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MG MGA - I am all a Twitter!

Is anyone using Twitter as a communication tool for their club or MG related business? Likewise are any MG car clubs using Facebook to connect with members? (I would expect Moss, SF, VB and maybe Barney to soon get on the Twitter bandwagon)!
Mike (Twitter Username: MGAroadster )
Mike Ellsmore

I'm apprehensive for even engaging in this topic on this forum, as it seems to be mostly off-topic and could procreate religious wars with lots of loaded opinions. But since I have been called out by name, here goes what I hope will be a single post with all the information I have at hand.

I have a Facebook account, and I consider it to be worse than useless, actually an infringement on my personal privacy, and a PITA to monitor. If you have any "Friends" on Facebook, then other people can post totally unrelated crap on your "wall" (commonly 99% garbage). I never look at my Facebook page unless I get a private e-mail message recommending that I should look there (presumably for some legitimate reason). Then I tell the person to send me a private email message outside of Facebook. In case you didn't know, these on-line social networking web sites will keep copies of all your communications for a very long time, like indefinitely (since storage space is now unlimited and essentially free).

The only reason I have the Facebook account is because our club started a Facebook account, and to view anything on Facebook you have to be a registered Facebook member. For a club facebook account to be ultimately useful for intra-club communications, every member of your club would have to open a Facebook account in order to have access to your club Facebook page. Try convincing every member of your club to do that.

Usefulness of Facebook for a club must then lie elsewhere, perhaps as a publicity and advertising outlet. Our club Facebook account generates a lot of noise about MG cars in general mixed in with more unrelated noise. I don't much care what kind of flowers people plant or what kind of ale people drink. The only way that stuff makes sense is if you are in a very small circle of intimate friends, and exclude the general public. I understand high school kids get a big kick out of Facebook activity.

Our club Facebook managers will post notices of upcoming club events, but all club members have advanced notice if such things through the club newsletter (and also the club web site if they choose to look there). So the club event notices posted on Facebook must be intended for non-club members who have a Facebook account for other reasons. We have just over 300 members in our club, and so far none of them (that I know of) were recruited by way of Facebook. Seems like our club Facebook account does not even have a membership application for the club, just a link to visit our web site.

There are lots of personal networking sites on the internet, and so far I have very little use for any of them. I am not familiar with Twitter. Perhaps you could educate me about how it works, maybe convince me that I should be present there. Just don't ask me to open a Twitter account "just to check it out" before I can believe there might be some reasonable use for it.

If anyone wants to contact Chicagoland MG Club, or find an MG club in or near Chicago, just put "MG Club" into Google, and our club link will pop up on the first page (and you don't even have to mention Chicago). If anyone wants to find the premier MGA web site in the world, just put "MGA" into a search engine and see what pops up on the first page.

This may be only my opinion, but I suppose there are far better ways of presenting your car club on the internet than through "generic" social networking web sites. Such venue may have some use for advertising outside of the club membership. If someone in the club had enough time and energy to post up accounts on multiple social networking sites and maintain them on a regular basis, they might eventually attract a new club member (maybe).

If you have no current web site, and you want an internet forum for internal communications among members of your car club, perhaps consider Yahoo Groups. This can work like either a BBS or an eMail list,where you get an email note whenever someone posts a message to the group. It allows allows space to post pictures or other files.

For public presence on the net, open a club web site. Within the web site you can have either public or private forums, unlimited public web pages with "Feedback" communications capability, and member exclusive web pages accessible only with a user_name and password.
Barney Gaylord

Barney,
Here! Here! I feel exactly as you do and agree completely.
A toast you with my favorite (shall remane) private ale.
Best regards,
Johanski
James Johanski

I am also with Barney on this one. I have tried my best to keep up to speed with internet developments over the years, but these social networking sites leave me cold. I have no wish to know that so and so has just come back from the shops and is now making lunch. It's all total drivel.

Even the mobile phone now makes you accountable 24 hours a day. Gone are the days when you could disappear for a couple of weeks and recuperate.

Steve
Steve Gyles

Lots of common ground here I think. I don't do Facebook or Twitter, and I don't have a cell phone, and I'm quite ok with it...
G Goeppner

Nice one Barney. Social websites, so-called, can gain one an awful lot of "friends" most of whom you don't know, or want to know, with the ever-present risk of breaches of confidentiality of your personal data. Sites like Twitter seem to be for people who need to tell the world when they are going to the toilet, shopping, whatever. Such a "need to tell" I have never needed. Had to resign from Facebook, with difficulty, some time ago due to too much useless info and time spent forever examining it. Please keep your fine info on one website, as now.
Just my personal view of life you understand!
Bruce
Bruce Mayo

This thread was discussed between 13/02/2011 and 14/02/2011

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This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGA BBS is active now.