Opinion The Club and the way they communicate with us

[Partridge]

Competitive, or as well as it can be run?

Finishing sixth is competitive but I was not happy with everything that happened in 2014.

It's the Excluded Middle Fallacy again.

Just because you think some things can be improved, does not mean you think everything is run poorly.

 

[catempire]

Ah yes, I want the club to be even better than it is, ergo I will "never be happy whatever they do".

 

[catters05]

"We need to improve our fan engagement," Cook conceded.

"We put our hand up."

http://www.geelongcats.com.au/news/2015-03-17/cats-need-more-cash-to-compete

 

[vinum coupe]

Would you guys be happy with a personal phone call from Brian every couple of weeks? I'm happy with a well run club that is competetive on the field.

Mate, let me give you an example.

School sends home a newsletter. The school has zero control on how many people actually read it.
But somehow, the message gets through.

I'm difficult for the club to connect with. I don't do twitter, Instagram, TV (in general), or Facebook.
I don't want a phone call. I ignore them too.

So how does mr cook connect?
Well the last I heard the club had 100 employees. I don't need to hear from mr cook.
But he can sack those that are failing to get the messages out.

Apparently geelong needs employment opportunities. I think they can find 4 good people to do it.

 

[OzeSparky]

Mate, let me give you an example.

School sends home a newsletter. The school has zero control on how many people actually read it.
But somehow, the message gets through.

I'm difficult for the club to connect with. I don't do twitter, Instagram, TV (in general), or Facebook.
I don't want a phone call. I ignore them too.

So how does mr cook connect?
Well the last I heard the club had 100 employees. I don't need to hear from mr cook.
But he can sack those that are failing to get the messages out.

Apparently geelong needs employment opportunities. I think they can find 4 good people to do it.

Do you have your own pidgeon? maybe that might help

 

[vinum coupe]

Do you have your own pidgeon? maybe that might help

Lets be clear on one thing.

I'm not sooking. Its well known I don't care about up to date injury reports.
Or who chose pork over duck the previous night.

But we are ranked 8h in social media.
And this is a communication thread.

So.... I'm.. trying to communicate.

 

[vinum coupe]

And btw. pigeon in a 5 spice stock is awesome.

 

[dazbroncos]

Yeah actually having any teams left to play games for starters

You can see why Luxford took his chance at Geelong..

Go Catters

 

[catempire]

vinum coupe you make a fair point. Not everyone is into social media yet I reckon 95% of their efforts go into "engaging" with fans through that medium.

What would work for you? IIRC you don't go to games which makes it even harder for them to reach you...

 

[catempire]

And on the social media side, I really think they need to reassess how they go about it.

Too much of their "engagement" seems to be meaningless retweets of fans saying how they love the team and are so excited, advertisements for membership or other non-footy related content.

I would be surprised if the number one thing most fans wanted wasn't more football related information and news. Yet they seem to be quite averse to this, only linking to their sporadic website articles which rarely contain news that hasn't been previously broken elsewhere.

 

[vinum coupe]

vinum coupe you make a fair point. Not everyone is into social media yet I reckon 95% of their efforts go into "engaging" with fans through that medium.

What would work for you? IIRC you don't go to games which makes it even harder for them to reach you...

I'd have to say I'm the wrong one to ask.
I don't have a massive thirst for club information.

I find I get anything that is relevant from this forum.

Over the 3 months of summer I pretty much read zero footy related content for example.

The people to ask are probably those heavily reliant on social media.

The only time I feel there is a void is generally in the few days following a game.
I really think there's an opportunity there to release information that will be eagerly consumed by supporters.

And that might be as simple as a report / video of the recovery session.

And they could do it as an NIB sponsored report. It's a commercial opportunity.

 

[cats_09]

Mate, let me give you an example.

School sends home a newsletter. The school has zero control on how many people actually read it.
But somehow, the message gets through.

I'm difficult for the club to connect with. I don't do twitter, Instagram, TV (in general), or Facebook.
I don't want a phone call. I ignore them too.

So how does mr cook connect?
Well the last I heard the club had 100 employees. I don't need to hear from mr cook.
But he can sack those that are failing to get the messages out.

Apparently geelong needs employment opportunities. I think they can find 4 good people to do it.

I'm the same as you - no social media and people look at me like I'm living in the stoneage, but when you see those with twitter & facebook spend majority of their spare time on those things I'm happy I don't use them.

It's not just the GFC that does majority of their communication through social media, it seems the majoy way for a lot of organisations to get their message across and while that is frustrating to a certain level, most have a public facebook page or twitter feed meaning you can get information from them but there isn't the opportunity to reply through the same medium.

What really annoys me though, and the club is guilty of this also, is the those that run competitions solely through facebook or twitter and thus exclude those who aren't on social media. Even during matches where you have to tweet something or enter on facebook - what's wrong with adding the option to text through a response, or text a comment to be shown on the screen during the match, because that opens up interaction between the crowd and the club to cover far more in attendance because not everyone will have a smartphone, or a social media account or be able to access those things during the match.

 

[dazbroncos]

In this world of "I want it now", I think the fact the GFC are a footy club before anything else gets lost. Im not saying they can then ignore the other things that come with it, in this case communication is being discussed and BC has eluded to the fact they need to improve - and they should.

But id rather have a competitive footy club throwing punches with the bigger clubs blow for blow - as we have done for 8 years now - and get middle of the road seeking to get better communications than being 17th on the ladder perpetually and being number 1 on this list.

Whilst I get the reasoning behind the discussion, and the grievances, and maybe I just don't care enough, but id take our current deal, with the internal view to improve it and be where we are as a club than the other I outlined.

With the footy Arms race being discussed, and finances limited, id rather see our trainers going to all of our games interstate and local and have a Twitter account manned loosely than a 5 person media department putting out great content and getting local trainers that are not GFC staff.

The above example is relevant regarding the trainers, but Im not sure if that was done out of necessity because we have to save money or because its considered something that we can save money on, and thus are doing it. It does however illustrate my point.

With my business, breaking the " gossip" story is a billion dollar industry - see the 50 tv shows, twitter, and magazines. And I could have told many a tale. I would have made plenty of money - once - and never worked again.

My point is, and im sure it effects my perspective, is that its not than important to me to have this info immediately. As long as its accurate, and cleared by the club ,im good with it and its on a reasonable timeline.

Go Catters

 

[TheJimmyCartel]

And on the social media side, I really think they need to reassess how they go about it.

Too much of their "engagement" seems to be meaningless retweets of fans saying how they love the team and are so excited, advertisements for membership or other non-footy related content.

I would be surprised if the number one thing most fans wanted wasn't more football related information and news. Yet they seem to be quite averse to this, only linking to their sporadic website articles which rarely contain news that hasn't been previously broken elsewhere.

The value of the content they release is pretty bland, they need to get more creative and create more content that is exclusive to the various social platforms. Instead, they just seem to cross-promote the same content on all platforms. FB, Twitter & Instagram are all different beasts but they seem to approach them all in the same way.

It's obviously more difficult in the off-season with no footy actually being played but that's ultimately the time they need to ramp things up with REALLY good content because that's when all the fans are going stir crazy in anticipation. They need to feed that, we're all waiting on the edge of our keyboards and mobiles for news or any snippet of interesting info on our prospects, players, gameplan etc. This is the time they need to really leverage that anticipation and build hype - which in turn will result in more memberships.

One thing I personally really like during the year is Tweet The Coach because it creates direct engagement between the fans and the actual team/coach. This was never a possibility in times past - leverage the s**t out of it! I think there should be much more of this style content from them.

As fans, including some very knowledgeable ones, I think we pose some pretty good and challenging questions around here, which we can sit here and debate day in day out but to actually get club involvement in the conversation would be fantastic. That's what social media should be about for businesses; creating a conversation with it's customers.

I would love to more from the club on what they plan to do about our clearance issues? The management of our injury prone list? Are they contemplating trying Billie forward of centre? etc etc The source of info for the content they need to produce is all there - it's us, the fans and the questions we are discussing and constantly asking without getting any answers!

 

[catempire]

The value of the content they release is pretty bland, they need to get more creative and create more content that is exclusive to the various social platforms. Instead, they just seem to cross-promote the same content on all platforms. FB, Twitter & Instagram are all different beasts but they seem to approach them all in the same way.

It's obviously more difficult in the off-season with no footy actually being played but that's ultimately the time they need to ramp things up with REALLY good content because that's when all the fans are going stir crazy in anticipation. They need to feed that, we're all waiting on the edge of our keyboards and mobiles for news or any snippet of interesting info on our prospects, players, gameplan etc. This is the time they need to really leverage that anticipation and build hype - which in turn will result in more memberships.

One thing I personally really like during the year is Tweet The Coach because it creates direct engagement between the fans and the actual team/coach. This was never a possibility in times past - leverage the s**t out of it! I think there should be much more of this style content from them.

As fans, including some very knowledgeable ones, I think we pose some pretty good and challenging questions around here, which we can sit here and debate day in day out but to actually get club involvement in the conversation would be fantastic. That's what social media should be about for businesses; creating a conversation with it's customers.

I would love to more from the club on what they plan to do about our clearance issues? The management of our injury prone list? Are they contemplating trying Billie forward of centre? etc etc The source of info for the content they need to produce is all there - it's us, the fans and the questions we are discussing and constantly asking without getting any answers!

Top post!

One issue they face is they really loathe giving any information out of the kind in your last para. In my experience, if you ask a question on Tweet the Coach anything remotely interesting or tactical it has no chance of being answered. Now, of course they have their reasons for that - these can basically be trade secrets - but they do need to find the right balance between being informative and managing their internal information security.

 

[catempire]

I'd have to say I'm the wrong one to ask.
I don't have a massive thirst for club information.

I find I get anything that is relevant from this forum.

Over the 3 months of summer I pretty much read zero footy related content for example.

The people to ask are probably those heavily reliant on social media.

The only time I feel there is a void is generally in the few days following a game.
I really think there's an opportunity there to release information that will be eagerly consumed by supporters.

And that might be as simple as a report / video of the recovery session.

And they could do it as an NIB sponsored report. It's a commercial opportunity.

The trouble is, people like you and cats_09 who don't use social media are the hardest to reach but also still very important as you make up large, albeit shrinking, proportion of the fan base. If the club wants to grow its revenue base, it needs to reach people like you with its messaging. It's not an easy task, I recognise that.

 

[sauron256]

Even though it's not through the club, I really enjoyed Steve Johnson's blog and the post about how he recovers after a game. It was interesting and insightful. Also Joel's blog post on his website and talking about footy just before Easter Monday last year gave a good insight into the club and the way he approaches games.

Unfortunately both blogs have been pretty inactive for a while.

 

[Partridge]

I'd be really curious to see what the actual makeup of a Geelong crowd at home is. In other words, how many commute from Melbourne, and how many are from the Geelong area? I'd be really surprised if wasn't at least 50/50 from Melbourne. That would explain why there are empty seats for night games and so on because not everyone will make those trips at unfriendly times.

 

[FredLeDeux]

I'd be really curious to see what the actual makeup of a Geelong crowd at home is. In other words, how many commute from Melbourne, and how many are from the Geelong area? I'd be really surprised if wasn't at least 50/50 from Melbourne. That would explain why there are empty seats for night games and so on because not everyone will make those trips at unfriendly times.

Particularly those using public transport.

 

[SJ]

I'd be really curious to see what the actual makeup of a Geelong crowd at home is. In other words, how many commute from Melbourne, and how many are from the Geelong area? I'd be really surprised if wasn't at least 50/50 from Melbourne. That would explain why there are empty seats for night games and so on because not everyone will make those trips at unfriendly times.

Not to mention those who come in from the western district, which anecdotally I believe have always made up a significant proportion of Geelong supporters.

When footy was at 2:10PM on a Saturday, this would have been a (relatively) easy day trip to the footy, from anywhere as far as four to five hours away. Impossible on Thursday nights, Friday nights, Sunday twilight, etc.

 

[TheJimmyCartel]

I'd be really curious to see what the actual makeup of a Geelong crowd at home is. In other words, how many commute from Melbourne, and how many are from the Geelong area? I'd be really surprised if wasn't at least 50/50 from Melbourne. That would explain why there are empty seats for night games and so on because not everyone will make those trips at unfriendly times.

I think it would be a decent percentage for sure, always seems to be a fair bit of traffic afterwards. Doesn't help when they decide to do roadworks after the game either like last year vs Freo - didn't get home til 1am.

 

[CroftyV1]

Interesting to note they held a Q & A on their facebook yesterday, addressing membership issues in particular. I note they didn't answer my friends post/question, which to date has prevented them from renewing, & it would obviously not be just them. The issue with having to que on match day just to get a ticket to access the standing room - not simply being able to just scan their GA membership at the gate & walk right in to the stand room section - is something they really need to address!

 

[Partridge]

I think it would be a decent percentage for sure, always seems to be a fair bit of traffic afterwards. Doesn't help when they decide to do roadworks after the game either like last year vs Freo - didn't get home til 1am.

As SJ said, I'm sure there are far more important factors to the club and certainly the league when it comes to fixturing games. Namely, television, television, and finally, television. That's an economic reality. But they can't have it both ways. If you continue to schedule games at close to the worst possible time for plenty of fans to attend, you are not going to get full houses every week.

 

[SJ]

Interesting to note they held a Q & A on their facebook yesterday, addressing membership issues in particular. I note they didn't answer my friends post/question, which to date has prevented them from renewing, & it would obviously not be just them. The issue with having to que on match day just to get a ticket to access the standing room - not simply being able to just scan their GA membership at the gate & walk right in to the stand room section - is something they really need to address!

 

[vinum coupe]

The trouble is, people like you and cats_09 who don't use social media are the hardest to reach but also still very important as you make up large, albeit shrinking, proportion of the fan base. If the club wants to grow its revenue base, it needs to reach people like you with its messaging. It's not an easy task, I recognise that.

I don't know.

Remember ages ago I did a thread on creating a fan database? I can't remember what I called it.
But it wasn't about members, it was about getting people to sign up as fans.

I.e geelong members 42,544. Fans, 723,000

Maybe they should start up a junior supporters club?
Does anyone remember the vfl junior supporters club?

It was free. You got sent autographs etc.
Maybe that's the place to connect.

Let kids (who use devices from about 4 years old btw) sign up to a free Geelong junior supporters club.
I'd probably get connected that way, via my kids.

Maybe just a free sticker, printed autographs, and from there e correspondence.
Maybe.

Would cost nothing. 200k ish.