This is not an advertisement for a smoke filled room playing jazz and offering whisky neat. Nor is it Jessica Rabbit ambling around singing “It had to be you” like a Looney Tunes version of Marilyn Monroe.

This is a blog about the Open Shed wanted feature and how it can work for you.

The Wanted List has the potential to be a magical place. Here you can dream of things you might need that don’t exist on Open Shed currently. It is the place for other members to don their Super Hero under-dacks and dive through cyberspace saying “Yes, I can help you! Look!”

And whilst we’ve connected people up for tennis and music and a few other things, we’re yet to crack the magic formula of getting the majority of our Wanteds filled by the time they expire. We’d dearly love to change that.

First of all, we’re going to institute ourselves a little plan of connecting up with small businesses, musicians, tradies, collectors and anyone else we can think of to see if we can’t increase our chances. So if you know anyone (including you) who has great stuff that lies idle a lot of the time who could benefit from making use of Open Shed to turn that down time into a happy piggy bank, by all means let us know.

Secondly, you may have noticed we’re getting a little more into a routine with promoting our Wanted List on Facebook and Twitter.

On our Facebook page Wednesday is the day where you can pop up like a Meer cat and check who needs what. (Admittedly, we’re sometimes posting it when it’s Wednesday in Denver Colorado as opposed to the Eastern seaboard of Australia but we are getting there!)

On Twitter, we’re promoting these Wanted Items on a regular basis. Please, if you see them flying past, RT them for us. The more people who see it, the better the chance of getting that Wanted fulfilled. Even if you aren’t local, you may have a follower who is and getting the message to them would be super, dooper.

Finally, please keep listing your heart’s desires in the Wanted List and/or keep checking what other people list. The Open Shed HQ is setting ourselves a little challenge to reach a 50% clearance rate by Halloween and 80% by New Year- so feel free to treat it as a way of you throwing down the gauntlet to us too! Just be prepared, if you do order a giant panda to make sure you have enough bamboo to keep that guy well fed, alright?

Seriously though- have a think and post us something you do want and we will do our very best to get it for you. We need to test ourselves in this area so every time you send us through a Wanted, consider it your way of sending Open Shed to Bootcamp to get fitter and better at getting you the stuff you need.

If you do post a Wanted, remember to:

• Promote it on Facebook to your friends. You’ll be surprised how many people will jump in to help if you do that!
• Tweet it out on Twitter.
• Include a suggested visual with your listing so people can spot it easily.

Small things, but they have increased the chance of finding the right item for other members in the past.

As someone once said “It’s OK to be a wantie!” – So why not be a wantie on Open Shed? What would you love to experience for a day if you got the chance?

This blog was brought to you by Unashamedly Creative. Unashamedly Creative is the nom de plume for creative Sydney copywriter and strategic freelance marketer, Rebekah Lambert. Rebekah is passionate about Open Shed- check out her listings!