I stumbled across this thread searching for something else. I revived Sheffield branch Facebook page and added a chat group earlier this year. It has enticed a lot of new members or lapsed members. One has just told me she joined but hasn't gone to a meeting yet. I have been able to direct a couple of people to open days that are coming up.Phil_SK wrote: ↑Sun Oct 08, 2017 2:52 pm The BCSS facebook group page (as opposed to the less useful BCSS facebook page) is https://www.facebook.com/groups/434020283466998/ for anybody who wants to see it. I'm more familiar with this than I am the twitter https://twitter.com/cactussucculent or instagram https://www.instagram.com/bcss_cactusworld/ .
I joined many C&S-themed fb groups in the past and ended up leaving most of them as they seem to be used by a small band of energetic people who post the same content to multiple pages, often just mediocre pictures of mundane plants that they are trying to sell or that they're using to entice others to their own website with. Up to a point, the BCSS's group page hasn't succumbed to this too much so far, and does have a healthy contingent of genuine users, particularly beginners. But is it doing us any good?
Without careful curation, any social media function of an organisation like the BCSS is unlikely to be successful in what I think it should be doing, namely, recruiting new members.
I feel the Society is only at the very early stages on this one. It has been persuaded that it should 'do social media'. I'm not convinced that there is widespread enthusiasm for it. There may be a hazy hope that it can, somehow, become a recruiting tool but, beyond a few individuals here and there, there seems little evidence that there is sufficient drive to make it happen or the appreciation of how much time and effort would need to go in to it every day of every week. It isn't a job that can be farmed off to one or two people, it needs to become part of everyday life for, I'd argue, many scores of members and these need to have at the back of their mind that at least some of what they post should be about selling the BCSS by singing its praises. Only when a sizable chunk of members, and especially branch committee and BoT members, can describe what effective social media might look like then there's much hope of it being more than what it is already.
Has anyone else tried social media and found it works?
Unfortunately several potential new members reached via Facebook will not attend a meeting or join unless we accommodate their needs eg show then how to grow plants at home in their house, greenhouse or garden. None of them are interested in the current meeting style of just seeing plants in habitat.