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All club officials know that the Membership Secretary of the club has one of the most arduous and difficult jobs in the whole club. It is a never ending, almost thankless task of keeping the membership system up to date, renewals issued, new joiners processed, welcome packs printed and dispatched, address lists issued to the Printer for magazine dispatch and constant requests for cars for shows and member contact details.

In the numerous conversations that we’ve had with car and bike clubs, it often surprises us just how little some clubs officially communicate with their members. Communication generally seems to both start and stop with the club magazine. Now that was fine 20 years ago when expectations were different, but in the 21st century with modern expectations for a level of service, it just isn’t going to cut it.

Following on from our previous blogs of why websites are important and how we need social media, we are now discussing some of the interactions that we want on Facebook. These are Follow, Like, Share and Comment – BUT …

Our Club websites are our shop window to the world and in keeping with that analogy the layout must be pleasing to encourage visitors to come in, we must present a friendly human face to greet our visitors and everything must be easy to find.

The forum has long been the mainstay of the classic car club since the late ’90s as the primary means of community driven information. Before that, the technology available to clubs was restricted to the mailing list server where an individual would send an email to the ‘group’, and the mailing list server would forward that email to the community. Mailing list servers are still around today, Yahoo Groups is still in widespread use and has evolved over time to still appeal to certain groups of users.

Many clubs and indeed classic car related businesses already have a Facebook presence, but many still do not. For those of you that do, did you consider the two types before you settled on the one that you’re using? There are pros and cons to each, and in this article, we discuss the two options and hope that it will inform everyone so that you can take the path that is appropriate to the direction you want to take your club or business.

When you mention websites, someone somewhere almost certainly mentions social media, but why? Maybe you’ve heard about social media, mostly as Facebook and Twitter, but perhaps you’re not sure of their role in the wider picture of your website and how it can work for you. In this article we look into why it’s a good thing and why it should be part of your overall club marketing strategy.

These days, we often take it for granted that any organisation will be found on the internet. We’ve become accustomed to that expectation, from banking, eBay’ing for car spares, booking holidays or finding directions. Having an internet presence of a good quality website has no longer become an option, it’s now a necessity….