Wheres the Facebook Group!

NicfromSweden 13
mani 8
bigmick 6
majwalrus 5
JiMMM 5
serbulator 4
silky 4
johncoxon 4
Gocu 4
kristof 3

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[mani]

Come on English Hockey!

Use the most popular medium IN THE WORLD to promote the game in this country!

By Monday morning i want all the Prem scores and scorers. I want a paragraph report of each game. I want pics and opinion.
No one checks emails or websites or forums, but everyone checks their facebook!

This years Slaz EHL should have its own group - give the sponsors value for money.
Get 10,000 group member.
Brand it up, sell it, promote league games - send teaser emails on a Friday before a big game (Beeston v Cannock - EG v Reading), send updates by 9am Monday morning, so the first thing the group members read is a mail from English Hockey informing everyone of the scores, the highs, the lows, the cards, the bizarre and the unexpected.

In other words - do what every other sport in the Britain IS NOT doing!

Christ - i'd run it if someone gave me the authority!.

[alex.]

Ditto my TH.net post!

[johncoxon]

Well Manny , could not agree with you more . The upgrade of the England Hockey website is very , very  impressive but yet  they are so very slow in terms of writing decent  press releases ,are just so conservative , naive abiut the media and providing us up to the minute information and that is lamentable and still rather amatuer in my view.  It  is almost as if they just don't work weekends and well , if you are professional, you have a passion and whatever day it is you do your stuff staright away and get it on line.

 Last year I covered the England Prem ladies  for my local team Poynton  , went to the games , wrote a match report immediatley  , for the Women Sport Report website,  a non profit making website , straight after  the game and also a review of all other results in that league and posted shots and consistently beat EH to the post  as one of their media people finally  got round to it mid week with their dull formulaic reports  and that is just so unproffessianal and not good enough.

 I agree with you about Facebook and have been trying to encourage clubs , in the Premier  league , for example , to make widest use of Facebook , as it is self perpetuating and does not rely on one person taking all the responisbility. When I look at , for example , my other sport favourite sport , Triathlon , well the ITU  are world leaders in terms of using this technoclogy and have their stuff on line minutes after it happens   and EH  have so far to go in meeting the same standard. 

[John]

except I can't look at facebook through the company firewall 

[mani]

but you can at home!
And you get a summary email to your inbox telling you that you have mail!

[keely]

That's right, John. Not to mention many of the other significant limitations that FB presents. How about the inability to generate advertising revenue? Incredibly limited applets and tools to present content? What happens when FB is no longer cool?

(Don't get me wrong, I love FB - as a means to keep up with my friends.)

The fact of the matter is that this isn't a technological problem that you can solve by throwing a different tool at. If the stories about matches are going to be there, someone has to write them. How many FB groups did you join to find that absolutely squat happened on them because no one contributed any content?

People would visit the existing sites if the content was there. Content drives page views - not the other way around.

[mani]

Completely agree about the limitations.
but i never expected wanted the FB age to be a Daily Telegraph type piece of journalism!

Its a pop-shot of the essentail info about the weekends games!
im not expecting someone to write a piece as long as the Tuesday mini-essay that EH spurt out!

Im expecting someone to give all the info, the scorers, that tables and the highlights in a quick info-bite!

What happens when facebook isnt cool, we move to the next one.
Simple.

[keely]

Im expecting someone to give all the info, the scorers, that tables and the highlights in a quick info-bite!

And who's that going to be again?

I'm not trying to be a Negative Nelly, but I think that we spend too much time wrapped up in the tech of the message rather than the message - and being a serious geek, I'm as guilty of this as anyone. But having spent the last couple of years running websites for my local league and my uni club, I know that the tools are there - the sticking point is finding the people with the time and commitment to provide the information and content. It has to be systematic and regimented, and this is where any organization's website or FB group, what have you, falls down.

[mani]

Well as a work for an IT marketing agency - i think i can find the time!

But im not on about me running it - im on about someone at EH doing their job!

[FlashingBlade]

If they were to go to the trouble of keeping a facebook group updated why not just post the match reports on there own website creating more hits and being able to barter for more advertising revenue.

[controller]

All the answers above, EH does not need FB, anyhow, ask Hockey Addict, he has several groups on there.

[mani]

Well ive always been told that SOMETHING is better than NOTHING!

Right now, NOTHING is happening in terms of promoting the top league, so im suggesting SOMETHING!

[keely]

The SOMETHING you're looking for isn't technology, or a particular website - it's PEOPLE.

[NE14HOCKEY]

Well join http://www.new.facebook.com/inbox/#/group.php?gid=2521428416 and help the NE14HOCKEY revolution.

I personally think the best chance we as a community have to get that kind of information is to go to the source which in this case is those top 20 clubs in the country that play these games. Then my the EH will cotton on?