Dear members, friends and social media followers,

Over the past couple of weeks I have received a number of messages saying things like, ‘why can’t I post a message on your Facebook page?’ or ‘Why doesn’t the FSA set up a closed Facebook group to allow discussion?’ In this message I would like to try and achieve a few different things.
1. Explain the thinking behind the current set up for FSA social media presence
2. Try and answer the questions above
3. Explain the strategy for social media in terms of local FSA groups
4. Explore some of the issues/dilemmas that we presently face in terms of how to structure our social media presence and seek your views about how to address them
That is a lot to try and do so this may end up as quite a long piece. It is more of a dialogue with plenty of question to encourage feedback and discussion. Maybe now would be a good time to put the kettle on.
The FSA is a membership based organisation. We look for ways to support our members and this of course includes ways to help members communicate and facilitate networking. In this age of the internet we look to social networks as one way to achieve this. Facebook is the leading player in this area but there were some problems associated with the FSA using Facebook as a platform for members’ discussion. The first problem we considered is that there are already a number of large and successful relevant FB discussion groups and pages out there. We did not want to duplicate effort and there are sensitivities associated with drawing internet traffic away from our own friends and partners such as the FEI even if their remit covers much more than just FS. Secondly, as a membership organisation, how do we manage a FB discussion page; ensuring that only our members are using the site and moderating the content? Thirdly, as far as I understand, organisations are not allowed to have groups on Facebook (yes I know that some companies do do this but they are not supposed to). Instead they are supposed to use a FB page. The problem with a FB page as a tool for allowing discussion is that if you allow people to post on your FB page then ANYONE can post. Not only does this invite spammers but also it means that non members can enjoy the benefit of interacting with members without themselves contributing to the FSA.
So, what was the solution? Well, I built our own social network into the FSA website. This way it could only be accessed by members and allowed us to set up local groups in which members interact at a local level. The downside with this system is that members must make a special effort to enter the website to access the social network. Compared to FB this can feel like a chore. One reason that FB has been so successful is that it allows you to link together and compile different aspects of your on-line life.
However, it was still possible for the FSA to interact with people via FB while having a separate social network. FB pages allow posts from a website to be automatically uploaded to your FB page (something that is not possible with groups). Therefore, I set up an FSA FB page, which allows us to inform our members of new content on the website and, as an added benefit, allows us to make contact with the wider FS community, who for whatever reason have not yet joined the FSA. Posts often direct followers back to the FSA website, which helps to promote what we do and hopefully encourage people to join up. Remarkably the FSA FB page now appears be the largest FS specific social media outlet in the world with (at time of writing) 632 followers and growing every day.
This last point does give me pause for thought and makes me wish that we could indeed use FB as our social media discussion platform. However, it also proves the point that, with the FSA having 581 members (at time of writing) and assuming that they do not all follow via facebook, there are quite a few non members following via FB. Regardless, the FSA FB page cannot be opened up to discussion because of the risk of spamming and the need to moderate a forum open to the general public. Lastly, the FB page is a very useful tool for the FSA to disseminate information and opening it up for discussion would water down the ‘official’ thread of information.
So, what do we do about having a useful platform for FSA members to discuss issues? Is it even necessary given the plethora of fora out there? I really do acknowledge that the current arrangement via the FSA website is not the most user friendly and misses out on a lot of potential traffic. BUT, does the FSA really need the headache of managing and moderating a huge forum for discussion. Let’s be honest, discussions can all get a bit heated and convoluted at times as misinformation and conjecture colour things. Will every debate result in a call for the ‘official’ FSA view? Will we have to spend lots of time and effort untangling the arguments? Perhaps it is actually a good thing for these misunderstanding to all be addressed in one place thereby aiding overall communication and understanding within the FS community? The immediacy of FB does not always allow for calm and considered responses. Do we, as an organisation, have the resources to handle that? Use of volunteer moderators has been suggested but would they really be able to handle questions and untangle things or will they simply have to refer them to the Exec (also volunteers). In my experience, although many questions are asked in forums, it is very rare for the FSA to be directly approached for a formal response to something that has been discussed in a forum. When we are approached the question is usually well thought through and developed in a way that does not always happen in the forum itself. There do seem to be benefits in having a bit of distance. What do you think?
Of course this is all assuming that a FB group is used, something that we are not supposed to do. I’m unsure whether we could get away with a ‘FSA Discussion Group’ or some such although there may be ways around this. It is more the ‘official FSA’ nature of such a group that concerns me. What benefit does being the official FSA FB discussion group actually bring as opposed to being any other FS FB discussion group? It would seem to come down to the FSAs ability to input into the discussion, something I am unsure that we can do effectively at this stage. Does anyone have examples of other organisations doing this effectively?
The social network on the website is different because the FSA does not really have to worry about non-members, spammers or mischief makers. Once a member is registered and they log on, they are automatically listed and are able to access the social network. They know that everyone on that network is a member of the FSA. The benefit of this system is that we can form sub groups for specific geographical areas where people wish to set up ‘Official FSA Local Groups’. The strategy here is that the virtual group develops into a real life networking group that could eventually constitute as a group affiliated to the FSA and receive FSA support to do things in their area. This could be a federated network similar to the FEI groups.
I cannot see how this could work using FB. I am aware of at least one FSA network local group that has also set up a FB group and note that the FB group has 5 times the number of members of the official FSA group. I imagine that these are unlikely to all be FSA members. Is there a way to set up FB groups for local FSA groups where the administrators do not allow entry unless someone is also an FSA member? Ultimately it is up to the local groups how they conduct themselves on-line but I am concerned that without a close relationship with the FSA from the outset then these FB groups are unlikely to evolve into affiliated local FSA groups. The idea is that as the social network groups begin to formalize then the FSA can support them with things like grant applications. We will not be able to do that if the local group members are not mirroring the FSA membership. Otherwise, if people just want a way to network locally that is fine but this will not help the FSA to grow and fulfill its aims to support and represent FS at a UK level. Thoughts?
So, there you are. Some thoughts and plenty of questions. We will not be making any big changes in a hurry. I will need to talk to the newly elected board in October about these issues. However, all thoughts welcome to inform the process. You can make comments in the box below or else under the post on the FB page.

Best wishes,

Gareth