Chapter Sites Users Group > Sensational Posts

Sensational Posts

Submitted by Doug.Agee on Wed, 2013-07-17 10:20
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Chapter Sites Users Group

I have been watching that little graph that shows the highs and lows of activity on one or our chapters' social media sites. It can be both fun and frustrating to watch it ebb and flow like financial indicators. The marketing voice inside me is always asking what makes the best post to get the sharing and conversation going? I know for our chapter, it seems to be popular topics with a little touch of controversy that excites the crowds. Discussions about river restoration methods, OHV access, and angler etiquette are almost guaranteed to make that little arrow move up. 

So that brings me to the discussion question. What topics have you noticed are creating the online conversation that we all crave? Let's focus on building the TU community and promoting the social good of what TU volunteer members are doing.

 

Comments

 
wvangler said on Wednesday, July 17th, 2013

Good topic! When I post on our Council's FB or twitter feeds about major advocacy efforts, conservation successes, or announcements about meetings/projects/etc I get hardly any activity at all. Then later people say "I didn't know that happened". Sheesh.

I did get 5 retweets this week on a link to a conservation success story, so there are exceptions.

However, the big fish photos tend to get people fired up. I think people like to feel as though the mission is being accomplished, but they'd rather just talk fishing. I think controversial topics can be good, but be careful about them and how they are approached else it might drive people away.

Here is an exerpt from the "Communications Best Practices" document I made up for our Council:

What to post:
1. Seasonal Updates (what’s hatching, what’s biting where, meeting reminders, event/activity reminders)
2. Trivia about West Virginia fishing/trout management
3. Photos of activities
4. Fishing tips
5. Links to blogs, youtube videos, etc.
6. Recruitment & Fundraising info
7. Photos of meetings
8. Photos of fishing
9. Quizzes
10. Contests
11. Recognize Conservation Volunteers and special local friends of trout
12. Humorous anecdotes
 
What not to post:
1. Comments about religious or political issues unless it is a specific policy action alert that has been agreed on by your chapter or council leaders
2. Profanity
3. Anything in poor taste
4. Criticisms
5. Anything negative, this is a surefire way to keep people from joining TU. The glass is half full!

 

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wvangler said on Wednesday, July 17th, 2013

The last "quote" didn't include everything so I'll try again:

What to post:

  • Seasonal Updates (what's hatching, what's biting where, meeting reminders, event/activity reminders)
  • Trivia about local fish management
  • Photos of activities
  • Fishing tips
  • Links to blogs, youtube vids, etc
  • Recruitment & Fundraising info
  • Photos of meetings
  • Photos of projects
  • Photos of fishing
  • Quizzes
  • Contests
  • Recognize Conservation Volunteers and special local friends of trout
  • Humorous anecdotes

What not to post:

  • Comments about religious or political issues unless it is a specific policy action alert that has been agreed on by your chapter or council leaders
  • Profanity
  • Anything in poor taste
  • Criticisms
  • Anything negative. The glass is half full. Negativity kills momentum and the sense that we are building momentum for the mission. People want to be on the winning side...everyone was a Bulls fan when Michael Jordan was playing.

 

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wvangler said on Wednesday, July 17th, 2013

Forget it. I can give the info by email if anyone is interested. This won't let me copy/paste at all. How can we delete our comments?

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Brennan said on Wednesday, July 17th, 2013

The best thing I've found is to ask questions. It's hard to get folks to interact with your posts if you're not asking them questions.

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Doug.Agee said on Wednesday, July 17th, 2013

Thanks wvangler. That is a great list. If you would like to send me the "What not to post" list, I will add it to your comment.

We are working on a feature to allow comments to be deleated by the member who posted it. Keep an eye out for updates.

I know that when I have cut and past from a popular word processor, it created some funky issues because of some of the formatting code it brings with it. I tend to use a simple text editor and then use the formatting tools you find here in the site.  

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DavePushee said on Friday, August 2nd, 2013

Regarding formatted text pasting:  I have been flipping back and forth between Internet Explorer and Chrome.  

While using IE, I found that I needed to copy the formatted text, paste it into a Notepad window, copy from the Notepad entry, and then paste into the item I'm creating.  

I foud that with Chrome, if I tried to paste into the new entry, I would get a pop-up saying that my browser security wouldn't allow that and then (with a right-click) I was able to paste as unformatted text into the pop-up which then put it into my  entry.

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