Facebook page for the club

[Mike Farley]

We could also post upcoming evenings with links to the presenters own website?

I would be surprised if most presenters have a website. I regularly check for judges' websites to include in the PhotoEntry details for competitions and those which exist are the exception. As a group, camera club photographers do not seem to exploit the opportunities which the internet offers.

I would also point out that I qualify as one of FB's active users if the criterion is logging on at least once a month (which is not very frequently at all). That's because FB makes it difficult to access information without logging in. It all seemed novel at first, but nowadays I quickly get bored especially when I realised its potential for distraction. I probably miss a lot.

I would also point out that if top entries are to be posted on FB, entrants to competitions will need to be made aware as FB has its own T&Cs regarding images. It is most likely just a change to the competition rules since permission for the club to reproduce images is granted by the entrant when they submit their entries via PhotoEntry.

[Peter Boughton]

While I have not looked at Facebook's T&Cs in respect of intellectual property,

It's quite simple - uploading content to Facebook gives them permission to do pretty much anything they want:

when you share [photos] you grant [Facebook] a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free and worldwide licence to host, use, distribute, modify, run, copy, publicly perform or display, translate and create derivative works of your content

What they will do in practice is anyone's guess, but I'd say it's worth considering why they might have "transferable, sub-licensable" included in that.

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[Peter Boughton]

Ive personally never used Instagram or Snapchat but doubt these platforms cover the demographic of prospective members (i.e. 18+ and live in local area).

Pretty sure the speaker last night mentioned she uses Instagram.

Nobody has mentioned Flickr yet, where we have a CCC group already: https://www.flickr.com/groups/croydoncameraclub/

I got made an admin of it a while back, but apparently there's no notification of pending members - I've just approved Rebecca and Beth.
Happy to promote more admins/moderators for that group if anyone wants to update the cover image, monitor member requests, etc.

[Rose]

Mid Somerset launched a Facebook page just over a year ago. We created a closed group for members first, which we have now made public so that others can see who we are and what we do. Being a public group means anyone can see the page but we only allow members to post. We have four members who act as admin. We have a range of topics to tag posts with, which make it easier for people to find content. Despite some initial reluctance amongst a few of our members, the trial has been very successful and it is proving to be an excellent resource complementing the club's programmed activities and enabling members to communicate, learn and enjoy their photography. We now have nearly 40 members signed up. If you're on Facebook and would like to have a look you can find it here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/402028203484101/

[Bett]

Great idea Rebecca, as you I know I use FB regularly and belong to several groups nature, wildlife and photographic. I have made some lovely friends and meet up for days out and social gatherings, so to me its the way to go in my opinion. If you need any help just give me a shout.

Bett

[Mike Farley]

Mid Somerset launched a Facebook page just over a year ago. ............ https://www.facebook.com/groups/402028203484101/

Thanks, Rose, it is helpful to know about another club's experiences and see the FB page being used well.

[gcluer]

I belong to Croydon Astronomical Society and we have both a website and a Facebook page. We find more people find us through Facebook than from the web.

Graham C

[waconquy]

Hi Rebecca, here is one that I don't think has changed since I took it in the 90s. I got permission to take the whole of the library, so I have a lot of images for the future if needed./Users/walter/Pictures/abstract buildings/wac336 copy.jpg. Hope this works
Regards Wally

[rebeccaclark]

Do you know how many current members have an active presence on Facebook? That, surely, has to be a prerequisite especially if one of the functions is to act as a forum to ask and and answer questions.

There is also the question of what will happen if someone posts anything unsuitable, such as a negative comment about the club as just one example. Will there be moderation? Will we block users?

Finally, if the club is serious about using social media to generate publicity, are there any plans for other well known outlets such as Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and Pinterest?

Hi Mike,
Thank you for taking the time to reply.
To answer your points:

I don't know the actual figure of people in the club with FB accounts, but also I'm not going to name the ones that I know. Probably it's more than we both think!!

I think you may have mis-understood the purpose of the initial group page. The only people who will be able to post to the page will be the administrators. I know we can rely on them to post only accurate information, as they will all be club members. The other type of activity is a closed group - people need to apply to join, and this is something we might look at if the desire is there. The page, therefore, won't be acting as a forum.

We currently have no plans to look into Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat or Pinterest. I think Paul writes well about these in his earlier post. For me, Snapchat is completely unsuitable for our purposes - the only people I know who use it are teenagers, and those who have teenage children. Of all of those, Instagram would probably be the most suitable - again, it depends on the desire to have a club page.

Rebecca

[rebeccaclark]

I will put my hand up as a potential admin for the group if/when it goes ahead. We could include low-res photos each week from recent top scorers from print & DPI. And maybe a snap of the room from the back when the lights are on before a talk. We could also post upcoming evenings with links to the presenters own website?

Hi Paul,

Thanks for your reply.

Thank you for volunteering to be an admin - would be great to have you on board!
The idea of the snap from the back of the room sounds worth a try. I think we might get some opposition to posting images from top scorers, but it's definitely worth asking. Links to the presenters' websites sounds good, too.

Rebecca