Getting Off on the Wrong Foot for a Good Cause

When you launch a new web site to right a perceived wrong, it’s not good enough to just put it on the Internet and hope someone finds it. You’ve got to promote it.

Last weekend, I caught wind of a new site called “Women Against Fantasy Sports.” At first, I thought it was a joke, but then I checked out their site and it is definitely not a joke. It has been started by some fantasy sports widows, who feel that their husbands have become addicted to fantasy sports to the detriment of their marriages.

I think they may have a valid point, and I figured that with millions of men/husbands playing fantasy sports, it wouldn’t be hard to generate coverage and interest in this new cause. So I went on the net, checked around on Google News and ESPN.com — and found nothing. Zilch.

Now, I’m really not trying to criticize these folks who have started this site — more power to them. Instead, I’m just trying to use them as a bit of a case study to say that when you launch something like this that is about a broad social trend, you’ve got to bang the drum to get some attention.

For instance, they have a press release on their site, but I couldn’t find evidence that it had been circulated on the web. I also wonder if they’ve compiled a list of top media and bloggers who cover fantasy sports to let them know about their new cause.

The way I heard about them was because I saw a woman wearing one of their T-shirts. They’ve got some cool-looking apparel on their site, so they definitely aren’t a low-end operation. So from a word-of-mouth perspective, the T-shirt idea  worked, because in addition to using them as a case study, I thought I would also give them a plug, so here is it: Women Against Fantasy Sports web site.