___________________________"Sit up and pay attention"_______________________________
Written by Krissy (The Electric Blue Amanda Room) and Andrea (All Amanda All The Time)
We've come up with something, kind of a huge idea, but we need everybody's help.
If you wanna hear more from Amanda, more updates, more personal contact, see more fans around on the message board, win more stuff, and in general see this site improve drastically, listen up.
Those of you who have been to AmandaMarshall.com in the past six months have probably noticed something. Amanda's official website has been in a steady decline for the past while, most noticeably due to the fact that Sony Music simply does not have the resources neccessary to keep the website alive. Sony is a big company, however, it's hard for them to individualy care and devote time needed to each of their artist's websites, especially Amanda's.
Ever tried e-mailing Sony with suggestions, questions...submit a site?
Doesn't work very well, does it?
I was around for the Tuesday's Child buzz. A buzz was all it waz. Because soon, everybody stopped visiting the website and messageboard. Why? Cuz it was growing cobwebs. Amanda stopped touring and took a break, and the site died. The fans went away, no more buzz, no more talk, and no word from anybody if Amanda was still ALIVE even.
And it's gonna happen again (it's already begun)-- there aren't enough people working on this site. We can go on blaming and bad-mouthing Sony, but why not put our words into action....
Every successful website has dedicated volunteers, fans behind it that the label trusts, enough that they allow these fans to partake in an active role on the "inside"...maintaining a consistant relationsip with both fans, and "the other side", as a middle ground where there can be better communication.
Basically, people to keep the fans in touch with the artist, because Sony has no one to do that now.
The site needs someone who knows what's going on. It'll make the fans feel like they're a part of what's going on as well. Feel like the artist cares about their fans enough to involve them in the very thing that they made possible for them...That's important. They bought the records, made her career possible, and keeping in touch is a good way of saying thanks. This also makes the fans more eager to spread the word. It's a snowball effect, but the amandamarshall.com snowball keeps melting before it ever gets rolling.
We want to start a HUGE snowball. We're talkin'...the biggest frosty the snowman you ever saw, happening right here.
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HERE IS WHAT WE WANT TO DO:
Krissy and I feel that Amanda Marshall deserves a website reflecting her talent.
Andrea and I would like to take leadership roles with AmandaMarshall.com and help make the site really fly. Sony knows who we are, as we both maintain updated and credible websites, linked on amandamarshall.com. We have sparked newspaper articles on Amanda, dug around for dirt on new albums and tours, and as part of a VIP meeting backstage with Sony representatives we met Amanda last month. We're also in regular contact with Sony people in Toronto, and we've met a couple of people at the Sony office here in Calgary.
We believe we have established a good relationship with Sony and are known as trustworthy people, able to take on official responsibilities that have since been deserted. We don't want money or perks, just to give Amanda a decent website. She deserves that much.
We want all of you out there to put your faith in us and sign the petition below after you read our ideas and plans. We'll send this off to Sony Music Canada, and the more names the better. We want to spark something and make it happen, but only with your support will it......
Please add your name to the petition below if you want to see some changes on AmandaMarshall.com
(highlight the text if you can't see the form:))
Here are some of our ideas:
- We want to take care of the 'community' section most specifically
- We want to get Amanda herself more involved, and keep this site alive, full of updates and cool things going on all the time
- Emphasis to the community section, bring out the message board and make it more visible and accessible to all visitors
- Become moderators for the messageboard and inform fans on the board of new information
- Have a contact at Sony who actually knows what's going on with Amanda, and have them send us emails every once in a while (maybe once a week) to let us know what's going on.
- Send out a weekly or bi-weekly e-mail to people signed up with what seems like a non-existant mailing list
- Regulate topics and start new ones like "general chat", "amanda chat"
- Have a chat room, moderate that as well, and get regular board members to help moderate...then we have a place to hold future chats with Amanda and the band
- Receive a portion of e-mails, specifically the ones directed towards suggestions for the website, website submissions, general questions
- Weed out all the e-mails for Amanda and the site, send off fanmail to an address Amanda can access
- Help create more pages on the community section, links to sites where you can vote for Amanda...and a page for updates from the band and Amanda, including all past updates so you can read back.
- Make an e-mail address accessible to Amanda and the band specifically for writing updates...hey, she can't just log onto the site and write in, somebody or something has to be in contact, ask her to do one, get her to send it somewhere...maybe there's nobody to do that right now.
- Fan club? Contests?