Your website should have a way for people to follow you without having to come back to your club’s website. The obvious reason is because people are combinations of both busy and lazy. Without you sending information to them, you miss out.
The problem clubs have is choosing the best method. Ideally, it should be automated. When you update your site, your subscribers should get a notice. We have an obvious solution for our customers, but if you are not one of the lucky many; consider your options wisely.
Want to get the Gist? Use facebook as links, supplement your communication with it, but don’t rely on it by itself. It hurts revenue, cuts communication and more
[box style=”info light-blue” ]What Facebook Is and Is NOT
It is a great way of people to connect to you publically, and share your group socially. It can be a suppliment for getting notices. It also adds a profile to help get your club info out there and build credibility.
It is NOT a replacement for a website. You don’t own facebook, you don’t control your search succes, you don’t have ad space on the side, and you don’t have Follower controll.
[/box]
The problem with Relying Solely on Facebook
Little known secret – Facebook posts are guaranteed to not show to everyone who Likes your page. It’s their metrics, they show a higher percentage to groups that have higher activity. So if your club uses facebook as it’s sole means of communicating, you are losing at LEAST 30-60% of the potential!
Facebook likes to charge you for displaying your info. They call it “Sponsor Stories” – and it could be a great investment for a business like mine. It guarantees people see my post (depending on how much I pay) – but it doesn’t help your club’s website out for the amount it costs and the size of your fan base.
Don’t forget Facebook doesn’t make your Club Money
Unless you are a programmer, created a gateway page, and are a wizard – your facebook stories don’t help raise money.
People assume that your visitors and followers that like you will see your facebook pic, news update, or such – and go back to your website on their own effort.
This sounds silly, because it is. People will not do more than a Like, a Click, or a Comment.
That doesn’t add revenue. It obviously adds user experience, and keeps you fresh in their minds (and as long as theyre not trivial posts, this is a good thing); but you need to make sure they come to your website instead. Doing so allows you to add value to the user & visit.
So..
Bring them back to Your Club Website every Time!
This Will Increase your website visitor count. Instead of posting a story, post the link to your club’s website / page containing the story, event, photo. This will increase your Visitor Count to your website (which you should be tracking using Google Analytics). This
With these statistics, you will be able to subsidize your technology expense with just one local business. The higher the stats, the more profitable ad placements become for them.
[box style=”green” ]Quick Tip – Pricing Your Club Website Ad Space
IF you have a high traffic page ( like your trail updates; or Conditions; etc) you are probably wondering what you should charge the business. I have been seeing on our network 1-2% conversion rate off these ad units per unique visitor.
This is fancy talk for every 100 new people coming to checkout my page, I seeing people click on Hotel Stays, or printing 2-3 Restaurant Coupons. Now your website will experience repeat users, but I would treat every visitor as a means of making 10 cents overall (minimum). So 3,000 unique visitors a season; you should at least be bringing in 10 cents per user off that traffic.
Or – $300 total “website revenue.”
Now since we all know your club can help generate stays at local resorts, i would ask for 2-3x that amount in the form of a donation, knowing that the efforts your club makes contrinute to their success.
[/box]So should you discredit Facebook Altogether?
Most certainly not!
Just don’t rely on them for your communication. Use them in conjunction with Twitter (if you have a younger group) AND email lists (we love mailchimp for this reason). You want to allow people to choose what they want of course, but having more than one delivery method is extremely important.
I am no fan of postal due to costs of course, you could run multiple email campaigns to ensure delivery vs spending $1 on a letter. However, raffle books and things that generate revenue need to go out via email.
Oh – and make sure if you are doing things that youre doing them Right. Use a Facebook page (not a fake user as your Club) and not a Group. Groups are not good for growth. Groups are not organizations, etc.
My Winning Suggestion?
Facebook + Email tied to a website; and using those to also notify of Mail (raffle tickets) in advance.
If you use all of the above smartly, and not cripple yourself with just one – you will yield monstrous results.