UKC on facebook

[MarkS]

I think there's a lot of crossover between the two, especially if a group is made public.

I think groups tend to be more centered around discussion from the members, whereas pages tend to be centered around posts from the page admins. To me, it would seem bizarre to have a group for discussion associated with an external forum - why not just use the forum itself? Having a page on which selected forum posts/things of interest can be added in order to attract interest and encourage people to engage with the forum seems the more sensible option to me.

https://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook/facebook-tips-whats-the-difference-between-a-facebook-page-and-group/324706977130

 

[Inferus]

I think a page people can like fits the job better than a group, occasional snippets or posts can be posted to a page by the admins to keep people informed or tempt them to visit the forum. As said above groups seem to be geared towards discussion - which is surely what this forum is for.

 

[global_s]

I get what people are saying regarding groups, but I think it makes it much easier for people for people to share things like photos.

 

[andys]

I get what people are saying regarding groups, but I think it makes it much easier for people for people to share things like photos.

So am correct is assuming that what you're saying is that posting pics on the forum is hard compared to posting them on, say, FB? If so then the solution is to allow direct posting of pics on the forum, instead of the "store them elsewhere and then post a link" method.

The pitfall of course is the amount of storage thus required on the UKC servers - but is that an issue?

Any thoughts Pegasus?

 

[Pegasus]

Facebook page versus group.

Mark S sums it up nicely - why have a forum if everyone starts chatting on FB??

We are unable to offer the direct posting of photos onto UKC at the moment.

However if folks want to post a photo onto the UKC facebook page, it will get approved (all posts have to be approved by me which was a brilliant idea because someone posted something quite nasty and I was able to delete it and ban the bugger, ha).  Once approved you can then link it onto UKC.

Hope that makes sense.

What folks may be interested to know is we already have 500+ likes on the fb page. It only went live at the weekend and on Monday we had a record number of visitors to UKC - 858!  A big leap, so fb is attracting people to UKC - which was the idea, great 

UKC is and always will be the number one priority - fb is a fun way of attracting new folks over to the forum.

 

[cap n chris]

UKC is and always will be the number one priority - fb is a fun way of attracting new folks over to the forum.

Like.

 

[andys]

Fully agree with all that. But UKC isn't the only "UK Caving" group on FB: a quick search also finds:

UK Caving and Speleological Community:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/217322091663839/
&
UK Mine/Cave Diving and Exploration:  https://www.facebook.com/UkCaveMineDivingAndExploration
&
UK Cavers:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/767667426636074/?fref=ts
&
Cave and Canyon UK:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/667950356643461/

Indeed, if you put "UK Caving" into FB's search box its actually one of these other groups you are led to and NOT the UKC page. Presumably, once usage builds, UKC will get to move up the search results. This isn't a criticism - no way! - but this isn't unchartered waters on FB and there is likely to be some considerable overlap. On the other hand, these pre-existing groups do have some good stuff of their own - especially in the piccies department.

 

[droid]

I'm on a motorcycle forum that also has an FB group.

The FB group is very active, and the Forum has now become moruibund. However the FB group is public. Make the (possible) UKC group secret, and keep the page, and you might avoid this problem.

A secret FB group can't be found from an FB search. Stops the loonies getting in.....

 

[Bottlebank]

The success or failure if you want to call it that of a group is determined by how active the various members are, no matter who sets it up. For a page it's largely about how active the admin is - post's to a page from other people don't appear prominently. If you don't want to actively work the page yourself a group may be better
although if you do set up a group you may need to actively moderate it.

One large caving club with an open group recently booted out all the non members and made it secret and set up a new page for non members. From an outsiders viewpoint it meant we lost a very useful and very active page - it may have worked for some or all the members - I've no idea - but it was one of the most active caving groups on the web and it's a shame they did decided to go down that route.

 

[Pegasus]

We're happy with the current arrangement of a fb page rather than group.  Discussion and debate is for UKC not fb, UKC is our priority and always will be.

Being able to approve posts onto the fb page is staying and has already proved its worth as I was able to stop one particularly nasty post - other posts however has been fine, so hopefully it was a one off.

I'll try to keep the fb page as active as I can, (all help much appreciated  )

As I've said before, a fb page is to encourage new visitors to the forum 

Buying UKC has been a very steep learning curve which no doubt hasn't finished yet. I read everyone's comments and do take what folks say into account, so thanks all 

 

[cavermark]

FB page will work well to publicise the forum and direct people to it. I would definitely limit discussion on the FB page because it is hard to search for nuggets of information a few weeks later and separate into topics etc.etc.

 

[Inferus]

If you wanted to you can link Facebook and Twitter so that posting on one automatically generates a post on the other, which keeps both active without having to post on both (although they'll contain the same posts which might not be what you want!)
Can't recall off the top of my head how you do it but it's not difficult.

 

[Bottlebank]

If you wanted to you can link Facebook and Twitter so that posting on one automatically generates a post on the other, which keeps both active without having to post on both (although they'll contain the same posts which might not be what you want!)
Can't recall off the top of my head how you do it but it's not difficult.

If anyone knows how to do that I'd love to know?

 

[Inferus]

If you wanted to you can link Facebook and Twitter so that posting on one automatically generates a post on the other, which keeps both active without having to post on both (although they'll contain the same posts which might not be what you want!)
Can't recall off the top of my head how you do it but it's not difficult.

If anyone knows how to do that I'd love to know?

It depends what you want to do.
I've setup a Facebook page and that sends the initial post (not further replies) to a Twitter account.
You can setup Twitter to send tweets to a Facebook account - I don't think you can send them to a Facebook page although I'd like to be corrected on that one (as it would be better for me!)

 

[MarkS]

You can send them to a page; we did it so we could send updates to interested people by text from an expedition with no internet access.

On the twitter profile & settings page, clicking "Apps" brings up an option for "Facebook Connect". Through that, you can post to a Facebook profile, or to a page for which you're an admin. It was problematic when we set it up originally as settings wouldn't save. The same thing happened when trying to set it up for the UK Caving page this weekend.

https://support.twitter.com/articles/31113-using-twitter-with-facebook

 

[Inferus]

You can send them to a page; we did it so we could send updates to interested people by text from an expedition with no internet access.

On the twitter profile & settings page, clicking "Apps" brings up an option for "Facebook Connect". Through that, you can post to a Facebook profile, or to a page for which you're an admin. It was problematic when we set it up originally as settings wouldn't save. The same thing happened when trying to set it up for the UK Caving page this weekend.

https://support.twitter.com/articles/31113-using-twitter-with-facebook

Ahh, it was a fair while back when I was setting a page up so either things have changed or I encountered problems (like you suggest), gave up on the idea and did it the other way round! Might be worth having another look at it, cheers.

 

[Pegasus]

I've just shared a film of White Scar Cave flooding (entrance hall area) earlier today - don't know how to post it on UKC, however worth a watch if you are on facebook.

We now have 600 followers - if you are one, thank you.  If you are feeling supportive of UKC anytime, please share any post that grabs your attention - helps to reach out to more cavers, again, thank you.

 

[Inferus]

The video seems to have been shared via various sources - but if you find a post (video) on FB and it has the public (small world) icon near it (or says Shared with: public) then it's viewable by all. If you view the video on its own page and then copy the link everyone can view it.

In other words on the UKC page it says: UK Caving shared IngleSport Climbing and Caving Equipment's video. The word "video" is a link on its own - click that and you'll be taken to a page showing just the video, you can then copy the URL from your web browser, which results in the link below (and you don't need to be a FB-user to view it):

https://www.facebook.com/Inglesport.Climbing.and.Caving.Equipment/videos/995100937178222/

Not sure if it's a problem at my end but if I view when not logged in to FB it doesn't show any video until halfway through on initial visit, replaying video shows it in full..


As for the video, a good old British summer 

 

[Pegasus]

Top right, top right - choices now - click the bird or click the f....

Go on, click, click, click 

 

[Roger W]

Clicked !