Stock water blaster recommendations for 2014

[isoaker]

It's also the limits of conservative corporate approaches. There are lots of very successful social media campaigns where the cost is naught, and there's no real need to monitor content IMO as long as you don't piss off the user base. Even many poorly managed social media campaigns don't do all that bad. (Sometimes poorly managed means over-managed as well.)

I think people really overthink social media. All it really should be is simple, where the admin puts out content at least every once in a while and engages earnestly with the fan base. There's a bit too much of that mysterious/awkward company PR vibe with many FB page admins. In essence, you're just thinking about things from the consumer's perspective and take on some of that yourself when managing a page. For that, the most important thing of managing social media is being a fan yourself of whatever it is your page is about.

While mostly true, you still need an admin and content development, both of which will cost time and money. Unless you try to get someone to volunteer, yet still sign some sort of contract binding them from posting problematic posts (it's still very easy to stir up trolls/post flamebait on the web) as well as to quickly moderate bots/trolls/etc., it's going to cost money. Since a for-profit company cannot take the same risks that non-profit/privately run websites can, getting good, consistent, and reliable work done for free is pretty much nil. It is still cheaper to just let the fan-base do promotions when we see fit than to attempt to invest in greater amounts of official online presence. This doesn't mean that such an investment wouldn't prove to be worthwhile; it just is a gamble without a guaranteed outcome. Still better to have limited online presence than to attempt to do more, only poorly and have it end up working against one's own brands.

[marauder]

I would be more than willing to sign a contract to run a facebook, twitter, and instagram for free.

[isoaker]

I would be more than willing to sign a contract to run a facebook, twitter, and instagram for free.

I had a feeling someone would!

Unfortunately, wouldn't be so simple, either. First, there's the trust issue (time to build), then there's the content issue (even if you made it, there is no way any company would permit posting without at least one paid employee to review things before posting), then there's the continuity issue. If they were not willing to pay someone in the first place, were you to stop volunteering, these accounts would go dormant, then becoming abandoned pages on the web which does not look good again to the company.

Were they to want to go the online advertising/promotion route in any formal or official capacity, they should have the monetary resources and time lined up and be truly committed to it. I can see if they may have had a change of heart, but I don't foresee any seriously development made into this space in the near future.

For what it's worth, I've previously tried seeing if members of the community would be willing to make their own video reviews, fan-based commercials, etc., but no takers. Some ideas sound good in theory, but the attempt to actual realize them is a different story.

[the oncoming storm]

they could offer a commercial contest with a prize of some sort for the best one (say pair of the 15, and 20$ models from the 2014 lineup) It's cheap advertising for them to put on their youtube channel.

I know I would make an entry.

[isoaker]

See for the last time I asked the community about this sort of idea. While it ended up ultimately falling through, membership response was luke-warm at best.

[the oncoming storm]

I read it

Thoughts, we seemed very positive about it but Isoaker didn't start or announce any such contests.

[isoaker]

I read it
Thoughts, we seemed very positive about it but Isoaker didn't start or announce any such contests.

Six different members replied with only one seeming truly interested in trying for it. Other responses were of the "wouldn't mind", "could work for me", "I don't mind... so long as we have our own videos separately" sort of limited positivity.

Moreover, while *I* couldn't run it, there just wasn't enough lingering interest to even have a general "bragging-rights" contest that marauder suggested. It did not even need to have been a formal contest - much like some of the water warfare-related comic strips, members made them because they found it to be a fun thing to do.

If our members only feel inspired to make fun videos if there's actual prizes involved, this also doesn't say much about having true interest in doing such activities.