We are a state museum, and access to the "official" state hosted website has been problematic. Government Agencies frequently have issues managing web pages... Government bureaucracies more slowly... and slow and the web are not compatible.

The web site has been undergoing an overhaul for more than a year, and during that process we have been locked out. Training for web authors was held some time ago... then no progress... Mean time our Friend's web site is getting long in the tooth, and needs an overhaul as well... eventually.

This is not an uncommon Government problem... government entities have concerns about control of information, and about standards, which can in cases of internet standards, are outdated by the time they are developed.

For us, Facebook has been the solution... our presence is approved by the higher ups... it is quick and easily updated by a team of staff and volunteers. We have two, one for the museum, and a second for the "Friends" non-profit.

Randy

We do treat Facebook differently than we would/will treat web site postings... Facebook is quick and dirty and immediate... More stable, ongoing information like rosters and such will eventually appear on the (soon to be?) coming web site.

Why should I submit myself to the rules of Facebook when I find them obtrusive. Just because they are easy does not make them right to use. They want unneeded information on the user for their corporate profit. In the end if you only communicate on Facebook I go somewhere else because I do not want to promote their unnecessary intrusion in my life.

Robby Peartree

I'm hardly one to defend Facebook--which I, too, find intrusive and invasive at times--but much the same rants/criticisms, or ones similar in tone to them, have been and will be levied against almost any and every large corporation that attempts to produce something of value to a consumer.

Google. MySpace. Yahoo. AOhHell--sorry, AOL. Windoze. Cellular phone companies. Television stations. Telephone companies. U.S. Mail. Banks. Credit card companies. Fast food places. Department stores. Government services.

And, yes, even the railroads a century and more ago.

It's a tool. One that costs you something. It's up to you, and you alone, whether the "costs"--direct or indirect--are worth the returns/benefits.

The more valid observation is that there are those who stoically refuse not only to not become registered users of Facebook, but those few who for visceral reasons refuse to even interact with Facebook pages passively. If any of those folks are in your target market, you will have trouble with your outreach methods.

As someone who has done promotional work for musicians, musical venues, and festivals for decades now, I have seen both a shift away from "traditional" methods of outreach (mailings, flyers, posters, advertisements in periodicals, etc.) and a broader diversification of the "newer"/"other" means of promotion--websites, e-mail lists, Facebook posts, etc. I have helped musicians and festival organizers sort through surveys asking "How did you hear about this concert/festival?" and watched them groan in agony and pound their heads on the table as they realized NO specific approach was "the magic answer". All the responses were almost always divided almost dead equally between all methods--ads, e-mail, MySpace/Facebook pages, direct mail, the venue's own promotion, friend/word of mouth, etc. "I can't even find you an avenue to tell you to give up on," I remember telling a groaning agent after a concert over twelve years ago.

There is no "magic bullet" nowadays. Indeed, there never has been. The utilization of the available "toolbox" or "arsenal" is up to you.

Ironically, as I was typing this, I received a Facebook notification from another musician informing me that a concert I was set to attend this weekend was canceled due to illness......

The majority of railroad museums on Facebook do not require you sign up for Facebook to view their Facebook page.

I do not know why a few do limit views to Facebook members, perhaps they just are unaware of their settings.

Paul

Two points for those who think every man/woman/child/pet on Earth is on Facebook...

• DO NOT make people 'friend' your museum to gain access. Your content needs to be easily reached to anyone, especially non-FB users.

• Have a secondary site somewhere because it's easy for FB users to refuse to accept that there's a big world of people out there who won't go anywhere near FB and refuse to support it. FB is like a cult in that many of the users think every being in the planet it on there. That's hardly the case, especially among the older train fan types!

The Wiscasset, Waterville, & Farmington Railway museum also has a facebook page, and can be seen at https://www.facebook.com/Wiscasset-Wate ... 279126870/

They currently have a few upcoming events, and several projects going on. The museum is restoring the original two foot gauge railroad as best of their ability, and currently has 2.6 miles of operational track, as well as another 1/10 of a mile waiting to be ballasted and tamped, and enough right of way access to extend the train another 1.25 miles north, and can also extend south towards Wiscasset in the near future as well. The original railroad once ran 44 miles from Wiscasset to a town called Albion, with the initial dream of going all the way to Quebec Canada.

They have several pieces of original and replica equipment, and if you are ever in Maine, I highly recommend a visit.

That is true to some extent. You can indeed view them, but when you do, FB constantly pesters you to either sign up or log in. It's really annoying and will drive your visitors away. It also seems to limit how much they can view.

Don't believe me? Log out of Facebook or open an "incognito" page in Chrome and then go to your group's FB page. You'll see what visitors confront when attempting to use it. If they're not logged in to FB, they're probably not getting the welcome you intend them to get.

Because it is the year 2016 A.D. and Facebook is a very important tool in getting your message out to the masses. Debating the usefulness of Facebook is going to get you nowhere. Pretending that things like Facebook, YouTube, web sites, and so on don't matter is a very good way to hold back your group from potential growth. If you're on the fence about Facebook, or don't understand it, find someone who does and put your organization out there. That said, Facebook is not a magic bullet...

[/quote]

Content is king. If you don't have anything worth saying or sharing, then you don't have anything at all.

Here is my museum's facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/rgvrrm

-otto-

I touch on a lot of topics here, but the discussion of Facebook is valid. Enjoy.

-otto-


"Tell Your Own Story Before Someone Else Does" by Otto Vondrak
October 2016 Railfan & Railroad Magazine
©2016 White River Productions, used with permission

“I never knew you were here!” is probably one of the most grating comments you can get from a visitor, especially if you are struggling to maintain your image as an attraction worth visiting. You don’t have to be a marketing genius to help people find you, you just have to think like a visitor — a visitor who doesn’t know anything about trains, let alone where you’re located and what you’re offering.

No matter the size of your organization, or what kind of attraction you’re offering, you won’t get any visitors unless you get the word out. Some methods are free, others you will have to pay for. I can’t possibly cover all methods, but here are some ideas to get you going in the right direction. Most importantly, you want to be in control of your message and tell your own story before someone else does it for you.

Your Website
There are no two ways about it, if you don’t have a website, you are all but invisible to potential visitors. Just about everyone turns to the internet to find information, not only from home but also from their own personal smartphones.

Don’t have a website? Get one, even if it’s one of those free ones. The best option is a website you design, hosted on your own domain (which is the difference between mytrainmuseum.com and a third-party site like freewebsite.com/~123/mytrainmuseum). Having someone design your own site on your own domain costs a little more, and depending on the size of your group, its an expense you can grow into or possibly find someone to do the work for you at cost. Check with your local chamber of commerce to see if there’s a local firm willing to help non-profit groups.

When it comes to websites, here are the rules: (1) No train noises or train songs automatically playing on the home page and (2) Put where you are located (with your address optimized for GPS navigation), what your hours are, and your phone number right on the home page. While I was writing this article, I went and checked my own museum’s website and found that our hours of operation were missing. This brings up another point: review your website often to make sure your information is current. In fact, have a non-train person look at your website for you. Listen to their feedback and make adjustments as needed. If they can’t find you, your event, and how to buy tickets, then neither can anyone else.

Anything else you put on your website is really up to you. Aside from basic contact info, any information that describes your attraction will be helpful. Are you a static display with historical exhibits? Are you a two-hour round-trip train ride? Can I bring a picnic or do you offer refreshments? If I have mobility issues, will I be able to visit without difficulty? Can I bring my dog? These are questions your visitors will have.

There are so many train museums and equipment displays around the country, so don’t forget to highlight the unique qualities of your group. Have you preserved the only wood-frame Rock Island depot in the county? Do you have the largest collection of cabooses in the state? Is another organization partnering with you, like a local historical society? These are all things worth mentioning.

Remember, the more text you have describing your group in detail, the better you will appear to the search engines. Spell out the first instance of all railroad names, and make sure to explain technical jargon so your visitors are not left wondering about “the hoghead visiting the crummy before the brains bend the iron to line up the hotshot for the main to highball west.” Or were you “asleep at the switch?”

Don’t be Afraid of Facebook
Once your website is established, you’ll want to make sure you have a presence on Facebook. I know some people have an aversion to Facebook because of privacy concerns, but it’s how millions connect with one another worldwide. It’s a great way to promote your organization to keep potential visitors engaged. Given how much time people spend on Facebook, your visitors will be surprised if you’re not on there, too.

Facebook is free; all you need is a valid email address to get started. You’ll need to establish a personal account first. Once you’ve done that, you’ll want to start a Page. Do not try to use your personal account for marketing! Interacting with “Fans” of a Page is completely different than with “Friends” of your personal account. Once you’re logged in, you’ll see a link on the left column to “Create Page.” The steps are pretty self-explanatory after that. You’ll be prompted to fill in details like your organization’s name, address, phone number, and so on. Don’t get cute with your page name, keep it simple. “Podunk Central Train Museum” is great. “All Aboard the Podunk Central Train Museum Ride!” is not.

Much of the traffic on Facebook is driven by sharing photos. Pictures of your trains and displays are great for railfans. Don’t be afraid to show happy visitors enjoying themselves, too. Potential visitors, especially families with young children, will be enticed if they see others having a great time. Give your visitors a peek behind the scenes and show them volunteers at work. Your volunteers will appreciate it, too, and share with their friends. Keep your posts relevant. Remember, you’re a train museum, not a political activist or kitten picture collector (there are separate pages where you can go do that).

From your Facebook business page account you can also create “Events” pages to promote upcoming dates. All you need is a photo and the relevant details. These links can be shared and people can respond by clicking if they are “interested” or “going.” This is a great way to gauge response to help your volunteers prepare for large crowds.

Your group might be large enough where someone else has started a “Podunk Central Train Museum Fan Page” or even “Friends of Podunk Central Caboose No. 12345.” Don’t fret, as those people are helping promote your cause. Having a fan base is great, and you’ll be able to interact with them through your Page. More importantly, it means you control the official flow of information about your group and can feed off one other to build up your fan base.
These are just the basics. Think of how your favorite organizations engage with you online and follow their example. There are also some great free resources to help you with marketing online if you search for them. To learn more about Facebook Pages, visit www.facebook.com/business.

Getting the Story Right the First Time
You may notice much of this column deals with promoting your group online. With the proliferation of personal computers and digital cameras (even those on smartphones), it’s very easy to create and publish content anywhere. No matter how obscure the railroad or equipment, there’s probably a web page about it somewhere. The internet has been a great resource because now anyone can share their knowledge instantly with millions with just a few keystrokes.

Of course, this proliferation of information has been both good and bad. The internet is an open resource policed by no one. That said, you have to trust and verify the sources you find online.

A few years ago I offered my services to a tourist railroad to help them with a new website and Facebook presence. The first thing I did was a Google search of their name to see what was out there. A lot of results came back. I clicked on one of the first links in the list and found a page that at first appeared to be official, but the more I dug into it, it turned out to be a fan page by one of the volunteers. Some of it was innocent enough, but then there were photos mixed in showing volunteers in humorous poses, and some horseplay. These kinds of pictures are fun for personal use, but when they are published online under the banner of your organization, it could paint your operation in the wrong light (and possibly get you in trouble). Because this volunteer had the only website about this line, it was ranked very high in Google, which means people searching for this railroad were most likely finding this page and basing their first impressions on it. In this case, the president of the group politely asked that volunteer to take down some of the photos and add some text explicitly explaining the site was an unofficial fan page.

The pitfalls of controlling the message about your organization are not just limited to the internet. Monthly magazines like Railfan & Railroad, Trains, Railpace, and others rely on news and photo submissions from their readers. Editors trust their contributors are soliciting factual, unbiased information. No matter how hard we try to prevent it, errors creep in, unintentional and otherwise.

I had a friend who was working to reactivate a preservation group that had been dormant for some years. The group had done some great work to reorganize its volunteers and clean up its collection. Everyone was proud of their work and it was decided to hold an open house. I encouraged my friend to shoot photos and send them to the magazines to get the word out. Of course, everyone was too busy running the event to think about it. About a month later, my friend was surprised to find coverage of his event in one of the magazines, complete with photos. Turns out an enthusiastic visitor had sent in the story. Unfortunately, there were some errors and assumptions that upset some of the members.

Situations like this are not limited only to the hobby press, but also to your local television stations and newspapers. While we are always grateful for any coverage we can get, nothing can do more damage than a reporter who doesn’t have time to do research for a story or didn’t get complete information from you in the first place.

What can you do? First, make it easy for the editors. Send them regular updates and press releases about your activities and events. Like your website, put the relevant information right up front, then follow up with background. Keep your press releases brief and to the point. If they are longer than a page, you need to do some editing to make them shorter. List your point of contact right up top. Keep your headline short and direct, and always include your name. “Podunk Central Museum Restores 1897 Caboose” is great example. Press releases that include a photo are more likely to be noticed and picked up for publication. And remember, occasional updates are welcome, but don’t flood your editor’s inbox. Make sure you actually have something newsworthy to share.

Start Spreading the News
We touched on a few ideas on how you can better promote your organization online and in print. What techniques work best for you? Please email me at otto@railfan.com and share your ideas with me.

Associate editor Otto M. Vondrak is a trustee at the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum in Rochester, N.Y., and has been an active volunteer with many preservation groups throughout the Northeast.

If you do maintain a stand-alone website (and I really think you should) the next thing to do is to consider your domain name.

The Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway apparently learned this the hard way.
Old URL: http://www.cleethorpescoastlightrailway.co.uk/ (Can you spell that for me?)
New URL: http://www.cclr.co.uk/ (Ah! Much better...)

Facebook is "dead" among the younger generation, meaning that the younger generation largely does not use Facebook anymore. If a museum wants to attract young new volunteers using social media, then use Instagram. Instagram is mostly picture-based, with a small caption instead of a lengthy description. So, a museum would want to choose photos that are especially visually pleasing. A link to the museum's main website could be provided in the bio.

Who says Facebook is dead among the younger generation? Most young people I know still use it religiously.

[quote="Otto VondrakContent is king. If you don't have anything worth saying or sharing, then you don't have anything at all.

Here is my museum's facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/rgvrrm

-otto-[/quote]

OK, Otto..... I clicked on the link and found your museum consisted of a garbled bunch of letters disguised behind some blotchy lines. No longer interested if I have to navigate through that crap.

"Dead" may have been a poorly used term on my part, but I can definitely tell you firsthand (I am part of the younger generation myself) that although Facebook is still used, Instagram is much more widely used. I think that for people like me, Instagram is the best way to introduce new places, ideas, etc.

This is absolutely not true. Different generations use Facebook in different ways, but what you said is not true at all.



Sort of true. Instagram is not really good for getting a "message" out. You can share pleasing photos, you can get people to like them, but it's really hard to convert followers into visitors or volunteers. But it is another way to spread your museum's image.

The lesson to take away is that you have to have a strategy that takes advantage of the specific strengths of different platforms. You absolutely need a web site. You absolutely need a Facebook business page. You should absolutely consider spreading your message on other platforms as well, such as YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and so on. But the amount of time and energy you spend on each will differ, because you're going to get different results from each.

I've spent my career in marketing and advertising, and I'm still learning how to best use social media because the rules change so often. I'll stand by what I said before, arguing against social media is pointless. Find someone who understands it and have them help you get your message out there.

-otto-