Can you get your committee to smile please?

[SeanC]

Bear with me, it will take me two paragraphs to get to the point...

On the Facebook publicity page, Mike Shires talks about the SportEngland "market segmentation" tool. Basically they divide up the population into stereotypes/groups, give each one a person's name and describe their essential characteristics. It turns out that one of the stereotypes most interested in outdoor sport and running is a man called Tim. He's in his 30's, with a busy well paid job, probably technical and analytical. There is also a slightly older version called Philip.

The thing is that (according to their data) when Tim and Philip find something they are interested in, they will research away on the subject, probably on the internet. So when Tim and Philip's find out about orienteering, they will be all over your club website, reading your newsletters, looking at past results, and definitely looking at the "about us" links which generally display a list of committee members.

So the point. In my trawl through every open club website this week, I thought about what the Tim's and Philip's might be thinking should they discover Orienteering.

What I think looks good:

- Anything that makes the club seem professional and well run, clubmark, someone with responsibility for child protection etc.
- lots of events (even if it's not this club)
- Stuff on coaching for beginners.
- Routegadget2
- Happy newsletter articles about people enjoying themselves.

What I think might turn the Tim's and Philip's away.
- only one or two events listed for a year.
- Routegadget1
- Unhappy newsletter articles, such as complaints about the lack of helpers etc.

Initially I thought pictures of committee members on the club contacts page should be on the negative list, since some gave a slightly intimidating impression. Initially I thought it was the age of the average committee member since most of us are 45-75, but as I looked at more, I realised that wasn't the problem, the solution is simple.

Only put pictures of smiling people on the club contacts page

Some good examples of smiling, welcoming looking people are on the EPOC and BASOC websites...

There's probably a lot of other quick wins to make our club websites more Tim and Philip friendly....
-

[Mrs H]

Totally agree Sean - I've been saying for years that if we don't look like we're enjoying ourselves who is going to want to join us?

[roadrunner]

I think photos of members enjoying themselves (whether at orienteering or social events) would also be a plus. (Edit: just in case this was misunderstood, I meant in addition to the "head and shoulders" pictures of the committee.)

[Paul Frost]

But do bear in mind that the idea of showing photos of the committee is so that people may be able to recognise them at events. So the head & shoulders type portrait does this best. A full length pose of someone running is usually useless, as the face will be tiny.

Having built many Club websites I'm always surprised when some committee's don't want any photos of themselves online, but it's their choice.

The other problem is the lack of quantity & quality of photos of club members on websites. For all the quality cameras and phones out there they don't get much use by orienteers.

Something that my club, BASOC, recently did was pay a professional to come along to a pre-arranged photoshoot. We set it up prior to our pre-AGM score event, and asked people to come along early in their club kit. Chris Spencer, ActivNorth, did a good job in some less than ideal lighting conditions. This is probably the best way to get some good photos that are sharp & good contrast.
Then make sure that you have someone who knows their way around Photoshop (or similar) work on those shots to crop them to maximise the impact, and tweak the colour/contrast and maybe even a bit of blurring the background to remove distracting objects or people.

I'm sure that most clubs have probably got a camera geek that could be persuaded to do something similar if you don't want to pay a professional. But we saw the cost as a very small investment to improve the quality of the clubs image.

I was told by a facebook expert that a post without a photo was invisible and a complete waste of time. So if you are going to be posting regularly on facebook you will need a large supply of photos.

[Sunlit Forres]

Call that a smile Paul?
http://www.basoc.org.uk/contacts

[madmike]

Call that a smile Paul?
http://www.basoc.org.uk/contacts

That is Paul's best smile Sunlit

[Paul Frost]

Call that a smile Paul?
http://www.basoc.org.uk/contacts

That is Paul's best smile Sunlit

Now you have given me a complex, so I've uploaded another photo with more of a smile.

[Sunlit Forres]

more of a smile

Result!

Johannes looks the part. Hard men don't need to smile.