The BBC and Social Media

How does and how should the club communicate among itself and how does and how should the club present itself to the public? Our club is still experimenting with several different approaches.

Of course we have our club web site at bloomingtonbicycleclub.org, one of the best bike club web sites anywhere. There is lots of information about the club, how to join the club, descriptions of the main activities, links to a variety of maps, and so on.

Every club member (who wishes to be) is added to our email distribution list (bloomingtonbicycleclub@googlegroups.com). In principle any member can send a message to the whole club. But it's generally best to use the list for "official" things. Just keep in mind that you are sending email to all members of the club. Note: any such email must come from an email account in the group.

Meanwhile we have for the last few years had a club blog, which effectively replaced our electronic newsletter. Old-timers will know that the latter replaced our old printed and snail-mailed newsletter back about 2000. The blog is accessible to anyone via the club web site or a google search. It is moderated and postings and comments are welcome but must be approved before they are posted. Contributions may be emailed to blogger@bloomingtonbicycleclub.org. The blog is somewhat irregular and static. We hope to have reports of meetings, longer or special ride reports, reports of representative activities, discussions of issues (such as the present essay), etc. Often nonmembers of the club use the blog as a way of getting a sense of "what really goes on".

More recently, just a few months ago, the club set up a Facebook Group at www.facebook.com/groups/bloomingtonbicycleclub/. The contents of the Facebook Group are viewable only by members of the group. To be a member of the group you must be a member of the club AND have a Facebook account AND request joining the group on FB. This allows any member to directly post links, photos, short reports, etc., and comments. This provides a lot of fun and immediate feedback to those who participate. The number of club members who have joined the FB group is now over 80. (We have over 200 club members.) But not everyone wants to have a FB account. Some view it as a frivolous waste of time and others as a potential invasion of privacy. 

It's clear that we need both. In the future I hope to occasionally take interesting bits from FB and adapt them to blog as well.

Not everyone agrees that the FB group should be so private. But for now the board's consensus is to view it as a vehicle for communication among ourselves, as opposed to a method of advertising the club to the public.

In technical jargon, a Facebook Page (as opposed to a Facebook Group) would be the proper instrument for advertising and building a following among the FB public. If we had such a page we would control its content, while letting anyone "like" the page.

After some discussion at a recent board meeting about these issues, Warren Smith set up a new BBC Twitter account as well. It should be able to provide yet another vehicle for immediate communication. Anyone with a Twitter account can follow us @bbcbikeclub! Now it remains to see what the club actually uses it for.

The subject of social media is something of a "brave new world". Only time will tell what combination of approaches will serve the club and its members best.