Tiger by the tail...

Well I have been a long supporter of all that is communication and social media, and this week I really made my belief stronger. I had seen many of these memes flying around about what you think you do, what they think you do etc. so I decided to make one for the Golf Course Superintendent. So on Thursday I found myself with a few extra minutes in the morning and went to work. In about 30 minutes I was able to put together the image you see on your right.

I had no idea what was about to happen when I posted in on Facebook at 12:18. It started slow, the GCSAA shared it with their feed and many MiGCSA followers commented on it and started to share it. But then it went off like a wildfire in an open field. I started to see it on other pages within hours, and they were getting comments and shares as well, I can not track those as they took it and posted it as their own.

As of today it has 300 likes, 51 comments, and 169 shares just on the MiGCSA page alone. I have no idea the total reach yet, Facebook does have metrics on these things but I won't see the results until tomorrow. I have offered to send hi resolution versions of this out via email if they contact me, and this morning I had a request fro SWEDEN! It went from Northern Michigan around the world in less than three days. It has been interesting to be on this end of something that went "viral" and I have to admit it is pretty cool.

The response has been overall extremely positive, so thank you for that. And of course if you want a hi res copy you can email me at adamikamas@migcsa.org, this is for personal use only and not for re-sale, the images are just grabs from the internet and I am sure at least the Carl Spackler image is copyrighted.

Gearing up for Vegas

As with most things it seems like everything is much farther away than they are, like the objects in mirror are closer than they appear warning. But here we are less than a week away from the 2012 GIS in Las Vegas. I have been asked to do a presentation in the Chapter Executives track on the Communication efforts of the MiGCSA. I have been involved with the communications with the chapter since the day the committee was formed. I believed then as I do now that this is the fulcrum of the MiGCSA. Just as it becomes an issue at a golf course when people do not know what is going on, without proper and easy communication to decision makers you absolutely can not succeed.

As I write this I am taking a break from my power point, I am getting to the point where I will cover this Blog. I am the first to admit it is the weakest of the MiGCSA communication. Like many people in this age I lean towards the quick concise routes of Email, Facebook and Twitter.

This will be my first time attending GIS not as a Superintendent I am not sure what to expect. Add to this presenting to a group of my new piers may be a little nerve racking. I have done presentations in the past to Superintendents on turf, which is something I have more experience with. However I feel that the MiGCSA has a great story to tell. The fact that it exists from the 4 original chapters is amazing, and the way we use so many ways to make our information available to the members is well ahead of many other chapters. So it is my hope and goal to help other chapters to move ahead into the new digital social media age, if they are not there. It can be intimidating, and can be easily dismissed as trivial. Many people have a view of Twitter and Facebook of their teenage daughter constantly on their phone wasting time. But even thought it may be a small percentage of members who are on Facebook or Twitter now it is a terrible mistake to not prepare for future members. Think back to the mid 90's, how many members used Email? Probably about as many as are using Facebook now. So using that same curve it will likely be the main form of communication in the next 10 years. In doing research for this presentation I found some startling facts,take 1:45 to see the video below.

Pretty amazing way to communicate. I am looking forward to presenting this data to other Chapter Executives and how they can use it for themselves.

Of course I hope everyone joins us at The Las Vegas Hotel and Casino on Wednesday night for the MiGCSA Gathering featuring the Bronk Brothers concert. See you in Vegas!