OGS Chapter Management Seminar

I attended the session on Social Media for Chapters put on by Amy Johnson Crow at the Ohio Genealogical Society Chapter Management Seminar in Zanesville today. She said that a group should start with a blog to promote itself. They are a little more stable as far as controlling them and keeping the contents in order, and other social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter can feed off them. The key is to maintain the blog with regular posts - once or twice per week at a minimum. The screen shot here says "If you can't maintain it, don't do it!" Blogs can tell about chapter events, new publications, "fun records", queries and anything related to your group and mission. One must promote their organization first. Be watchful about how many stories you are posting from other sources. They might be entertaining but they are not about your group. Every post needs an image. "We are a visual society," said Crow, and "posts with images are more likely to get shared." One cannot even share text-only posts in some of the image social media venues. She recommended using Twitter hash tags in blog posts - #genealogy - so that those users pick it up. Genealogy groups often do not have the personnel and time to promote themselves through every type of social media out there today. They need to choose a couple types and do them justice. Blogs and Facebook are the two that our target age group uses. Think about a blog for your OGS Chapter or surname research group. Let's see if I can take her good advice and post a little more about all the fine activities at the Ohio Genealogical Society on this blog! And remember the "social" aspect of social media. This should be a conversation with likes, comments, and the number of shares being the measure of a blog's success. Good suggestions, Amy!