Friday, November 5, 2010

Its the End of the World as We Know It

and I feel slightly nauseous. Couple of reasons. I've got some good Off Season rumorology but am currently sworn to secrecy. I'm a sunshine laws and transparency kind of guy so staying silent sucks but I'm also a paintball realist (cynic) so I'm not sure I believe anything I've heard. Contributing the lion's share to my current queasiness is a decision to take the social media plunge with my Facebook page. Sure VFTD is already tweeting but VFTD doesn't follow anyone--okay, it's actually 6 but one of those was a pity follow. The end result of that is that Twitter hasn't really expanded VFTD's audience, it's just another avenue to inform regulars of what's been posted. (Although I do put original material up on Twitter occasionally and, no, it never has anything to do with the mundane activities of daily life.) From today forward VFTD will be making an attempt to use these so-called social media tools for my nefarious and self-serving purposes. There is one problem however. I still don't totally get how these things work--and I don't handle rejection well. What if somebody I don't know and doesn't know me doesn't want to be my friend? Will the rejection be devastating? I hope not otherwise I might soon be tweeting about how I cried myself to sleep--again.
If you're into the social media thing please drop by. You're even welcome to point and laugh about how I insisted I'd never do this. I deserve it--but I do have a plan. It's a cunning plan and if it works it will be worth the loss of dignity. If you're not now is the time to get started, while VFTD is the focus of mocking attention.
To get started I'm working on a couple of things. First, I've set-up a TBD group for team members only. So far Jason is the only one on board. Since I know some of the rest of you can (and do) read (this site) you need to get on board. It'll be an easy way to keep in touch--for me. (Btw, there's also a team page on Facebook.) The other thing I'm trying to figure out is how to do a unique poll--the sort of thing I don't do on VFTD but still paintball-related. (Which reminds me, there will be a new The Monday Poll coming out on Monday you won't want to miss.)
The Facebook page will have some unique content and be less structured than the blog. It will also be the primary contact as I (slowly) move forward with my assorted coach-for-hire schemes.
So there you have it. Let the slings & arrows begin.

9 comments:

Matthew said...

Instead of using your personal name or a personal page you may want to look into using a Page for this instead. It allows anyone to join without you having to 'accept them' and it can give you more useful statistics and what not for how your page is doing. You can also do a custom URL for it once you get enough fans. Our company uses www.facebook.com/Saints.Paintball and we have been very pleased with how this has worked.

Baca Loco said...

Thanks, Matthew. I'll look into it. The current page is the result of an old dormant page I've resurrected.

abc said...

End of the world? TBD breeaking up? Or is Dye pulling out of the PSP?

Anonymous said...

OLang is pulling out of Dye...

Baca Loco said...

TBD is fine and focused on improving for next year.

Twisted Games Of Texas Paintball said...

I think you will find the super secret team page very handy. I set one up for VcK a while back (along with a "fan" page)and it is so much easier to discuss team stuff, post info, etc. Not to mention a page for the field. It is awesome to be able to send info out to hundreds of people in just seconds....and the best part is that it's FREE!

houdini said...

Nice to see you have ventured on to fb. I agree with the above... start a VFTD fan page - much easier to manage and people can add themselves as fans rather than you having to respond to friend's requests... you can also mass message all the fans with one click...

While you're in an updating mood can you consider linking paintballnews.asia in your weblinks. Thanks.

Baca Loco said...

The jury remains out. ;-)
Glad to add the link.

Anonymous said...

Bah, I can't access facebook from work...