If you run a Project Appleseed Facebook account...

[ThePoet]

I would like to take a moment to introduce myself.  I am relatively new to the Project Appleseed community, having attending my first Appleseed in November, 2013 and second only last weekend.  I  accepted an Orange hat on Sunday and look forward to learning along side such a great group of people.

I have a fair amount of academic and professional training and experience in marketing and advertising and have been in touch with Fred over the past several months to offer my expertise in these areas.  Fred has asked that I work on developing the foundation for a marketing effort on a national level.  It is my goal to develop key messages and push them out to a broad yet carefully segmented audience across various media.  The easiest way to begin on a limited budget is through social media.  I have done some preliminary research into our current social media presence on Facebook and was surprised to find 23 Facebook pages and/or groups for Project Appleseed.  The lack of consistency of message and visual look and feel give me cause for concern.  In order to be effective on a national level, we will need to present a carefully crafted message within a consistent system of visual identity.  Our current way of doing this leaves too much room for error and can place the RWVA at risk.

I would like to ask you help in letting me know the name(s) of the person or people in your region or state who currently run any Project Appleseed social media account (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.). 

Our plan is to migrate all users of general Project Appleseed Facebook pages to a newly-created official Project Appleseed page.  After users are migrated to the official page, we will ask that the existing pages be shut down.  I realize state and regional pages are important and do not believe these should be shut down.  However, it is important that these state and regional pages adhere to a set of standards for messaging and the use of approved logos, images, and other design elements.  We will provide guidelines for approved messaging and images for these pages at a later time.

Thank you for understanding.

[slim]

So who's going to do the local promotions on facebook? Part of our "success" with our hodgepodge of local pages is we can put up local information. Is the national page going to be able to connect local people to local events? Can national network local volunteers with local folks who are interested?

I'm not against there being a national page. That's a great idea. But there are things that simply won't get done on a national page and many things I don't want to sift through. I don't care if Idaho is having an event this weekend. Whooptidy doo. Oh, Arkansas got a new Orange Hat? Fabulous. That don't confront me.

But, if I see that Daniel from Kalamazoo (who posted on our page all by himself) is shooting at Lapeer next weekend I might just ask HIM why I should go too.

Facebook isn't about us putting our official message out there. Facebook is about letting folks unofficially network.

Should we use it as the outstanding marketing tool it can be? Absolutely. But we, as local volunteers, will then just have to set up "the unofficial Appleseed facebook page of ____ state."

[slim]

BTW I am an admin on Ohio's Appleseed facebook page. I gave up trying to figure out which set of rules we were supposed to be following a long time ago and now just post there for fun... like everyone else who goes to facebook without getting paid for it.

[HippieChick]

I'm another admin. A national page sounds great. Taking away regional and state pages is absolutely absurd. We have 600 fans, many of whom are rather active via PM to the page, posting pictures, links and comments to the page and coming to find out about LOCAL AS information. There is -no- way a stuffy, officially regulated page with ZERO local flavor or personality is going to keep local's attention. As Slim stated, no one cares what is going on 8 states over.
Also, I assume this national page will be regulated by a few handpicked folks. Thereby leaving the rest of us volunteers without a ton to do. Local jobs continue to be ousted in favor of national level stuff. Honestly, good luck.

[ThePoet]

So who's going to do the local promotions on facebook? Part of our "success" with our hodgepodge of local pages is we can put up local information. Is the national page going to be able to connect local people to local events? Can national network local volunteers with local folks who are interested?

I'm not against there being a national page. That's a great idea. But there are things that simply won't get done on a national page and many things I don't want to sift through. I don't care if Idaho is having an event this weekend. Whooptidy doo. Oh, Arkansas got a new Orange Hat? Fabulous. That don't confront me.

But, if I see that Daniel from Kalamazoo (who posted on our page all by himself) is shooting at Lapeer next weekend I might just ask HIM why I should go too.

Facebook isn't about us putting our official message out there. Facebook is about letting folks unofficially network.

Should we use it as the outstanding marketing tool it can be? Absolutely. But we, as local volunteers, will then just have to set up "the unofficial Appleseed facebook page of ____ state."

slim, thank you for your feedback.  I would like to reiterate that state and regional pages will be left as they are with very few messaging and content guidelines.

[ThePoet]

I'm another admin. A national page sounds great. Taking away regional and state pages is absolutely absurd. We have 600 fans, many of whom are rather active via PM to the page, posting pictures, links and comments to the page and coming to find out about LOCAL AS information. There is -no- way a stuffy, officially regulated page with ZERO local flavor or personality is going to keep local's attention. As Slim stated, no one cares what is going on 8 states over.
Also, I assume this national page will be regulated by a few handpicked folks. Thereby leaving the rest of us volunteers without a ton to do. Local jobs continue to be ousted in favor of national level stuff. Honestly, good luck.

I thought I was pretty clear that state and regional pages are to be left alone for the most part.  In case it was misunderstood from my original post, I would like to say again that state and regional pages will be left intact apart from some very loose guidelines for messaging and content.  State and local FB pages are very useful tools for the reasons you mention. 

Thanks for weighing in on this issue.  I know it's important to a lot of folks and we intend to proceed very carefully.

Poet

[connibear]

State and local FB pages are very useful tools for the reasons you mention. 

You add local with State? I thought you were shutting down anything that wasn't state or regional? Plus if local pages are very useful then why in the world do you want to shut them down?

apart from some very loose guidelines for messaging and content

Your talking about very loose guide lines. If they are so loose what's the point in them? Everyone is probably following them already?

I guess I'm now truly confused on what RWVA is trying to do.

[slim]

slim, thank you for your feedback.  I would like to reiterate that state and regional pages will be left as they are with very few messaging and content guidelines.

Yeah, I missed that part. It sounded to me like you were going to shut down what is already working locally just so someone brand new could pretend like they were doing something coordinated on the national level.

If you do a little more research you'll find all these "good ideas" about standardizing things nationally just tick everyone local off and the national point man loses his backing and enthusiasm for the project only to step away or have someone else take credit for the job.

But hey, you do this for a living so what do I know. Let me know what we can do to help make Ohio's facebook page feel more like Appleseed.

[HippieChick]

Our plan is to migrate all users of general Project Appleseed Facebook pages to a newly-created official Project Appleseed page.  After users are migrated to the official page, we will ask that the existing pages be shut down.  I realize state and regional pages are important and do not believe these should be shut down.  However, it is important that these state and regional pages adhere to a set of standards for messaging and the use of approved logos, images, and other design elements.  We will provide guidelines for approved messaging and images for these pages at a later time.
[/quote]
Actually, it's kind of clear as mud.
Ok. So state and regional pages are left. What is being shut down and by whom? Is RWVA going to be sending out FB police to monitor page activity? As I have understood from the many, many, MANY times this has tried to be regulated, as long as page content remains appropriate, apolitical and generally Appleseed based, it's "approved."
I'm not generally one to stir the sh*t pot, however, it's really frustrating to have spent a lot of time-volunteer time- on a project, build a following and gain the trust of said followers only to have " the new sheriff in town" come along and regulate.
If there is inappropriate activity on other pages, it needs dealt with individually. Regulating a nation of volunteers seems like a pretty futile attempt IMO.

[floydf]

Our plan is to migrate all users of general Project Appleseed Facebook pages to a newly-created official Project Appleseed page.  After users are migrated to the official page, we will ask that the existing pages be shut down.  ages at a later time.

Actually, it's kind of clear as mud.

Heck, I'm just interested in seeing what is involved in "migrating users of Facebook"

[HippieChick]

Exactly! Very few are going to give a rats bottom if we say "Ok, so we made a shiny new page because, well jut because. So come click like over here instead of over here!"

[George Hacker]

The key is making the national page informative and attractive.  "If you build it, they will come"

There is a "Sons of Liberty" facebook page that is willing to give us a shout out at a national level, but there wasn't much to point them to.

ShadowMan

[Pain Killer]

Hi everyone. Please refer to this post that is for Appleseed Instructors and continue to make you comments there.

Thanks,
PK

http://appleseedinfo.org/smf/index.php?topic=39574.0

[George Hacker]

With fifty-one threads to choose from, it's hard to stick with just one.

[Pain Killer]

49 are public and he didn't know better, but we should. 

[scuzzy]

With fifty-one threads to choose from, it's hard to stick with just one.

Laughing out Loud.  Ain't it the truth. Jeez - I almost just snorted liquid refreshment out through my nose.

And thanks to ThePoet for undertaking the mind numbing task of herding cats.