(Originally posted 1/2/2011)
I don’t know why I thought the minute I put this new website online that former campers and counselors would find it. I just assumed with facebook everybody would discover it. I am NO power user of facebook believe me, though I’ve learn a few things during the past couple of weeks.
I am very happy to have reconnected with a few people over these past couple of weeks. Hugh Andrews, we knew him as “Scott,” actually was our very first facebook “fan” before there was anything up there. I claimed the name on facebook months before starting this site and didn’t have a single thing up there but the logo. And I was puzzled to find out one day that we had a fan. And since he listed himself as Hugh I really didn’t make the connection. I was thrilled to get an email from Scott once the site was actually up and something to see and the mystery was solved. Taylor Marshall-Green was also on the list very early and I don’t have a clue how he found the site...but thanks Taylor.
I had several email addresses of some folks who have remained in touch - Ben Parker, Ray & Nancy Thompson, Danny Moore, Barclay Yates, Tom Stitt, Michael Reily, and Jay Jalenak. They quickly signed on. Barclay told Lora Harrison Johnstone and she signed on. And that was it. So much for the “if you build it they will come” theory.
Again not knowing much about facebook, I thought I would try one of those sidebar ads. Pretty complicated to figure it out, but you could set a limit of how much you’re willing to spend. So I said, hey, what’s another 100 bucks after losing tons of money on the camp. And so after putting together the ad (which didn’t take long since you only have about 35 words), and selecting a demographic (not sure what to choose but settled on something), the ad went public and within three days had appeared on tens of thousands of facebook pages and three or four people had actually become fans. And, I was happy to have new fans but didn’t know a one of them. So, I decided to cancel that advertising campaign after spending a grand total of $14.
And then I decided my next tact would be looking up people one by one starting with names that are pretty much different than standard names like John Smith. And through that process I’m excited to have connected with Ethan Pinkert (Virginia), Wedon Brown (Louisiana), and Davies Hood (Alabama). I also on a whim looked up Cameron Gwynn (Florida as well as Tennessee/North Carolina) and Robert LaPlace (Louisiana) and had luck finding them even though their names were among many of the same names.
And so the process will continue, one-by-one. We only had so many campers through all those years (I will be attempting to count them as I compile a master roster), and imagine the total number of different people came to close to 750 or so. And I imagine a measurable percentage of those weren’t happy campers at all and have no desire to hear the name again. But I’m hoping over time to get our fan base up to at least a hundred.
Happy New Year!
I don’t know why I thought the minute I put this new website online that former campers and counselors would find it. I just assumed with facebook everybody would discover it. I am NO power user of facebook believe me, though I’ve learn a few things during the past couple of weeks.
I am very happy to have reconnected with a few people over these past couple of weeks. Hugh Andrews, we knew him as “Scott,” actually was our very first facebook “fan” before there was anything up there. I claimed the name on facebook months before starting this site and didn’t have a single thing up there but the logo. And I was puzzled to find out one day that we had a fan. And since he listed himself as Hugh I really didn’t make the connection. I was thrilled to get an email from Scott once the site was actually up and something to see and the mystery was solved. Taylor Marshall-Green was also on the list very early and I don’t have a clue how he found the site...but thanks Taylor.
I had several email addresses of some folks who have remained in touch - Ben Parker, Ray & Nancy Thompson, Danny Moore, Barclay Yates, Tom Stitt, Michael Reily, and Jay Jalenak. They quickly signed on. Barclay told Lora Harrison Johnstone and she signed on. And that was it. So much for the “if you build it they will come” theory.
Again not knowing much about facebook, I thought I would try one of those sidebar ads. Pretty complicated to figure it out, but you could set a limit of how much you’re willing to spend. So I said, hey, what’s another 100 bucks after losing tons of money on the camp. And so after putting together the ad (which didn’t take long since you only have about 35 words), and selecting a demographic (not sure what to choose but settled on something), the ad went public and within three days had appeared on tens of thousands of facebook pages and three or four people had actually become fans. And, I was happy to have new fans but didn’t know a one of them. So, I decided to cancel that advertising campaign after spending a grand total of $14.
And then I decided my next tact would be looking up people one by one starting with names that are pretty much different than standard names like John Smith. And through that process I’m excited to have connected with Ethan Pinkert (Virginia), Wedon Brown (Louisiana), and Davies Hood (Alabama). I also on a whim looked up Cameron Gwynn (Florida as well as Tennessee/North Carolina) and Robert LaPlace (Louisiana) and had luck finding them even though their names were among many of the same names.
And so the process will continue, one-by-one. We only had so many campers through all those years (I will be attempting to count them as I compile a master roster), and imagine the total number of different people came to close to 750 or so. And I imagine a measurable percentage of those weren’t happy campers at all and have no desire to hear the name again. But I’m hoping over time to get our fan base up to at least a hundred.
Happy New Year!
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