Are We Addicted To METH? You Just Might Be?
I Don’t feel so good!
As we all are about to meet up again in Lake Dora in two weeks, There will be no doubt about the topic of conversations in club meeting. We Need More Younger People. Yes. And then the real elephant in the room topic will come up. Cost of Printing, Mailing of magazines and FACEBOOK! That painful 8 letter word. Wait, I need to count……. Yup 8 letters. Or maybe two 4 letter words.. Either way, Facebook is like METHBOOK, once you start, its hard to stop. Trust me, I have tried. But it’s like saying TV is bad. Its just a channel. It’s the content that is what you really are talking about. And the slimy tricks behind the scenes about giving our data to Cambridge Analytics. By the way, watch the HBO film BREXIT, it’s a very simplified way to explain how this all happened.
I am over it
So, what is todays rant about. WELL, if you are a club, group whatever, Your use of Facebook and METHBOOK addiction may be killing the life of your club. Here is how the addiction happens.
1. You start a Facebook group about your specific club to find new people and keep your group connected. GREAT IDEA.
2. It grows.. FAST, or at least creates the allusion of that.
3. You get feedback and then people creep onto it and try and use it to reach your group. SELLING STUFF usually.
4. Now you have to monitor it 24 /7 to keep the trolls away and sellers, and people from hijacking it.
5. You realize that is a full time job. BTW, IT IS, and in some cases can require more people than you can imagine. There are companies now of over 1000 people just focusing on managing content. Trust me, Edna Johnson your 70 year old club treasuer who also has a facebook page so she is it for your club, is going to get burried.
A simple search, look what comes up first. Then WoodyBoater, then others. Thats not good!
6. Now this is the part that is going to really confuse you. Your club is shrinking, or flat. Why? Because why pay to join when you give it away for free on Facebook. The ENTIRE reason for a club, is to gather like minds together to talk and share information. GET IT.. You are feeding your competition. And it wins every time. Social Media disrupted more than TV and other media sources, it disrupted Clubs and why they were formed.
7. GUESS WHAT? There are no younger people on Facebook. You are now reaching 40-55 year olds now. Thats the area that Facebook is growing, and Loosing younger folks in the millions. Over 15 million in just one year. Privacy concerns and all. So you are reaching older readers, Great, but not finding younger folks. HERE IS AN ARTICLE ON THE TOPIC.
8. Social media has turned into a never ending crap fest, because of being human. Fights break out, opinions challenged, and one endless series of DOUCHEY trends keep piling up. I swear I just turn it off on a personal level. I can’t because Woody Boater is part of the same problem, and I hate that part of it and am always trying to focus it.
That’s it, not a top 10 list…which by the way is a social media trick. But a genuine effort to try and help. I truly care, so what is our advice as to how to grow? Another list of tips. man this is a crap load for a Saturday morning..
We had a great time at Eric’s
1. Your club is about HUMAN CONNECTIONS. Use social media to drive that only. Be about getting together, be about monthly gatherings, spontaneous gatherings. BE HUMAN SOCIAL. BE A SOCIETY, BE ELEGANT, BE WELCOMING..
2. You are gonna hate me for this. Millennial’s, LOVE magazines. YOU.. Print in a magazine form is a thing. But you need to design the magazine with younger people in mind. There is something more serious and important about a magazine. Its permanent, and not mindless time sucking like digital. Classic Boating, The Brass Bell, are amazing resources and worth subscribing to.
I have them all
3. Use Facebook for one reason only, to drive traffic to your Website, or make folks aware of your gatherings. BUT, stop selling crap, allowing folks. NEVER EVER TRUST CRAP ON FACEBOOK! NEVER!, even if it on the off chance is correct, it’s so burried in the CRAP, its hard to believe, and thus truth and good advice is suspect. STOP FEEDING THE BEAST.
Party on the Ledo Deck!
4. GO TO EVENTS AND SHOWS! GO! GO! Pay the dumb 5 bucks to get in, buy a t shirt and walk around. Meet and talk to people on their boats. If you want to walk around with a big thumbs up and like people in person. WHATEVER, DO IT IN HUMAN 3D form.
Thats it. The Saturday lecture on marketing is over now. Get outside into the barn and make love to your boat today. Hey, its a start..
OMG, next they will be telling us to put mufflers and catalytic converters on our straight pipe engines. Where will it end?
Thanks, Matt. That sums it up well. You get it.
Thanks very much Matt. Well said.
The recent enthusiasm for the for-profit, commie infested fakebook lifestyle is truly depressing what should be greater affection for carefully vetted vintage boating websites and publications as well as personal contacts. But vintage boating isn’t the only victim as you know.
And its not just vintage boating and the White House that is threatened. Has your town established an “official” Fakebook page that purports to be the preferred way to communicate with citizens? Why should taxpayers be feeding the zuckers that make money off these “social media” sites? Yes, many towns – and vintage boat clubs – need to improve their clunky web sites, but this is the better course than feeding the bottom feeders.
See you at Tavares Matt
Can’t say you/they weren’t warned about Facebook many years ago and it has turned out exactly as expected.
As for print magazines and younger people, uh no. I don’t know anyone under 40 that subscribeds to a single magazine. I don’t see young people buying magazines or reading magazines anywhere in public either, like waiting rooms, airports etc.
Matt, you bring up many good points. I published the brick and mortar newsletter, The Thompson Dockside, 1998 through 2009, that also spawned the website. You are correct. You can’t do it alone and it is a full time job. “IT” can be a newsletter, a website or keeping social media presence alive and well on Facebook. I didn’t know that publishing a newsletter, much less everything else could be such a time consuming hobby. I thought it would be fun. Get the word out, everyone would contribute and all I would have to do is edit! Yeah right, ask me how that went! Between the recession starting in 2008 and some personal issues, not to mention keeping my family alive in weird times I put an end to the newsletter. Two Thompson loyalists, Andreas Jordahl Rhude and Ron Lee started the Thompson boat owners group/Thompson Dockside group on Facebook – and I for one could not be happier. I suppose if the energy was there the FB page would motivate more to the website where things like classic Thompsons are for sale. (the only part of the website I maintain now.) Website aside the Facebook page has probably done more to turn folks on to Thompson boats and Thompson boats onto people. It has around 850 followers, almost three times more than subscribers to the newsletter back in the day. But then what do those numbers really mean anyway? My point being is the Facebook page probably has done more to spread the love and isn’t that one of the primary goals here? Yes, the magazine or printed newsletter is still a joy which is why I still like Classic Boating and “The Clinker” (Lyman club’s magazine) coming to my door. If you don’t have the resources to maintain the website then Facebook is probably the best thing out there or as George Harrison said “The love you make is equal to the love you take.”!
oooops, I guess I know now how add a photo and not two, to a comment!
I tend to agree with M-fine…But if we have magazines for clubs do they have to strive to be National Geographic quality or can they be less beautiful & expensive and still convey the same information ?
No wonder they don’t buy mags when mags are doing the same thing.
Look at all of the mag “content” that is just marketing . Buy a full page color ad and get an article, Buy 2 pages and you will be on the cover Look at all of the clever sections marked
“Sponsored feature” or some other BS. Mag publishers are practically giving their product away cause people aren’t buying their retreaded stuff. 5 more years and nomags nor papers.
Yeah and while your doing all this stuff bring a millennial along with you to the show! And out on your old boat…
“There are no younger people on Facebook. You are now reaching 40-55 year olds now.” Wow! In my small world these ARE younger people! This is an age group where we should be focusing. At this age kids are moving away, leisure time is increasing, and disposable income is growing while this is happening. Yeah, there are a few of us that have been around boats our whole lives, but there are many more who have increased their level of interest with time. Like when they are 40-55 years old!
Kid judging at shows is interesting, but a path towards getting younger people involved in the antique and classic boat hobby? Grab their parents, put them all in a classic and whirl them around the bay, that’ll place an impact in their tiny little noggins that will never go away. Dave Bortner has been doing just that for years. Marketing for the next generation or beyond. The youth judging program is great and does get the kids away from wondering if it is time to go home yet. It does get youthful people involved and holds their interest, but most of them have parents who already are invested in the hobby and if nurtured properly, will likely follow that path. Besides all that, they look cute as hell with their little matching caps and clipboards at a show.
Face-book? Please don’t bring me there. I always thought that it was a major time consumer, my wife does it, and proves to me daily just how much time is invested in keeping up with trivial crap. If antique and classic boating becomes trivial crap, should I care? It becomes just another worthless blip on the screen. I was always too busy editing “The Boathouse” for our chapter or writing for the ACBS Rudder. I’d rather be researching and writing than getting pulled in some other direction. I can completely empathize with Mile’s situation. Wait for the articles and edit them. Whew, was I misled! But it turned into a 7 year run and I enjoyed every minute of it. Had to do most of the writing myself. Good thing I enjoyed writing and had the time.
Print magazines disappearing? Maybe, but I for one will miss them. In my archives are many, many volumes of older boating print magazines. To me they are the historical record that places certain items in chronological context and is important. Is this information available on the net? No, and it won’t be for years to come. In my world this information is both relevant as well as informative. And it is available to me anytime I need to dig something out to tie things together. But it’s one thing to have information, know what that information is, and another to know where to find it.
Sorry for going on here, if you’ve come this far in reading this, you might know what I’m saying, after all, this is just a series of opinions, free opinions. Matt puts his opinions out there, day after day, like them or not, it does bring out discussions on pertinent subjects (??) for us all to weigh in on. Pertinent or not, I appreciate them for what they are, a quick poke with a sharp stick, a cattle prod in the butt to wake us up and move us along. Where were we? Oh, that’s right, face-book. Who cares? I don’t have the time.
Thanks Lee, to clarify, sometimes they are not even my opinions, but I pray that get some conversation going. The WoodyBoater brand is designed to help keep the talk going, and help make an online community. I know for sure I blow it 80% of the time. But my joy in all that is knowing that tomorrow is always another day. I just tapped into my inner Scarlet Ohara.. Thats an old reference..
You absolutely get it. And you’re so right about printed magazines and the next generation. A high end magazine like The Brass Bell is what they seek out. The irony of ACBS killing the new Rudder just as it became exactly the kind of beautiful, valuable magazine that a younger audience (and I!) craves. Ugh.
With all due respect….
American citizens under the age of forty do not do FB, sorry, I mean Facebook. At this blip in time, Instagram and Snapchat are big. Stay on top of what is up and coming. Magazines are like CDs now….virtually dead.
Boat shows are still good but dump the stupid judging. At our local show, the same four old dudes win every damn year. Boring. And then this last year, some of the old guard thought it was a great idea to FORCE people to go to the dinner. And no doubt you old farts will bitch and moan, but few young people today want to sit next to Gramps while he blathers on about the correct screws or stuffing boxes. Plenty of time down the road to pass on the info about the tech stuff and 100 point boats. My Grandpa listened and laughed and enjoyed hanging out with us. He treated us like an equal. He wanted to learn about what was new and important to us. And we had fun and listened to his wisdom and stories. We couldn’t get enough and we miss him greatly.
Have a fun boat show as they still attract large numbers of younger families. Give rides. Give rides and for God’s sake, give rides. Let the attendees get into your precious $150,000 one hundred point wood boat…let them sit there, mess with the controls and FEEL the wood and let them SMELL the engine. And LISTEN to their questions and politely give quick answers. Young people have short attention spans now thanks to smartphones.
Make an arrangement with your local elementary, middle and even high schools to have the kids come down to the docks or local river beach to give boat rides on the last day of school. Plant that seed man. Every time we do this the kids flock to the beach and hopefully, hopefully go home and pester mom and dad for a wood boat.
Do this today. Make a damn notebook full of pictures and explanations of your boat. How to care for it. What products like varnish you prefer. How to apply it. How to maintain things. I did this for my kids and that took the mystery out of the boat. They are not afraid of it or afraid of screwing up. They just told me awhile back that they want the boat after I go to the lakefront cabin in the sky. So cool. Don’t let your wealth of old dude information go with you to the grave.
And for the love of Pete, knock off using and calling younger people communists or Liberals or snowflakes or whatever. Fine…you hate immigrants and AOC and love trump and think the country is going to hell. Keep it to yourself. Moaning about it all and degrading the younger set is only going to make them avoid you like the plague, regardless of how cool your boat is.
Just some ideas….
Briant: Is this the kind of crew you are referring to?
I will be curious how these pics come out. Yesterdays were right side up on my laptop and upside down on my phone.
Yes!
Ya your photos were upside down on an iPad but correct on a computer. Probably Matt’s fault….ha!
Sorry, today they’re right side up a chock full of little squirts grinning….as it should be! Gotta be a few future boat nuts in that group.
The lady in the blue shirt is Mom, the owner of the boat.
All right side up on the computer.
Well said Briant!
Matt, the blogger, telling clubs, organizations and chapters how to behave is frightful. I’m sure one could mine his .com and find recent recommendations for clubs, organizations and chapters to get on the internet, create a web site, do Facebook & Instagram or die! I blog here & now because, (oh ya a list):
1. it is after noon and no one will read this.
2. Lee and Miles commented and I have always strived to be in their sphere due to their knowledge & experiences with clubs, organizations and chapters PLUS newsletter editors of fame.
3. I like lists.
To rant about the current situation of long standing successful clubs, organizations and chapters specifically about their internet presence and print communication vehicles is fruitless. Especially when the given advice includes words like,(another list please):
1. Crap
2. Sucking
3. Fakebook
4. DOUCHEY
5. Methbook
6. Social media (in the all encompassing of everything digital)
I have always been amazed when those in the room use scare tactics addressing technology that inherently means change. Additionally when those in the room provide direction without experience or knowledge, they just know what is right. Finally, when those state we must forego all our past ways not just be additive.
Finally, I get to a recommendation – which is what many clubs, organizations and chapters are seeking, i.e. good advice as to how to deal with the issue of say a Facebook entity. They are seeking a Best Practices Guideline. I know its old school but that’s what we are, old. The ACBS International World Headquarters could gather some experience and knowledgeable marketing/technology/digital/mentor experts that can assist us all on how to operate our long standing successful clubs, organizations and chapters in today’s bewilderedly world. And not with fear & loathing or nonsensical terms & concepts. Hopefully, the new alliance with Catalyst Communication & ACBS might strive to achieve this. Enough with the blogging of drama, let’s get some meaningful guidance.
Thanks Tommy, For the record, I didnt use the term Fakebook.. HA, I think that may be the only one though. Crap is an easy word to spell.. I like that word.. Methbook was a new invention I am quite proud of. Yes, the blog experience is just as unreliable as anything. But with over 40 years experience in Marketing, my rants are designed to be helpful here to folks that may not understand whats new and whats not. Maybe one local club, gleams insight to this. Thats all I can hope for. There are also several other folks that have already commented here that are far more qualified as I in marketing. And agree. You all don;t know them, I do, and some are legends in the marketing feild. I am humbled by there involvement.
Sadly though everyone is an expert, in marketing, because its somewhat subjective and an artform. I mearly put it out there now, knowing that some 20 year old client can have a different opinion and thus all my years of experience are useless. I could just crawl under a rock and let it all play out. I care for the community deeply. Catalyst is a wonderful company. But, the new Rudder was starting to get some good traction. We all know that story.. This was the case when the Brass Bell was introduced. The club board bitched about to no end, and now its the best in the niche. The design has changed little, and is done well by catalyst now. But, I do wonder if its healthy for both clubs to be done by the same marketing firm. At our firm we would never be allowed to that. Behind the scenes there is a clear move to blend it all to cut costs and streamline effort. This is also being driven by folks not wanting to put in the work, and I will tell you that the cost of hirring a firm is not for the faint of heart. This was why Bill Basler was burning out. Its a full time job of more than one person in todays marketing world. Media dollars are being shifted to social interaction.
Lyman uses FB – allot of young boaters use it to ask questions. It is hard to watch where that goes. I would say the line is not hard at 40 and above.
If it was not for Facebook and Instagram there would be very little outreach in the classic boating community, in my opinion. That’s where most new interest is generated along with websites and blogs. That’s how we communicate to the Thompson Boat et.al. group. And virtually everyday there is some “new” person making inquiry or commenting on photos on these social media forums.
I fear the young people you are talking about are the saMe ones that in ten years want to do away with all fossil fuels. so I am pretty sure that means our gas guzzling, climate changing, air polluting boats. but what does an old “dude” know. gonna have any WB flags at Dora?
tommyholm and Matt….nice back and forth…both should be commended for well stating things. Constructive bot ways.
thanks,
John in Va.