Nice article here:
http://www.runnersworld.com/trail-racin ... tacle-race
Prizes for Publicity
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Re: Prizes for Publicity
Martin Ward, SYO (Chair) & SPOOK.
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Spookster - god
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Re: Prizes for Publicity
Another article here - this is written from the point of view of a newcomer, as a journalist from our local paper came to try one of our recent events. It does get across how easy it is to take part and how orienteering caters for all abilities. It was a full page prominent article in the paper, with several colour photos of the event - looked very good! It went in two local (related) papers, with a total circulation of about 35,000(and ok, it's a bit of self promotion, as I invited the journalist along!!)
http://www.buckinghamshireadvertiser.co.uk/south-buckinghamshire-lifestyle/leisure/2013/07/04/giving-orienteering-a-go-82398-33588498/
People earlier on this thread were talking about Facebook and this is something we are currently developing at TVOC - clubs need a fan page, not a group (a group is useless for newcomers - it's ok for existing members). Our fan page has had over 220 'likes' in a five month period - all from people around one town (High Wycombe). That's due to the targeted Facebook adverts and the sponsored posts we've been running. You then have a captive audience to promote local events to - and it's so easy to reach them. Newcomers have been interacting with the page really well too - confirming they're coming to events, posting photos and chatting to others on the page. Our attendances at events have risen dramatically as a result of this, and a lot of other, recent publicity.
http://www.facebook.com/tvoclub
Mike Shires
Publicity Officer - TVOC
http://www.buckinghamshireadvertiser.co.uk/south-buckinghamshire-lifestyle/leisure/2013/07/04/giving-orienteering-a-go-82398-33588498/
People earlier on this thread were talking about Facebook and this is something we are currently developing at TVOC - clubs need a fan page, not a group (a group is useless for newcomers - it's ok for existing members). Our fan page has had over 220 'likes' in a five month period - all from people around one town (High Wycombe). That's due to the targeted Facebook adverts and the sponsored posts we've been running. You then have a captive audience to promote local events to - and it's so easy to reach them. Newcomers have been interacting with the page really well too - confirming they're coming to events, posting photos and chatting to others on the page. Our attendances at events have risen dramatically as a result of this, and a lot of other, recent publicity.
http://www.facebook.com/tvoclub
Mike Shires
Publicity Officer - TVOC
- MikeShires
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Re: Prizes for Publicity
That's interesting stuff about Facebook Mike. Lots of people wouldn't think of using it this way. Out of interest how much money did you spend on advertising and how much time per event needs to be spent maintaining the Facebook pages and advertising?
- SeanC
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Re: Prizes for Publicity
Hi Sean,
Maintaining the page really doesn't take very long at all - I like to keep our page informal and attractive to newcomers and it seems to be working. I enjoy doing it, which helps! I make sure each event has its own event page and generally do a few posts over the two weeks prior to an event, to ensure that everyone who has liked our page (223 now and rising!) receives the details on their personal news feeds. If you promote these posts, they appear much higher up their news feeds and they can't miss them - and it only costs as little as £3 to promote a post to everyone who has liked the page, and also their friends.
Regarding Facebook ads, they have been much more effective than I ever thought they would be - as they can be quite expensive if they run all the time, I generally run an ad for a week prior to an event. FB has a complicated bidding system for adverts, but it does suggest a bid, and I use the 'pay per click' option, so you only pay when someone clicks on the ad. Generally it costs between 5p and 35p for a click, depending on who you are targeting the ad to and how many other organisations are bidding for these people's attention (I've been targeting the ad to people living within 10 miles of High Wycombe, who like running and are aged between 20 and 45 - as that is the segment that is currently a bit low on our club membership profile). I've also been running a separate ad from time to time, for people living in the same area but who are parents with young children. This ad has a different message - it promotes an active family sport with a nice pic of a family jogging, rather than promoting it as a competitive running sport with a pic of a muddy runner, which I use for the other ad.
Overall, I set a maximum budget of £3 per day when advertising, so for a 7 day advertising period that totals around £20. I've now run ads prior to five events, and spent around £100 from our publicity budget. Our recent events have had a 46% increase in attendances, with a 165% increase in independent competitors - that's not all down to Facebook though as I've been doing a lot of other publicity work recently.
From our event feedback forms (and through looking at our FB page, where I can see everyone who is coming to the event), around 25% of our newcomers have originated from Facebook - and they have more than repaid the publicity expenditure. FB provides some very useful data too about your page - one interesting fact is that 40% of the people who have liked our page have used a mobile to do so, rather than a pc, and our most popular age group is those between 25 and 34 - so it's really targeting the groups I wanted it to very well. It also highlights that the images I use on the page really need to be readable on a mobile!
Mike
Maintaining the page really doesn't take very long at all - I like to keep our page informal and attractive to newcomers and it seems to be working. I enjoy doing it, which helps! I make sure each event has its own event page and generally do a few posts over the two weeks prior to an event, to ensure that everyone who has liked our page (223 now and rising!) receives the details on their personal news feeds. If you promote these posts, they appear much higher up their news feeds and they can't miss them - and it only costs as little as £3 to promote a post to everyone who has liked the page, and also their friends.
Regarding Facebook ads, they have been much more effective than I ever thought they would be - as they can be quite expensive if they run all the time, I generally run an ad for a week prior to an event. FB has a complicated bidding system for adverts, but it does suggest a bid, and I use the 'pay per click' option, so you only pay when someone clicks on the ad. Generally it costs between 5p and 35p for a click, depending on who you are targeting the ad to and how many other organisations are bidding for these people's attention (I've been targeting the ad to people living within 10 miles of High Wycombe, who like running and are aged between 20 and 45 - as that is the segment that is currently a bit low on our club membership profile). I've also been running a separate ad from time to time, for people living in the same area but who are parents with young children. This ad has a different message - it promotes an active family sport with a nice pic of a family jogging, rather than promoting it as a competitive running sport with a pic of a muddy runner, which I use for the other ad.
Overall, I set a maximum budget of £3 per day when advertising, so for a 7 day advertising period that totals around £20. I've now run ads prior to five events, and spent around £100 from our publicity budget. Our recent events have had a 46% increase in attendances, with a 165% increase in independent competitors - that's not all down to Facebook though as I've been doing a lot of other publicity work recently.
From our event feedback forms (and through looking at our FB page, where I can see everyone who is coming to the event), around 25% of our newcomers have originated from Facebook - and they have more than repaid the publicity expenditure. FB provides some very useful data too about your page - one interesting fact is that 40% of the people who have liked our page have used a mobile to do so, rather than a pc, and our most popular age group is those between 25 and 34 - so it's really targeting the groups I wanted it to very well. It also highlights that the images I use on the page really need to be readable on a mobile!
Mike
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Re: Prizes for Publicity
Small plug for the Venice Street race (even though there isn't one in 2013) in Reader's comments in today's Telegraph - However they've missed a chunk out of my original submission so it doesn't really make sense
Should read
If you’re in Venice for a short time and limited budget you get a standard waterbus ticket valid for an hour after stamping and catching the No. 2 from San Zaccaria across to San Giorgio Maggiore,Palladio’s first complete church project with its wonderful Tintorettos. Ascend the campanile for some stupendous view over the city and lagoon. Get back on the waterbus before the 60 minutes is up to continue your journey along the Canal della Guidecca and then into the Grand Canal past the great palaces, Rialto and Accademia bridges before getting off at San Marco.
Should read
If you’re in Venice for a short time and limited budget you get a standard waterbus ticket valid for an hour after stamping and catching the No. 2 from San Zaccaria across to San Giorgio Maggiore,Palladio’s first complete church project with its wonderful Tintorettos. Ascend the campanile for some stupendous view over the city and lagoon. Get back on the waterbus before the 60 minutes is up to continue your journey along the Canal della Guidecca and then into the Grand Canal past the great palaces, Rialto and Accademia bridges before getting off at San Marco.
- denbydale
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Re: Prizes for Publicity
Just been browsing TVOC's FB page. It looks really good but seems to be suffering from a distinct lack of interaction from members. I've found the same thing with Moravian's page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Moravian-Orienteering-Club/109323515783662?fref=ts
Unlike many running club pages, which seem to attract lots of positive feedback and banter, it looks as if most page fans treat it in the same was as a web site and view the info passively. I've noticed this with just about all O club pages that I've come across (although RTC seems to be doing OK). Somebody please show me another one that breaks the mould. Facebook's a terrific way of spreading the word if people can be persuaded to 'like' and 'share' - that's how it's supposed to work. We see to be intent on making orienteering the country's best-kept sporting secret, and in my opinion this has been orienteering's biggest achilles heel for years.
Unlike many running club pages, which seem to attract lots of positive feedback and banter, it looks as if most page fans treat it in the same was as a web site and view the info passively. I've noticed this with just about all O club pages that I've come across (although RTC seems to be doing OK). Somebody please show me another one that breaks the mould. Facebook's a terrific way of spreading the word if people can be persuaded to 'like' and 'share' - that's how it's supposed to work. We see to be intent on making orienteering the country's best-kept sporting secret, and in my opinion this has been orienteering's biggest achilles heel for years.
- Sunlit Forres
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Re: Prizes for Publicity
Sunlit Forres wrote:Just been browsing TVOC's FB page. It looks really good but seems to be suffering from a distinct lack of interaction from members. I've found the same thing with Moravian's page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Moravian-Orienteering-Club/109323515783662?fref=ts
Is it possible you are getting mixed up between Facebook Groups and Facebook Pages? The former are designed for club feedback/banter, the latter are designed to market events, awards, news to nonmembers. So, for pages, I wouldn't expect much in the way of feedback/banter - what there is will be in a small panel "Posts from other People".
FB is generally trying to encourage people to shift club promotional pages from (public) Groups to Pages - and then encourage admins to pay to promote posts from pages.
We have both at SLOW - our Page currently has 423 likes and our Group has 155 members - but our Group is much more active in terms of posts. This is the way I would expect it to be.
Stop talking, start running.
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Angry Haggis - blue
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Re: Prizes for Publicity
Thanks. Didn't know there was a difference but I see what you mean now - both look excellent. I really like the banner at the top of the SLOW members page. The fact that you have 155 members looks great to an outsider. I think I'll get our FB Manager to consider a closed group for MOR.
I'm not a Facebook expert (by a long way!) but personally I still like the idea of interactions being in a publicly accessible page so that people outside the club can see them and hopefully get a good impression of the club. Can you still 'share' posts from a closed goup on your own page?
I'm not a Facebook expert (by a long way!) but personally I still like the idea of interactions being in a publicly accessible page so that people outside the club can see them and hopefully get a good impression of the club. Can you still 'share' posts from a closed goup on your own page?
- Sunlit Forres
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Re: Prizes for Publicity
Demographics make it unlikely that Facebook will be a big thing for established orienteers. The demographics of orienteers pretty much match the demographic of people who don't use facebook.
See http://www.fanalyzer.co.uk/demographics.html
Another article reports that social media is more popular in cities than in rural areas, though it's a US study. See http://blog.bufferapp.com/social-media-in-2013-user-demographics-for-twitter-facebook-pinterest-and-instagram
So it makes complete sense that the SLOW facebook pages/groups work for SLOW in London with their untypically youthful demographic, but pretty much impossible for long standing orienteers in North East Scotland. So what Mike Shires says earlier in the thread seems like such excellent advice, using a combination of advertising and groups/pages to reach a new generation of orienteers.
See http://www.fanalyzer.co.uk/demographics.html
Another article reports that social media is more popular in cities than in rural areas, though it's a US study. See http://blog.bufferapp.com/social-media-in-2013-user-demographics-for-twitter-facebook-pinterest-and-instagram
So it makes complete sense that the SLOW facebook pages/groups work for SLOW in London with their untypically youthful demographic, but pretty much impossible for long standing orienteers in North East Scotland. So what Mike Shires says earlier in the thread seems like such excellent advice, using a combination of advertising and groups/pages to reach a new generation of orienteers.
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Re: Prizes for Publicity
Sunlit Forres wrote:Can you still 'share' posts from a closed goup on your own page?
Not sure - probably not - the theory being that people post content in a closed Group, or comment on such posted content, with the implicit assumption that the rest of the world won't see it - and bear in mind that the whole world can view everything posted in Pages, even without being logged into Facebook. If it's your own post - probably yes, but noting that it's effectively a copy of the content rather than the original - so comments on one won't transfer.
Last edited by Angry Haggis on Sun Oct 06, 2013 12:09 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Angry Haggis - blue
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Re: Prizes for Publicity
Actually part of what I wrote is b****** since some clubs have a decent number of juniors. So it might make sense to have junior only Facebook groups to boost junior development, possibly for regions rather than clubs in some areas. Can you restrict access by age?
- SeanC
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Re: Prizes for Publicity
Thanks for the advice Sean, despite the b*******. Ironically, most of Moravian's members aren't long-standing orienteers. About half of the 170 members have joined in the last 3 years and half of those are juniors. Many followers of Moravian's FB page are from the older, longer-established cohort (only 30% are under 35) and we have a lot (relatively speaking) of fans who aren't club members. Maybe our juniors just don't fit the standard profile of modern youth
There was (so I'm told) a very stimulating and thought-provoking presention on the application of FB last Saturday at SOA's volunteer "thankyou" weekend at the Nat Orienteering centre at Glenmore Lodge. Sadly I couldn't make it but if anyone on here did attend and can add anything in light of what was said there it would be useful.
There was (so I'm told) a very stimulating and thought-provoking presention on the application of FB last Saturday at SOA's volunteer "thankyou" weekend at the Nat Orienteering centre at Glenmore Lodge. Sadly I couldn't make it but if anyone on here did attend and can add anything in light of what was said there it would be useful.
- Sunlit Forres
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Re: Prizes for Publicity
I thought the youngsters now think facebook is for wrinklies? Almost by definition, a medium becoming mainstream means the pioneers move on. But does not stop it being useful - provided the supplier does not undermine the bits which work for you.
- Glucosamine
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Re: Prizes for Publicity
Sunlit Forres wrote:Thanks for the advice Sean, despite the b*******. Ironically, most of Moravian's members aren't long-standing orienteers. About half of the 170 members have joined in the last 3 years and half of those are juniors.
That's pretty impressive - what's the secret to this recruitment success?
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DaveK - green
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Re: Prizes for Publicity
[quote="Mrs H"]Sean - have you read my article? Publicity in non-orienteering publications of any description is the whole point
It's more about raising the public's general perception of orienteering than just advertising events. I know I achieved this at least for a while in Malvern and I think we can do it nationally.
The more accustomed people are to hearing, reading and seeing things about orienteering, the more accepting they are of the idea and the more likely they are to have a go.....and of all the people who have a go just a few might actually like it so much they keep on doing it.
But first of all we need to blanket the non-orienteering population with a steady drip feed of orienteering related information - no matter how tenuous as in the example I cited.
Sorry Mrs.H. only just seen this and couldn't agree more. I'm a member of a fantasy football web forum with thousands of members and my forum 'name' is 'The Orienteer - find me in the forest' - with an avatar of a nice control picture from one of our events. I don't post a lot, but the point about the 'drip feed' effect is very relevant. Let people know we are out there (even if we are not very visible most of the time!)
It's more about raising the public's general perception of orienteering than just advertising events. I know I achieved this at least for a while in Malvern and I think we can do it nationally.
The more accustomed people are to hearing, reading and seeing things about orienteering, the more accepting they are of the idea and the more likely they are to have a go.....and of all the people who have a go just a few might actually like it so much they keep on doing it.
But first of all we need to blanket the non-orienteering population with a steady drip feed of orienteering related information - no matter how tenuous as in the example I cited.
Sorry Mrs.H. only just seen this and couldn't agree more. I'm a member of a fantasy football web forum with thousands of members and my forum 'name' is 'The Orienteer - find me in the forest' - with an avatar of a nice control picture from one of our events. I don't post a lot, but the point about the 'drip feed' effect is very relevant. Let people know we are out there (even if we are not very visible most of the time!)
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