Well I myself am a cybersecurity programmer and specialist not to mention I'm 28 years old and have very heavy experience with social media in all aspects. So from my point of view my particular Lodge does not do anything as far as social media really yes it does have a Facebook page that rarely post things and when they do they're not about things that are coming up and they're also not being posted to other groups or anything like that trying to interact with people. As far as what platform is best Facebook is the most widely used along with Instagram as far as my generation goes Twitter is still kind of used but more for the older generation but not really prevalent much anymore. The best way I can think of this going is somebody is in charge of social media for a large or a district and if a public dinner or something is coming up for example what would happen is some pictures or something could be posted on Facebook with information about the event inviting people to join in. Then that post could also be posted and shared by brothers or the original poster to other public pages in the community (theres alot of them) at that point people could comment on it asking questions or see it be interested in it and go check out the Facebook page which could also be linked at the same time to the website for that particular Lodge and could even have links on the Facebook page to the Grand Lodge if people are interested so it's all a matter of linking everything together if they're on your Facebook page you want them to be looking at your website as well if they're on your website you want them to also look at your Facebook page if they haven't started there to begin with. The key will be to start spreading masonry within social media and online I don't mean trying to teach the community that's not what I'm talking about I'm talking about letting them know we are here inviting them to come check us out or just interacting with them in general you start posting stuff like that a lot of people will get involved for example my one Facebook page that I used to run for my business made by myself was getting 50,000 views in a month so imagine if that's the lodges page... Just my two cents
Social media platforms like FB, Instagram, etc have to be carefully policed as in my opinion it allows unstructured and in many cases unfiltered posts in public view. What we've seen in the last decade has been a partial membership that does not conduct it self reverently and through their actions they ruin it for every one. Political posts, etc. In my humble opinion many of these platforms allow the flourishing of "mob speak". That said the functionality of "staying informed as to events" keeps me coming back to these platforms untill the GL figures out how to stear people to a private system such as G2s OLP. However even then private portals are only part of the answer. The day of letters and email notification is long past. This is a problem we must address. 1. Not all of your membership use smart phones and Facebook. 2. Many of those platforms are crowded for attention any way. 3 If the GL produces any tooling for the use of the lodge perhaps a program to enable its membership to use a Social media portal would be necessary. 4. Policies need to be made, understood, and adhered to strictly
Brother Heck hit it on the nail. Easy to follow links on a calendar go along way. Also pictures of events, as much as allowed, are needed. Show them people having fun. Show them every one is suits. Pictures say a 1000 words, and social media is a great way to leverage that.
There should be little doubt that in todays world social media is very important. Unfortunately our lodges are filled with guys like me that struggle to just turn my computer on. We grew up in a non computerized age and most of us do not have the skill set needed to move our lodges into the new computerized, social media age. In my own lodge we are very fortunate to have several well skilled brothers that can work in this area and have done great things for us. I am certain that many lodges may not have a lot of those skilled people and need help. That is where Grand Lodge can make a huge difference by setting up templates for all lodges to use in making their own web sites with links to social media sites without a lot of hassle. To take it even farther Grand Lodge could offer classes to reach out in supporting the new media for local lodges and not just one but a long term suppport program focused on technology and using it for the betterment of our lodges. Yes, if we want to take advantage of social media we need a lot of help from Grand Lodge to move us in that direction. Doing it alone has developed into a hodge podge of good and bad and for many smaller lodges nothing to support what technology has laid at our footsteps.
So I've been reading a lot of these comments today and yesterday and it seems like there are a few Brothers such as me and brother Glen that do believe in the power of social media as well as a way to do it there are some others that also believe in the power but might be scared of how to do it or might be worried about repercussions what I propose (and this from a humble EA) is that grand lodge of they so wish set up a commitie of some sort to handle social media..... And set up a set of rules to Wich the lodges follow. And then have the lodges if they so wish pertisipate in a setting up (or updating) there websites and social media sights.... That way the lodge it's self or who ever they choose in the lodge can run and give the social media the time and effort it needs and deserves. All while following the rules of grand lodge... I will be more then happen to volunteer my time into teaching ANYONE. Who wants to learn ANYTHING about computers, social media or anything else and will even take it a step further ... I know I am but s EA (soon to be FC) but I will even volunteer to update or remake any websites or fb pages that are not being used or are not being updated or activity taken care of if need be
Several years ago, my Lodges established a presence on Facebook. Two of them, Tenino and Centralia, have pages, while Chehalis established a Group. I became administrator on the two pages, and as such, I could bring up stats on those pages. One good thing about the shutdown is that I could share screen on Zoom and show the Lodge these stats first-hand. They found out that since the shutdown began in March of 2020, that the number of likes and follows started increasing, to where it’s over double what it was before the shutdown. Tenino Lodge took notice, and now a couple of our officers are posting more on the page, and getting responses. Centralia, not as much, but the membership is either; one, not on Facebook, or two, too busy to post things. And this is too bad, as when I was posting on the page more back when I wasn’t as busy, I got the attention of a gentleman who was originally a fan of the page, then later joined. He’s now a fellowcraft, but he moved to Kansas, so we’re working on getting courtesy degree work done.
Back on topic, to add awareness to Centralia Lodge’s webpage and the Facebook page, I created two QR codes, printed them on 8 ½ X 11 sheets of paper, and had the building superintendent post them on our Pearl Street entrance. Whether they are working or not, I don’t know, but it sure won’t hurt anything. A person walking downtown for a nice weekend might run across the Lodge, remember he’s interested, then take shots of the QR codes and get the link on his phone, to look at later, rather than forget about his Lodge encounter a few blocks later. I reminded the Brothers that since we’re now giving the public another opportunity to view our online presence, we need to keep it updated.
Well I myself am a cybersecurity programmer and specialist not to mention I'm 28 years old and have very heavy experience with social media in all aspects. So from my point of view my particular Lodge does not do anything as far as social media really yes it does have a Facebook page that rarely post things and when they do they're not about things that are coming up and they're also not being posted to other groups or anything like that trying to interact with people. As far as what platform is best Facebook is the most widely used along with Instagram as far as my generation goes Twitter is still kind of used but more for the older generation but not really prevalent much anymore. The best way I can think of this going is somebody is in charge of social media for a large or a district and if a public dinner or something is coming up for example what would happen is some pictures or something could be posted on Facebook with information about the event inviting people to join in. Then that post could also be posted and shared by brothers or the original poster to other public pages in the community (theres alot of them) at that point people could comment on it asking questions or see it be interested in it and go check out the Facebook page which could also be linked at the same time to the website for that particular Lodge and could even have links on the Facebook page to the Grand Lodge if people are interested so it's all a matter of linking everything together if they're on your Facebook page you want them to be looking at your website as well if they're on your website you want them to also look at your Facebook page if they haven't started there to begin with. The key will be to start spreading masonry within social media and online I don't mean trying to teach the community that's not what I'm talking about I'm talking about letting them know we are here inviting them to come check us out or just interacting with them in general you start posting stuff like that a lot of people will get involved for example my one Facebook page that I used to run for my business made by myself was getting 50,000 views in a month so imagine if that's the lodges page... Just my two cents
Social media platforms like FB, Instagram, etc have to be carefully policed as in my opinion it allows unstructured and in many cases unfiltered posts in public view. What we've seen in the last decade has been a partial membership that does not conduct it self reverently and through their actions they ruin it for every one. Political posts, etc. In my humble opinion many of these platforms allow the flourishing of "mob speak". That said the functionality of "staying informed as to events" keeps me coming back to these platforms untill the GL figures out how to stear people to a private system such as G2s OLP. However even then private portals are only part of the answer. The day of letters and email notification is long past. This is a problem we must address. 1. Not all of your membership use smart phones and Facebook. 2. Many of those platforms are crowded for attention any way. 3 If the GL produces any tooling for the use of the lodge perhaps a program to enable its membership to use a Social media portal would be necessary. 4. Policies need to be made, understood, and adhered to strictly
Brother Heck hit it on the nail. Easy to follow links on a calendar go along way. Also pictures of events, as much as allowed, are needed. Show them people having fun. Show them every one is suits. Pictures say a 1000 words, and social media is a great way to leverage that.
There should be little doubt that in todays world social media is very important. Unfortunately our lodges are filled with guys like me that struggle to just turn my computer on. We grew up in a non computerized age and most of us do not have the skill set needed to move our lodges into the new computerized, social media age. In my own lodge we are very fortunate to have several well skilled brothers that can work in this area and have done great things for us. I am certain that many lodges may not have a lot of those skilled people and need help. That is where Grand Lodge can make a huge difference by setting up templates for all lodges to use in making their own web sites with links to social media sites without a lot of hassle. To take it even farther Grand Lodge could offer classes to reach out in supporting the new media for local lodges and not just one but a long term suppport program focused on technology and using it for the betterment of our lodges. Yes, if we want to take advantage of social media we need a lot of help from Grand Lodge to move us in that direction. Doing it alone has developed into a hodge podge of good and bad and for many smaller lodges nothing to support what technology has laid at our footsteps.
So I've been reading a lot of these comments today and yesterday and it seems like there are a few Brothers such as me and brother Glen that do believe in the power of social media as well as a way to do it there are some others that also believe in the power but might be scared of how to do it or might be worried about repercussions what I propose (and this from a humble EA) is that grand lodge of they so wish set up a commitie of some sort to handle social media..... And set up a set of rules to Wich the lodges follow. And then have the lodges if they so wish pertisipate in a setting up (or updating) there websites and social media sights.... That way the lodge it's self or who ever they choose in the lodge can run and give the social media the time and effort it needs and deserves. All while following the rules of grand lodge... I will be more then happen to volunteer my time into teaching ANYONE. Who wants to learn ANYTHING about computers, social media or anything else and will even take it a step further ... I know I am but s EA (soon to be FC) but I will even volunteer to update or remake any websites or fb pages that are not being used or are not being updated or activity taken care of if need be
Several years ago, my Lodges established a presence on Facebook. Two of them, Tenino and Centralia, have pages, while Chehalis established a Group. I became administrator on the two pages, and as such, I could bring up stats on those pages. One good thing about the shutdown is that I could share screen on Zoom and show the Lodge these stats first-hand. They found out that since the shutdown began in March of 2020, that the number of likes and follows started increasing, to where it’s over double what it was before the shutdown. Tenino Lodge took notice, and now a couple of our officers are posting more on the page, and getting responses. Centralia, not as much, but the membership is either; one, not on Facebook, or two, too busy to post things. And this is too bad, as when I was posting on the page more back when I wasn’t as busy, I got the attention of a gentleman who was originally a fan of the page, then later joined. He’s now a fellowcraft, but he moved to Kansas, so we’re working on getting courtesy degree work done.
Back on topic, to add awareness to Centralia Lodge’s webpage and the Facebook page, I created two QR codes, printed them on 8 ½ X 11 sheets of paper, and had the building superintendent post them on our Pearl Street entrance. Whether they are working or not, I don’t know, but it sure won’t hurt anything. A person walking downtown for a nice weekend might run across the Lodge, remember he’s interested, then take shots of the QR codes and get the link on his phone, to look at later, rather than forget about his Lodge encounter a few blocks later. I reminded the Brothers that since we’re now giving the public another opportunity to view our online presence, we need to keep it updated.