{"id":97360,"date":"2025-08-15T10:27:52","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T14:27:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/?p=97360"},"modified":"2025-08-15T10:27:52","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T14:27:52","slug":"__trashed-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/?p=97360","title":{"rendered":"Communications Column – August 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Walter Boomsma<\/a><\/em><\/strong>
207 343-1842
Communications Directo<\/em><\/strong>r<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

How are you communicating?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Grange \u201cbrother\u201d recently reached out by email, and we had an interesting \u201cconversation\u201d with a series of back and forth. He admitted that he was not spending much time on Facebook as he was \u201ctired of the rants and stuff and knowing that everything I wrote was data that Zuckerberg would sell.” We commiserated briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Facebook is probably one of the least understood communication vehicles we have available. It, and social media in general, serve some useful purposes\u2014one reason these platforms have been so readily adopted. Since this is about and for Grangers, I think it raises some important questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\u00a0 my not-scientific study, most Grangers I know who use social media do so to \u201cstay in touch with family.\u201d I might fall into this category. I try to ignore the \u201crants and stuff,\u201d including the many ads, sponsored posts, and outright scam attempts. Given my role as MSG Communications Director and naturally curious nature, I wonder how many Grangers have social media accounts. Again, it\u2019s not very scientific, but I know that most of Valley Grange\u2019s members do not have a Facebook account. We (Valley Grange) do have a Facebook Page, but we do not rely on it to communicate. If we only communicated on Facebook, most of our members would be ignored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My marketing mind would love objective demographic data, What percentage of Grangers are active on social media? A broader question would be, \u201cWhat percentage of people likely to become members are active on social media?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given the rapid advances in technology, the data would almost immediately become somewhat obsolete. Nearly two years ago, Instagram introduced a feature called \u201cthreads\u201d that allows users to create text-based conversations. This could make your eyes glaze over because Meta owns both Instagram and Facebook. Let\u2019s not go there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One important aspect of social media is that the platform tries to figure out your interests and decides what you should see<\/strong>. Equally important, you are the product, not the beneficiary. As my Grange brother noted, Zuckerberg is selling that data to advertisers and, more recently, using it in the runaway development of AI (artificial intelligence).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not an attack on social media. It is an attempt to encourage perspective among Granges and Grangers. I know posting events and information on Facebook is easy, and doing so can create a sense of accomplishment. But what have you truly accomplished?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once a year, I \u201caudit\u201d any Facebook Pages or Groups I\u2019m aware of or stumble upon. You might be surprised at how many of those are for Granges that no longer exist. You might also be surprised that, for some, where the Granges still exist, nothing has been posted for a year or two. The only action I can take is to eliminate any reference to the defunct page on the MSG Website. (I will advise the Grange involved.) I also occasionally discover inappropriate posts on individual pages and groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We could, and probably should, revisit the Grange\u2019s social media policy. But for now, let\u2019s get thinking about how we are communicating with members and potential members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An important reality is that it is relatively easy to move information from the MSG Website to Social Media<\/strong>. Moving in the other direction is almost impossible. (And, remember, Facebook decides whether or not I get to see the information you have posted.) There are several methods for submitting your news and information to the site. More about that later. Once we have it on the site, you can share it on Facebook with a couple of mouse clicks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A secondary reality is that when you submit events and news to the website, we offer a degree of quality control<\/strong>. I recently stumbled on a Grange Facebook post full of spelling and grammatical errors, not exactly an example of putting our best foot forward. Perhaps even more importantly, we check for missing information. In fact, if you submit using the website itself, you fill out a form that asks for the specific details. If time permits, I will also assist with flyers, etc. We\u2019re Grangers. We help each other!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enjoy social media, just keep it in perspective. When you\u2019re planning an event (or have had one and want to share the news) make sure someone is assigned the task of submitting them to your MSG website!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u25ba FACT: The Communications Department of one has a goal that email and voice mail will be replied to within 24-48 hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Walter Boomsma207 343-1842 Communications Director How are you communicating? A Grange \u201cbrother\u201d recently reached out by email, and we had an interesting \u201cconversation\u201d with a series of back and forth. He admitted that he was not spending much time on Facebook as he was \u201ctired of the rants and stuff and knowing that everything … Continue reading “Communications Column – August 2025”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[165,218],"tags":[206,272,202,233,29],"post_folder":[505],"class_list":["post-97360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-communication-2","category-resources-for-granges-and-grangers","tag-grange-advocacy","tag-grange-communication","tag-grange-events","tag-grange-policy","tag-grange-procedure"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"post-thumbnail":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Walter Boomsma","author_link":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/?author=2122"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Walter Boomsma207 343-1842 Communications Director How are you communicating? A Grange \u201cbrother\u201d recently reached out by email, and we had an interesting \u201cconversation\u201d with a series of back and forth. He admitted that he was not spending much time on Facebook as he was \u201ctired of the rants and stuff and knowing that everything…","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1arC1-pkk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=97360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97360\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=97360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=97360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=97360"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fpost_folder&post=97360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}