Missing People Website

What friends and families can do online

Set up a website

Setting up a website can appear a daunting task, but it is actually far simpler than it seems. Using a domain and web hosting company (such as EasySpace or 123-reg) is probably the quickest way to set up a website. The first step in the process is registering your own domain name. A domain gives you your own address on the internet. If you wish to have your own website, you need to purchase a web hosting package and possibly a site building service product or service. There are providers that will do all this for you for a small fee. Remember to think about the name of your website. This can affect the traffic it receives and its search engine rankings. It should be easy to remember and specific about its purpose: www.findjessica.com or www.findjohnsmith.co.uk are popular examples. Generally.com, .co.uk or .net are the most widely used extensions for missing sites.

The next step is to build your website. Often people use personal contacts they know who have web design skills, or contact a web company and ask them to offer their services as a donation to the cause. Alternatively you could use free web building software packages available to download from the internet (such as Joomla, Drupal or PHPNuke). These are generally simple to use and require minimal technical skills.

The final step is promoting your site. Missing People will help you to promote your site and help you link to other websites set up by the friends and families of the missing, but you can also get your friends and family to email the URL to all their friends and families. The more people that visit it and know about it, the further your message and search will go. Also register it with the major search engines and if possible, get other sites to link to yours; the more people that visit the site and link to it, the higher its search engine rankings.

Set up a social networking site

A social networking site is an online community of people who share interests and activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. These websites allow visitors to create a profile within the website for themselves, upload pictures, videos and information about themselves and then allows them to become "friends" with other users, creating a network of friends.

The benefit of a networking site profile is that it is free to set up and maintain and, unlike setting up your own website, networking sites require no skills to build or develop. However, the biggest advantage of a networking site is the ability to link to other users. For the families of missing people it is an opportunity to get your loved one’s face and description circulated around your network, as well as an opportunity to post vodcasts and blogs about your experiences and share those with the families and friends of other missing people.

There are three leading social networking sites: MySpace, Facebook and Bebo.

MySpace is currently the largest networking site and has 100 million users. The profile of MySpace users is huge and so the potential to create a network of your friends and families is almost unlimited.

Facebook has 28 million users and is currently the second most visited website in the world. It works in a very similar way to MySpace but the user profile is generally older. Missing People also have a virtual awareness ribbon through Facebook, so if you sign up make sure you get this application and encourage your friends to do the same. You can also set up your own groups on Facebook that people can join. These can be campaign groups. Like websites most people choose findnamesurname as their group’s name. This function allows you to post news items, photos, host a discussion board, and circulate information about the missing person. Missing People also have their own group with information and updates about our appeals and work.

Lastly there is Bebo, which is primarily aimed at young people who are still at school or college, making it more appropriate if your loved one is under eighteen. 

To set up a networking site simply visit the website, set up a profile and then start linking to your friends and family. Don’t forget to link to the Missing People profile; this will allow you to link to the friends and families of other missing people:

Our MySpace URL is: www.myspace.com/missingpeopleuk

Our Facebook screen name is Missing People and our profile id=723408759

Our Bebo URL is: http://missingpeople.bebo.com or http://runawayhelpline.bebo.com

Our YouTube user name is: missingpeople

If you would like to include our details on your networking profile please visit click here for standard descriptions of our work and our logos.

Set up a blog

A blog is a website where entries are written in chronological order and displayed in reverse chronological order. Blogs usually act as personal online diaries for the owners, and their content varies widely: from serious news related blogs to fun blogs about a particular person or topic.

We want to encourage our website visitors to write blogs about their experiences and share them with us. Everyone’s experience of ‘missing’ is different, whether you are a partner, sibling, friend or colleague, your experience will be of interest to others in a similar situation. We want to enable you to tell people how you feel or felt and hopefully help others to understand the profound effect of having someone you love go missing.

There are a few different types of blog: photoblogs (which are generally hosted through photo sharing sites such as Flickr or Pizco), audioblogs (which are presented as podcasts) and vlogs (video blogs in the form of vodcasts on sites such as YouTube). All these types of blog enable the user to get their message across in a way that is interesting and engaging for the viewer.

• YouTube – Hosts video clips and sound clips for you, so if you have any home movie clips or sound recordings of your loved one you can put it online and we can then promote it for you. Our user profile name on YouTube is: missingpeople. You can also sign up to subscribe to the Missing People YouTube profile, so that you will always be kept informed of our latest vodcast appeals and information updates.
• Flickr or Piczo – These are both photo sharing sites that enable you to upload photographs of your friend or family member, and encourage your friends and families to do the same.

So get blogging and don’t forget to let us know the URL so we can support you in getting it out there.

Web banners, XML feeds and logos

Missing People have a range of web banners and graphics that can be displayed on your site, blog or network profile to encourage people to report someone missing or to register a sighting. As a registered charity we also have a range of donation messages that can be displayed on your profile, blog or site to help us to raise vital funds and reunite more families. If you can display one of our banners, please do.

Download Missing People Web Banners

It is also possible to have an xml feed to your site from ours which means that content from our website can be exported to yours. This can be for news and events updates or any of our missing or unidentified profiles.

If you would like to set up an XML feed for your profile, blog or website then please contact webmaster@missingpeople.org.uk and we can supply you with the code to cut and paste into your domain.

Websites such as justgiving.com also offer ways to make your site more interactive. If you are fundraising for Missing People, you can set up an online giving site that enables your friends and family to donate directly to us from a link on your site. Justgiving also offer widgets and fundraising badges for you to add to your site to help promote your event and the charity. Justgiving have also launched a new application on Facebook that allows you to accept international donations and reclaim tax from UK taxpayers through the social networking website. Facebook users can personalise their profile pages to show they are fundraisers. The members of your contact networks can also give to Missing People by clicking through to Justgiving.

Standard Information about the charity

This is the standard description of our work that we ask you to use if you want to promote our work through your profile, blog or website:

Missing People (formerly National Missing Persons Helpline) is the UK’s only charity that works with young runaways, missing and unidentified people, their families and others who care for them. As well as actively searching for missing people and supporting those who are trying to find them, the charity offers three other services: Runaway Helpline (for young runaways), Message Home (for missing adults) and Identification (helping to resolve cases of unidentified people).

If you have a sighting or need to report a relative missing, call the charity Missing People on its 24 hour confidential Freefone service 0500 700 700 or email: seensomeone@missingpeople.org.uk / report@missingpeople.org.uk

To buy an official “Missing People” yellow ribbon email your name followed by your full postal address to ribbon@missingpeople.org.uk. Ribbons cost £1 each via email plus £1.50 p&p (minimum order of 5).

Registered Charity No. 1020419

Warning

As with any information in the public domain, it is open to abuse. Please be careful what information you publicise. Missing People has very strict confidentiality and privacy policies in operation to protect the cases we work on. Don’t give information out that can be used negatively. Be aware of identify fraudsters, paedophiles and other groups of people that misuse the internet. Missing People does not accept responsibility for any user-generated content, other than that held on its own website or networking sites and cannot be responsible for the content of any site linked to its own.

Please note: Missing People can only help promote and support the websites, blogs or network profiles of people who are missing and registered with us.

To register someone missing please click here.