Looking for information and thought I would come to the quickest responding site available.
One of the members of the local chapter of Kentucky Association of Professional Surveyors (KAPS) inquired of me as the chapter chair if we (chapter or state level) use Facebook as a means of communication between the membership. The KAPS President indicated that will be a function worked into the KAPS website in the near future.
I have never used Facebook. From being alive, I have a general knowledge of what it is and how it works, but have never actually used it or seen it in use. Currently, I simply have a 'group' designated in my address book that I use to send out a mass e-mail to the chapter members with news.
Does anyone use Facebook for their organization?
If so, how is it working out for your chapter/state organization?
Finally, if you use it and think it is helpful, do you have any tips for what to do or not do when setting up an account?
I have setup many Facebook pages for myself and for my clients.
For a professional organization, especially Surveying, I think it is critical to finding the younger generation. We need to keep up with the times in order to make our organizations attractive to younger surveyors. They are, after all, the future.
But there are also many older surveyors that use Facebook, too. It's a great way to broadcast announcements, events, etc. If done right, a Facebook page doesn't have to be "yet another thing to maintain"; that is, if you setup your website with social networking in mind in the first place, you can make it the main hub from which to generate news and information that is automatically broadcast to various social networks, including Facebook. It doesn't have to be a lot more work than your existing website maintenance (assuming that you do keep your website updated).
A website shouldn't be a stagnant place that never sees updates, especially for a member organization. Instead of printing the news first, I think the website should be the center -- the main source -- of the news and other forms of communication, from which the other forms of media feed. If built with this in mind right from the start, it can be a powerful tool that is actually pretty easy to maintain.
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TSPS (Texas) has a FB page. I don't know how many views it gets, but it doesn't have a lot of acticity. I do think it could be a good tool though.
facebook.com/TSPS.org
I made a FB page for my local chapter of FSMS here in southwest Florida. But it was too early, and FSMS asked that I take it down. The attorney was worried about legal ramifications, and had not really looked into the access issues. I think they are now embracing FB, but don't know what final policy they developed.
Nearly every day my cousin at the local diner says to me, "you would know that if you were on Facebook", trying to get me in with the times. I am Boone County Surveyor and still have grand ideas for reaching people en-masse with educational tidbits about surveying. I need to get on the ball and create a Facebook page for that, and I think KAPS would do well in that arena as well. I'm sure it will come up at our next meeting on the 12th. See you there Jon.
I don't know if this really applies, but APLS (AZ) currently has by-law revisions on the table to allow for electronic board meetings (Go To Meeting dot com, or Skypeish kind of stuff). It's likely going to pass, but who knows?
I don't think Facebook or Twitter, et al, would be a good idea, nor would I recommend it. Too much room for yahoos that don't represent the orginization to make a seeming permanent policy statement that the board and other members may not want public. I'd vote no.
There is also a email kind of website called Topica.com thats active here. It works via your email. The bad part of it is that when anybody posts/replies it is blast emailed to all people signed up. It gets heated at times, but does receive a lot of activity from just members (surveyors) who have signed up.