census' category to your blog and file all related posts under this. You can then add a prominent link on the front page of your blog making it easy for viewers to read all Census related posts.

• Download Census logos and imagery to use in your posts from the Link To Us page of the Census website.

• Download and post the 'sample texts' from the Census website - there's even one aimed at community web pages.

• Add the Census countdown widget to your blog. (If anyone from the Census site is reading this, it would be great to have a portrait style widget that would fit in a blog sidebar!)

• Post locally relevant facts/info on Twitter and Facebook from the Did you know? page of the Census website and the National Archives Census Records website. The Wikipedia entry for your town will no doubt have some useful stats too. 

• Follow the 2011 Census social media pages on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube and encourage your visitors to do the same. You could also re-post some of this content on your blog.

• Contact your local census area manager and ask what you can do on your blog to help them. Area managers are now responsible for all communications between the 2011 Census team and your local authority - you should be able to find their contact details on your local Council's website.

• Perhaps write a blog post focusing on the family history angle of the Census?

• Use the Frequently Asked Questions and My Census website pages for blog post content.

• Add an RSS widget to your blog's sidebar with the latest Census news. You can find the RSS feed here.

• @jvictor7 has suggested looking back at what your area was like during the 1911 Census and asking if anyone has old photos. 

 

I'll be implementing most of these ideas on my hyperlocal site, but I'd love to hear your suggestions in the comments!

 

This is great video to show your granny, or technophobe friend who has no clue what 'blogs' or 'blogging' are!

'The Middle Of Yesterday' is no more, I'm now blogging under a new domain name; 'www.jamesdclarke.com'. I've decided to switch my blog over to a new domain name - my own name! I've done this for a couple of reasons, firstly because it's becoming harder and harder to get your hands on good dot com domain name, and secondly in an attempt to build my online profile/brand - something that is becoming more and more important these days (or so I am told), especially when using the internet to make a living as I do. There's a lot of James Clarkes with an 'E' out there - so I decided the time was right to bag my name whilst I still could. Hopefully my Mom will be pleased about the 'D' for Douglas as I was rather ashamed of my middle name as a kid. I remember vividly the only time I got a proper slap around the face from her - I was 10 or 11 years old and we were in the car on the way home from my birthday party at McDonald's (I was too young to know any better then), my two best mates were in the car and grilling me about my middle name. I was tight lipped, however my Mother (ever the protagonist) told them both, to which I quickly yelled "you bitch!" and SLAP, there it was! So, I apologise for calling you a bitch Mom, but you shouldn't have wound me up. I hope you like my new domain name!