Discussion: Orienteering & Facebook

How many clubs/organizations have a Facebook presence?

And if so:
-- to what extent is it used?
-- Facebook Page vs Facebook Group?

OK first started as a Group, but we switched to a Page. The main advantage of a page is that the updates appear on member's walls (Group updates do not).

We started the Page in order to appeal to college students, but so far, we have not attracted students. But we have decent number of local members.

I try to post something once a week, if nothing else has been posted.

I like that anyone can update the Page with news, events, photos, results, etc. Much more user-friendly than updating a website.

I started an SVO group but would like to change to using a Page as I feel it has better options and more of a community feel. Most of our very involved members do not use Facebook at all, so the group has stayed pretty small and I'm not sure that it has had any benefit. I'm the only person who really posts anything.

I tried Facebook briefly but did not like it. Absolutely everything you do there is logged and used to sell you to advertisers. I also didn't like much of the marketing to me by people trying to promote their clubs. Do I really want to be doing the same to them?

Now that we have our website in a content management system (Drupal) that we control ourselves, any of our members can update it. Except almost no one wants the job.

GHO has been using a Facebook Page for the Salomon Dontgetlost.ca Adventure Running Series for about 15 months and we currently have 173 fans. It's given our volunteers a very quick and effective method of reaching a large number of people. Our e-mail list is much bigger but it is considerably more time-consuming to prepare and send a message using our automated e-mail software. Also, it is more acceptable to send a quick 1- or 2-line piece of info through Facebook than to send an e-mail for that purpose. Granted, Facebook doesn't reach all the people who are interested in our news so we can't use it for everything, but GHO is in favour of making life easier for our volunteers!

GHO has three Facebook pages (originally had groups) for each of our programs (but we don't operate a club FB page or group).

We have a pretty cool update on our Adventure Running Kids FB wall from tonight. Check it out:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Adventure-Running-Ki...

Route Gadget isn't actually clubs or organization but anyway, since last weekend it has had FB "page". My plan is to pick one nice recent event about once a week and post link to it to the wall and stream that to RG's page using a FB plugin. Like this fans should get link to one hand picked nice O event link once a week and anyone can see the link stream at http://www.routegadget.net, even if they don't use facebook anyhow. I could have easily done link stream to RG site without FB, but last weekend I felt like experimenting FB somehow and I ended up doing this for now.

Edit: I actually don't know does the feed show up for fan's wall or not (I don't mind if someone tells me), but at least the feed shows up on RG site.

I had Facebook group for Toronto Orienteering Club and had 104 people on it- most of the people are active and come at least once a year. When I advertized Wednesday night training through Facebook it imrpoved the participation up to 35 people per training, when I did not, participation dropped to ten. So, I think facebook does work and every club should try it.

Now, when I moved to UKR club, I am going to start Facebook page, which does have better advertising power.

The problem I came to is the wording. TOC is not allowing to use words Toronto and Orienteering on my new facebook page- commenting it as a direct competition and penalty from Ontario Orienteering Federation.

So, my question now is
should COF set up rules for facebook usage (wording) to prevent conflict between clubs, which are located in the close areas?
or
Does anyone know how search methods are working- based on the facebook name of the page or location/network of the club (b/c you can put your club address there)?

You need some way of communicating with members, but it doesn't have to be Facebook. There is also Meetup, or any tool that manages announcements to subsets of your audience.

Facebook makes sense for clubs and racing organizations who want to promote their activities to a wide audience and take advantage of the viral nature of social media. If I "like" a club's page, then one of my friends might see that and decide to "like" it too. Then one of their friends (whom I don't know) might decide to "like" it and so on. I manage three Facebook pages for different types of events and I've seen this happen a lot.

The communication between a club and its members is more targeted, which means there are more options for how to do it.

Thanks everyone! I decided to go with a page, instead of a group. Apparently, Facebook has recently changed how to set up "groups", so I think that a page is the only way to go. The only limitation with a page is that I can't directly message all page fans with one message. Similarly, when I create an event, I can't invite all page fans at once.

However, I can send stuff to fans' news feeds. And I can send 'updates' for events, which is almost the same thing, except that an update goes into its own separate inbox. Also, for events, I can't send follow-up messages to people who are attending. I'd prefer not to "spam" everyone with links to event maps when not everyone is attending.

South London Orienteers have a page, which advertises our events:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/South-London-Oriente...

...and a closed new-style group for members to discuss other events, socials, strategies etc: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_12543737...

Facebook recently changed their group functionality, but there is no upgrade path from the old groups to the new ones. New messages in the new groups get emailed to group members unless they have turned off that option.

...not allowing to use words Toronto and Orienteering...

How can anyone even claim they have exclusive rights to the name of a city and the name of an internationally available sport??

...to prevent conflict between clubs, which are located in the close areas...

Isn´t Toronto big enough for two clubs? Cooperate instead to draw more people from different target groups = "the more the merrier" our O community will be, even if they are in different clubs...

In the 80's there were 5 orienteering clubs in Toronto (Sisu, UKR, DVO, Seekers and TOC) and 2 more in the Greater Toronto area (FAY, CVO).

The problem I came to is the wording. TOC is not allowing to use words Toronto and Orienteering on my new facebook page- commenting it as a direct competition and penalty from Ontario Orienteering Federation.

Talk about petty!
And what sort of "penalty" are we looking at here?

There are very good reasons for that kind of protection but my understanding is that the restriction can be modified with permission.
Have they been asked?

I had no knowledge of what UKR meant in regards to orienteering in Toronto, but after a quick Google search, I found the old listing of clubs on the COF website, which lists:
Ukrainian Orienteering Club (Toronto)

However, if you go to the new find-a-club link on the COF website, there isn't such a club listed...

And on the Orienteering Ontario list of clubs, there's:
Ukrainian Orienteering Club

And while I'm not Canadian (or Ukrainian), it seems to me that a Facebook page of "Ukrainian Orienteering Club (Toronto)" should be fine, right? That's what the COF website used to say, and apparently, there wasn't an issue with that.

To clarify... As secretary of the board of Orienteering Ontario, I've heard nothing about this subject outside of this Attackpoint thread. Orienteering Ontario is not discussing penalties in this case nor have we ever discussed any issue remotely similar to this.

Yes, the Ukrainian Orienteering Club is a member in good standing of Orienteering Ontario as they have been for many years. I wouldn't have considered them to be based in Toronto but if they want to use that city as their address, that would be just fine. They have a history of partnering closely with the Toronto Orienteering Club.

thx Bash for making it clear that there are no penalties, which can accure later on. I will assume it was said emotionally and just to make a point. So, I would like to close the topic about penalties.

As to the history of UKR, it was made in Toronto (as hammer said before) and it will be based as Toronto club.
In a few weeks UKR club will get a new name- I will post it in Attackpoint :)
UKR club did host Turkey Trot with TOC for a long time, and I hope we will cooperate in the future and develop orienteering in Toronto.

PS: kupackman- thx for letting me know that UKR is not in the COF list- I would msg them and try to fix it ASAP.

Further clarification: I contacted the Toronto Orienteering Club (TOC) and learned that their original concern arose when Orion4ik renamed the TOC Facebook page to "New Toronto Orienteering with UKRainian Club" and changed the logo to the UKR logo. TOC preferred to keep their original Facebook page with their own club logo. They had no issue with the creation of a new, different Facebook page but asked that it not be called "New Toronto Orienteering Club"or "Orienteering in Toronto Club" since they felt that could lead to confusion between the two clubs.

I would urge Orion4ik to contact Orienteering Ontario when inter-club issues arise. I feel uncomfortable discussing private OOA issues in a public forum so will not comment further here.

Bash, it is a misleading information. You got only one side of the story.
I just get contacted by TOC and asked to close this topic and you are opening it again. Thank you for your help as a secretary of the board Orienteering Ontario and clearifying that there are no penalties involved concerns Facebook.

PS: I think this situation proves the point that Facebook is a good advertizing tool and should be used by Orienteering community.

Has anyone tried using paid ads on facebook to advertize orienteering?

It seems like it would be effective, since they allow you to target your ads specifically to people who like the outdoors, or running, or hiking, or all three, ect.