Retirement Commission trials blog

20 June 2006

The Retirement Commission, through their Sorted website, recently trialled a blog, "Sort Me," - the latest example of the Retirement Commission’s innovative approach to help New Zealanders to better manage their personal finances.

Working with New Zealand’s largest website, the online trading and shopping site Trade Me, the Retirement Commission launched a blog based around Steph, a fictitious mother of one, who twice a week posed a series of questions to Trade Me’s community members - who could then vote on her financial direction.

The questions were asked via an online ad placed in the Trade Me messageboards with the answers and commentary placed in a blog - sortme.blogspot.com.

The blog ran from 1 April to 31 May 2006. In its first month it drew over 9,000 visits to Sorted with over 300 individual posts on the blog. And there was a similarly impressive number of comments posted on Trade Me’s messageboards.

The contributions have been wide and varied and were summed up nicely by online media writer Vincent Heeringa on idealog.co.nz:

"Initially the community flamed her (Steph) and the Commission for imposing a fictitious character on them all… but now she’s been adopted as one of their own and her case has become a source of genuine debate about retirement and budgeting."

Once Trade Me users made Steph their own, Steph’s blog became an in-depth discussion forum on personal financial issues. It therefore achieved the objectives of simplifying and personalising key personal financial management issues and made everyday connections for people with Sorted’s tools and information.

What the Retirement Commission learnt:

• Blogs work but they require and engender passion if you’re moving into the heart of a community
• Blogs need attention and an ability to respond immediately to make them work
• You’ve got to have the right people involved – the Retirement Commission had a financial expert, a writer, a communications team and an expert web-builder on the project
• Blogs take courage. You learn about your brand, your mission and what it really means to people.

The Retirement Commission’s financial education programme Sorted has been appearing on TV and in the online adspace for a number of years now. The programme is based around the Sorted website – www.sorted.org.nz – which is now considered by many to be a benchmark for New Zealand government online communications.