Do N.G. enthusiasts use Twitter ?

I am trying to get some exposure for a campaign to get some funds to restore a vehicle, and we have been advised to use Twitter to get our message out. I am wondering if N.G. enthusiasts would be listening ?? It looks to me that visual sites such as F**book are more appealing.

Regards

Peter

 

You should have a look on Twitter to see… A 30 second search yielded that http://twitter.com/talyllynrailway has almost 5000 followers and http://twitter.com/rhdr over 2000…

Always the thing to do with Twitter is to have a look around and see if there are people there talking about the things you are interested in. If there are, great, if not it might not be the channel for you.

Simon

 

W&LLR use both.

PH

 

Talyllyn also use Instagram, but few others do.

 

There is a Narrow Gauge Enthusiasts Group on Facebook - seems very active.

 

On the standard gauge side there have been two or three of instances recently of youngsters (probably school aged) going onto social media calling themselves the "xxxx Trust" asking for funds for a vehicle they don't even have access too and causing general mayhem (especially when they are then subsequently quoted in the Railway Press).

If using social media to launch a project I suggest that unless it is for an established railway/group, you have to take care that the message has some evidence of some backing such as a quote of support from a heritage railway manager or a journalist

G.

 

Twitter is useful for getting news out to a lot of sources very quickly, if you have a strategy to get it retweeted via various audiences by making each tweet relevant to each audience. But it has no sticking power. FB is better for people to browse.

My experience as a pretty heavy twitter user personally: https://twitter.com/MrTimDunn
and professionally: https://twitter.com/slrailwaymuseum

- is that NG enthusiasts will more likely hear your news on FB. I use twitter throughout the day but I don't see everything that I'd like to - news from various very interesting sources is pushed out of view within seconds by the other 2,000 news sources or people that I follow.

The TR is doing twitter very well https://twitter.com/TalyllynRailway So is the NRM. They post content that's worth reading and worth sharing, that isn't of niche interest and appeals to a wide audience who want to share it too. Twitter can be good to contact journalists or individuals or partner groups directly. I have a social media plan for the Sierra Leone NRM next year but that's very specific to our international and Ebola-hit situation.

 

Definitely, but then why follow so many people? I find Twitter's primary value is in discovering interesting content from interesting people. That's way easier with a more manageable number of 'followings'…

Not a criticism, just intrigued how others use it.

Simon