Last summer was our first year of operation of the J&L Narrow Gauge for the public. Until we opened, very few people in the local area knew of our existence. We did no advertising. All we did was announce the operating days and times in a couple of large locally oriented Facebook groups and spend a modest amount ($20 to $30) boosting the posts about our train rides.

Every day that we operated we were busy from beginning to end. 98% of that traffic came from promoting the events on Facebook. Since we were an unknown, we were in a good position to learn the power of that social media platform to get butts in the seats. It is a powerful tool to promote our operations to parents looking for something to do with the kids on a weekend.

I'm only honestly surprised this is even a question to be honest. Facebook has had a huge railfan presence for years, I certainly have been able to rack up hundreds of thousands of views and other post engagements over the years with my rail photos on Facebook; and on the preservation side its been a useful engagement tool for the local museum too.

The simple fact is social media is and has been for a long time a great engagement tool to reach out to an audience. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube are almost all must haves for railroad preservation. I personally follow a lot of museum and historic railroads on Facebook and Twitter for sure, and its a constant flood of shop updates, fundraising and event news. It wouldn't surprise me if some rail preservation efforts have presences on even Reddit, Instagram or private Discord channels too at this point, or if we soon will start seeing Twitch streams in railroad preservation.

Listen forums like this are great for the "converted" and the "fanatics" so to speak, but if you want to find the casual fans, the new generation, and the visitors who will bring in income... how many of them do you think are just randomly stumbling by RYPN or other sites? Is the Faustian bargain of Facebook data mining any more egregious than the outdated payment practices of TrainOrders (like seriously who would pay money for that website)? Is the random foamer rabble on Facebook anymore outrageous than the chuckleheads making threats about steam programs over at Altamont Press Forums?

I'd argue Facebook is more tolerable than my examples of TrainOrders or Altamont; since the larger audience tends to administer a dose of "mob justice" via smashing "report to admin" on the most egregious posts in a group. And if you find a group being outrageous or unreasonable in Facebook, its not hard to leave it and find another group with the same or similar interest that is far better monitored and administrated. If anything the smaller audiences of a place like TrainOrders and Altamont (fortunately rarely here at RYPN) creates a dangerous group think and cult mentality that furthers toxic mentalities and exclusionary practices that drive away growth and turn many an operation into yet another "good old boys club" that will die out over time.

So yeah, complain about the Facebook 'rabble' and clutch your pearls about data mining all you want; but if that is how you behave don't be surprised when the rising generation says "Ok Boomer" to you and dismisses your preservation attempts outright. Maybe I am coming off rude, but I hope this frankness highlights the importance of at least some sort of social media outreach. Especially now with so many operations closed, I can't overstate how great it has been to see so many projects online; livestreamed shop tours on Facebook or AMA's detailing the kind of work railroads are doing during the shutdowns and travel restrictions.

I always get the sense from older members of the railfan hobby and preservation that there is a belief that this hobby is "dying" but I frankly see that untrue since I see countless people my age and younger investing time in preservation and railroading. If anything participating in social media might give some museums the blessing of reaching out and witnessing the rising generation's love of trains first hand.

There are numerous hobbies out there where the old cliché has been "the average age of membership is between 70 and death."

In some cases this has come about through technology; in other cases through societal evolution. Some of the hobbies that modern society has pushed to the wayside include stamp collecting, ham radio, and matchbook collecting. It only takes a bit of thought to figure out why.

The problems with railfanning over the years have included less diversity in the industry (I have a 1978 rail atlas here with 38 RR logos on the cover; of those, a mere seven still exist--two of those being Amtrak and Metro-North), lack of public access and exposure, and more. NRHS Chapters that used to be able to offer four or five local-origin excursions have not been able to do so for decades, or only on lines with regular passenger operations already. Crews that might have invited a fan along for a ride in the cab or caboose (what's that?) on a switching local (again, what's that?) are now told to call the RR police if that fan even just strays away from the public crossing or road for a photo.

Whether we like it or not, the new generation of railfans is the one sharing videos and photos grabbed with cell phones and instantly uploaded to social media. There are still plenty of them out there, and they see no need or use for the "old ways"--fan magazines, mailed newsletters, museums, paying money to join a club or society, etc. To survive, ANY social organization--not just railfans, but garden clubs, magic clubs, model railroaders, dog owner clubs, you name it--HAS to reinvent itself to this new reality. Those that do MAY survive. Those that don't WILL perish. The "new reality" has killed off not only record and music stores, but the entire multi-billion-dollar industry that was behind them. It's completely reformulated other once-mighty entertainment industries like radio and TV. Old-school magicians and illusionists may be aghast at shows like those produced by Penn & Teller or David Blaine, but those are the production values and approaches that have to be taken to reach a savvy, sophisticated, uneasily-impressed 21st-century audience, and they know it.

And advertising is the key. Rail and other hobby magazines were long sustained by advertising, and in many cases such outlets were the only realistically strategic forum to advertise your product. Now there's Craigslist, Facebook, websites, etc., all of which are far more "targeted" in audience than broader ones. The almighty, culture-changing Playboy has ceased print publication, as have many other once-mighty periodicals. As much as I support the old model of publishing, you're a fool condemned to "death" if you reject the new reality. (YEARS ago, I had a vital spring break in my office chair as I sat in it. While sitting leaned back about to fall backwards in it, I looked at Craigslist and found an even better chair literally just set outside for free pick-up a mile away, got up out of the chair, drove over and collected it in my car, came back, cleaned the old chair, sat down in it, and picked up where I had left off--in the time frame of a restroom break.)

An interesting experiment in the "new reality" will be the new East Broad Top Foundation, which is likely to exploit it in ways the line's former owners never envisioned, and far easier than plastering neon posters all over the countryside as was done sixty years ago!

I think that Facebook is a good thing for historic preservation railroad and otherwise.

I am a life member of the WW&F Railway Museum; I look at their Facebook page ever couple of days. Their photographs and videos are always new and interesting.
I think this museum had advanced to the high point it has now because a lot of people see it on Facebook.

I do not care a bit for the political stuff and completely ignore it, which is possible to do!

I do not care if they know I live in San Francisco or that my wife shops at Macy's.

I look at just about every trolley museum there is and Facebook is the way to do. Thanks to everybody who does the same searches.

Ted Miles, retired by still interested!

Travis nailed it.

I've been thinking about how I can reformat my Facebook usage to make it LESS of a source of negativity in my life.

So I did some Googling and came across this: https://matthewkimberley.com/no-friends ... -strategy/

Might be worth a try.

Facebook, like many things in life, is what you make of it. It's nothing more than another tool to use to connect with a large amount of people in a short time.

I think it's funny whenever I hear someone say they have to 'take a break from Facebook' because it's leading to their emotional disturbance. If you find sites that are disturbing, unsubscribe! Find sites that are meaningful to you and subscribe to those instead.

My Facebook feed is filled with Train stuff. Not all of it is interesting to me, but sometimes there is something very helpful.

As an aside, during the COVID crisis, Grand Canyon Railway has been doing weekly LIVE behind the scenes tours. We have shown many of the passenger cars, the steamers, diesels, shops, and even the Grand Canyon Depot. We are averaging about 6,000 views each week, with the highest 8,400. I was hoping for more, but since Facebook still has the video's archived, the numbers are still climbing.

We are planning to re-edit the live broadcasts and interject B-roll footage and other information, plus condense for time and re-issue in a YouTube Format. But that will take some time to get to.

Eric

If you're only on there to look at train pages and railfan-related stuff, then by all means, go with a "no friends" method.

If, like me, you also use it to make friends, connections within the railroad industry, keep up with family, and find out about events - then it's not as simple as that. There will always be some "self-curation" on Facebook - adding friends, removing or "unfollowing" friends, hiding posts, and the like - but I also agree with another statement above. If you don't like something, you have the power to unsubscribe or un-follow a page.

Facebook is good, bad, ugly and necessary, but it also should be part of a broader digital media ecosystem. As a one-stop-shop, it has many weaknesses. Views and impressions are good, but they are not as helpful as clicks, engagements, and calls-to-action.

You also have to "go where the people are" and realize that every platform (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc) has different demographics and favors different kinds of content over others. Facebook's boosting and advertising functions are powerful if you have the budget, but you will generally only reach 10-15% of your audience without putting a little money behind your content.

While Facebook has intended itself to function as a singular resource and keep users on the platform, businesses and organizations need to keep all of their channels and platforms updated and current.

All of these platforms should point back to the "mothership" i.e. the organization's website, which also needs to be updated with regularity. The who, what, where, why, when, and how are best answered by a comprehensive website that has evergreen – always relevant information (like donation and contact pages, annual/recurring event descriptions, membership forms/pages, etc) and time-sensitive, whereas social media's usefulness is largely in "time-sensitive" content.

A quick break down of how to leverage these platforms with these things in mind:

Website - the digital front door to your website where visitors can get the 30,000-foot on everything, history, about, contact information, about, news/blog, etc. The website needs to reflect your mission, vision, brand, offerings, too. If you have recurring events like Christmas Trains or tours, don't just post those events when they happen, but help people understand in January what you'll offer the other nine months of the year, not just what's happening this very moment.

For every five posts on social media, your website could use an update or a post itself. If you're posting a video on YouTube, make a new blog post to highlight it. If you've posted a dozen photos about a project in one month, put them in a gallery/blog update on your site, or dedicate a page on your site to that specific project.

If you're working on a major project, you need a comprehensive page or archive that visitors can discover and see progress over time. Compared to Facebook posts and updates, these are quickly overshadowed by other media, other posts, and time itself. Harder to navigate. I can think of one high-profile locomotive restoration that had one small little webpage dedicated to their efforts with a donation button, but absolutely no photos, videos, or content that would otherwise help the visitor understand the mission, vision, progress-to-date, or illustrate a compelling reason why someone should donate. Thankfully, they've started doing one or two regular blog posts on specific projects that are part of the overall effort, so when they ask for donations or want to know how far they've come, a visitor at any level of the train-fan spectrum can better understand.

Keeping your site up-to-date will also make sure it's regularly crawled by search engines, elevating your content higher in the food chain.

YouTube - regularly posted content with CTAs (calls-to-action) and links to your website. YouTube favors longer-form content (10 minutes) and helps your search engine results, too. If you're posting videos to Facebook, they should also be popping up on YouTube. People want to be primarily infotainment here. If you have a regular schedule (every second Wednesday?) people will be programmed to anticipate more content. It's like having a favorite TV station.

Twitter - a good place to cultivate a very specific audience and also interact with a like-minded community and cultural organizations, signal-boost others, and be signal-boosted yourself. Updates here are more concise by nature. Also great for customer service given the immediacy and one-to-one nature.

Instagram - a bit of a simplified amalgamation of Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook, but image and video content here is king. Use the same practices as you would on Twitter to engage others, cultivate, and attract an audience and have them engage with you. Ask your visitors to tag you in their family photos. Use relevant and regional hashtags to help your material propagate in other people's feeds. While I personally/professionally loathe video on Instagram, it has a home there, too. Instagram is where you can also experiment the most to see what works -- post your hero images, but also your behind-the-scenes and b-sides pics. Fill your user's feeds, but don't spam 'em. ALSO – as with other channels, Instagram is typically, famously the platform with the most latency, which means a post from three days ago will surface long after you need it to be effective.

In all of these areas, cadence, consistency, look/feel, messaging, and CTAs are critical. Never refer to yourself (the person posting) in the first person. Use spell check and Grammarly to double and triple check. Engage and respond to people. Ask questions. If someone in your organization is doing it wrong, make them accountable, or get control. Don't let one single person have access to your platforms, but generally only let one person do the writing, scheduling, posting, etc. Your photos and videos should be in focus, properly composed, show proper safety and operational practices, etc...And don't use acronyms. Not everyone in your audience knows what an NKP or MHFHWG&W is. Audiences don't connect to letters, they connect to stories.

And also, ultimately, none of this contributes as much to your sustainable growth unless you get the click, get the money (donation, tickets, transaction, gift store, walk-ins...) and also get the data.

You want to also develop and cultivate an email list, with zip codes, over time and use that to deliver your messaging. You'll always miss people in the social media realm, but emailing them directly means you'll have a greater chance of success over the long term.

Facebook is great for publicity but be VERY careful of their donation programs. They are under investigation for irregularities for both the Donate Button and Giving Tuesday. I speak from experience, donation programs that don't reach $100 end up as Facebook donations. The Giving Tuesday program has some hidden limitations for the matching and funds aren't released until Feb/Mar timeframe, in violation of numerous state money transfer regulations.