Social Media, Ham Radio, and our local club

Our outgoing local ham radio club president asked me to write up something for the summer newsletter about our newest social media endeavors. He also wanted something for newbies in social media. This is the article I'm submitting--

“Social Media and Ham Radio and our Club” by Rebecca Addison, K1BKY

Al asked me to write up something for the “Communicator” about social media on very 
short notice. Social Media covers a lot of territory. Some club members use social media
 and some do not. Those of us who do use it use it in different ways. I am by no means an 
“expert”. I’m just a frequent user.

A quick Google search on “Social Media for newbies” gives back several places to get 
started. Here’s a few from the top of the list:

https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-social-media

https://mashable.com/2012/06/12/social-media-beginners-guide/#8Vy23y15Y8qw

https://buildfire.com/beginners-guide-to-social-media-for-small-business/

To quote from that last link that’s targeted toward small businesses “Social media gives 
you direct access and communication with these potential customers to grow your brand 
with little cost.

Social Media is the fastest way to create awareness. It’s only through social media that a 
post can go viral within minutes, with no restrictions.”

This is a great opportunity for us but it does take work.  We can use social media to get the 
word out about our events and build community with our members.

For a long time we’ve had a Facebook group that has had some activity. We’ve tried to boost
 that recently. In the past few weeks I’ve created a Facebook page also. The group is a good 
place for discussions and community. The page is a good place to post events and
 information.

We also now have a Twitter account. Twitter is more limited because of the character limit. 
For the club it’s a good place to say “Hey we’re doing this… and go to the website for the 
details….”

The ARRL has a social media presence in several places- Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,
 YouTube, SnapChat, and LinkedIn.

All the “cool kids” use Instagram and Snapchat. I’m personally NOT that cool yet so I haven’t
 taken those on for the club. If you are one of the “cool kids” and want to help let’s talk! We 
could expand our club’s social media outreach to other platforms.

If you happen to have a copy of “Ham Radio for Dummies” 3rd edition, online edition.
 by H. Ward Silver Published by For Dummies, 2018

you can flip to chapter 3 and read about “Finding other hams: Your Support group”. 
(The Umass libraries has the digital edition so if you’ve got a Umass email address you can
 read it online.) I don’t want to quote too heavily but I’ll pull out this

“Social media and blogs

Everything has a presence online, and ham radio is no different. Just search for ham radio
  on Facebook, for example, and you’ll find dozens of possibilities, ranging from
 general-interest clubs to emergency communications to license-exam practice to contesting
 — and more.

Here are two popular streams of information about amateur radio:

• Twitter: twitter.com/amateurradio (@Amateurradio) or search for ham radio topics
   at https://twitter.com/search?q=ham+radio
• Reddit: www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio and www.reddit.com/r/hamradio”

Personally I lurk on Reddit but don’t post much. Aaron, KC1CXX, posts on Reddit but I don’t
 even know his user name. Reddit tends to be more anonymous than some of the other
 social media platforms. It’s a good place for individuals but I’m not convinced that the Club
 needs to have a presence there.

The author goes on to talk about videos, podcasts, and webinars. We all know about 
“Ham Nation” by now though, don’t we?

From personal experience- The Facebook group has some local interaction. The Facebook
 page helps us to promote the club to people who might not be members. With Twitter we 
can use #Hashtags and reach people who have never heard of us.  I found Twitter to be a 
great source of support when I was studying for my license exams. By using #hamradio 
and #amateurradio I was able to build an online support network that guided me toward 
better study materials and acted as an online support group when I struggled with the Extra
 exam. For me, Twitter and Facebook reach different audiences. Your mileage may vary.

I think that having a solid website is the backbone of our club’s online presence. From that 
we can reach out through social media to draw people in. Think of social media as the 
advertising and the website as the actual storefront. Of course ourselves, our events, and 
our community are the real deal behind it all.

Stepping off of the David Duchovny Fan Wagon

I’m sure no one really calls it a “fan wagon” but about a year ago I was really liking 
David Duchovny’s second book, “Bucky Fucking Dent” and I was listening to his first music 
cd quite a bit. His music sounded like a “divorce album” but there were a couple of 
songs I liked. Maybe more. I was disappointed by his second album for some reason. 
I bought it. Listened to it a couple of times and then tossed it in the trunk of my car
 with RIck Springfield’s newest album which I also hated. Rick Springfield’s album 
was just weird in a not good way. It wasn’t the “Jessie’s Girl” kind of stuff that we
 all remember him for.

Anyway I pre-ordered “Miss Subways” because I liked “Bucky F. Dent” so much 
and I followed the fans on Twitter and I followed David Duchovny and his dog on Twitter too.
 Months went by. The book came out and I set it on the shelf for when I had more time.

Well on the 4th of July I finally had more time. Unfortunately I couldn’t even finish the 
first three chapters before I started skimming. I disliked it so much that I didn’t even flip t
o the back to see how it ended. I just didn’t care. I can’t remember the last time I didn’t
 even flip to the back. I unloaded the book at my neighborhood “Little Library” that is next to
 our mailbox.

I hope someone appreciates the book more than I did.

I’m taking this a step further. I’m out of the fandom. I unfollowed David, his dog, and many
 of his fans. I deleted my list of Duchovny fans on Twitter too. I imagine some of them will 
figure it out and unfollow me back if they were even following me in the first place.

Life goes on. I still haven’t finished that Bruce Springsteen book that I started two years 
ago and I’ve got a book I bought super cheap from the bargain bin to read too.