GW Hoops / Time to Promote this Message Board. Please Read and Help (Thanks)!

**Posted by BGF** 12/31/2023 6:18 pm

GW Hoops Community, we're now more than three years into using this site and I strongly believe we have hit a wall in attracting new users. I have long felt that without promoting the site via advertising or other related means, the casual fan just doesn't know to even look for us.

Case in point:
At GW's game yesterday, I was sitting in front of a group of five fans (clearly all friends and likely GW grads), along with a gaggle of children they brought to the game. Overhearing their conversations and them getting their crew of youngsters to pound their feet and yell DE-FENSE, I asked if they were on the GW Hoops message board. They had no idea it even existed, but there was a definite interest in learning more. I showed one of them the site and he was absolutely planning to start visiting the site.

If you google "GW Hoops Message Board," you get the following listings:
- A blog entry from ColonialHoops.Blogspot.com from 2019 that mentions the demise of the previous board
- A similar blog post from DCAbloob
- Four more listings that don't mention us
- The Georgetown women's message board
- Two listings for the Gardner-Webb message board
- GW Sports official website
- George Mason's message board
...and so on.

I've decided to do something about this and I'd like your help.
I've created a GW Hoops group on Facebook. While I plan to continuously improve the look of the group page, my goal is to generate interest in our message board. The group page is going to be populated with classic GW hoops videos (I've put three on there already), links to game conversations, game previews (thanks, DMV!), and other threads from this GW Hoops message board, and other posts that are positive.

It is not intended for, nor will I allow posts that are negative or create disagreements (even respectful ones), because that's what this message board already provides. The Facebook page is for promotion...giving people a "why" to come to our site.

I'm also setting up group "chats" to use during road games (when most of us are watching on tv or streaming). This chat functionality has been requested many times by message board community members, so we'll give it a try. My concern is that it won't be popular because of the lack of anonymity, but I would like to give it a try.

For now, I'll be monitoring and approving of Facebook group page posts, but eventually I'll remove this restriction.

Again, here's the Facebook group page link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/3572142359724046/

Recognizing that many of you value your anonymity, I'll encourage you to choose whether you want to be a group member. Either way, I think this is the natural evolution of this community. At some point I will ask for donations so I can advertise us to move us up on Google, as well as on Facebook to attract followers.

I'm also going to introduce myself to the George's Army crew and give them cards with a QR code to the Facebook group page to see if we can spike interest in our board from the most committed of student GW fans.

Thank for helping give this a try and a very Happy New Year to all!

**Posted by PKGW** 12/31/2023 8:22 pm

Happy New Year Barry. Put my request in

**Posted by Wisconsin Colonial 1974** 1/01/2024 10:52 am

Me too

**Posted by Long Suffering Fan** 1/01/2024 7:10 pm

You are the best, Barry. I was likewise wondering why this board was not growing. I will spread the word.

**Posted by The Dude** 1/01/2024 11:02 pm

Thx for all your efforts BGF.

Question is, do we know why when people google "GW Hoops Message Board," they don't get this website?

Is there a way to optimize that?

Maybe coordinate with the school's athletic website and perhaps the Hatchet?

**Posted by BGF** 1/02/2024 12:41 am

Dude, because virtually everyone who is on this board came here through a direct link (either from the old board or through someone on here sending a link), and most people who have searched for us did so years ago, we don't have a real online presence.

We can fix that by these and other means:
1. Getting our website address linked from other sites that have high traffic
2. Getting click-throughs from those sites, such that Google Analytics picks it up
3. Marketing through paid or earned (free) Google advertising
4. Creating (which I've now done) a Facebook page that generates traffic
5. Perhaps advertising with the Hatchet, but I'd like to see if they might even feature us
6. Direct communication with student influencers (including but not limited to George's Army, IFC, and any student organization that promotes school spirit)
7. Outreach to alumni, and especially alumni athletes and former Smith Center employees. I have a direct source to both of these groups.
8. Getting the Athletic Department to embrace us and support driving traffic to our site to season ticket holders. This last one is the trickiest because this site includes sometimes critical posts about the Department and the University. While I would love their support, I would understand if they were not interested due to potential embarrassment down the line if we start being critical of them again.

Thanks for the question, Dude.

Barry

The Dude wrote:
Question is, do we know why when people google "GW Hoops Message Board," they don't get this website?
Is there a way to optimize that?

**Posted by GW0509** 1/02/2024 7:57 am

Hey Barry, I was watching the Coach's Show this weekend and CC was talking with the head of George's Army (I think his name was Rami?). Anyway, the George's Army prez says that GW is an "Instagram School." I think trying to get them to either mention GW Hoops or target Instagram somehow would get current student impressions.

The other Instagram account I know of is @BarstoolGW

**Posted by Minsk** 1/02/2024 9:28 am

I clicked on the FB Group link and do no see an option to join group. I've joined other FB groups before so I know how to do it. Am I missing something. Obviously, 20+ other people have successfully joined. Thanks in advance.

**Posted by GW Alum Abroad** 1/02/2024 1:41 pm

Done and done. (And glad I can login again).

**Posted by chrisw** 1/06/2024 8:21 pm

FYI: there is a GW Sports page on facebook with 12,000 members...george washington university revolutionaries.
To buff up GW Hoops, you might want to join it, and let them know about the board. Talk about the games or players with a "I read this on GW HOOPS" message in the middle. 12K would be a pretty good number for this board.
Chrisw

**Posted by squid** 1/09/2024 6:07 pm

Great idea, I joined. Also posted about it on my Colonial Hoops blog.

**Posted by BGF** 1/09/2024 10:53 pm

squid wrote:
Great idea, I joined. Also posted about it on my Colonial Hoops blog.

Excellent!

**Posted by BGF** 1/11/2024 10:10 am

As any FYI, I've posted a link to our board (to the Davidson game thread) on the Davidson message board. My hope is that we'll see comments from their fans that help create a more complete look at the game, especially once DMV posts his comprehensive (and awesomely good) game preview.

This is a good experiment to see how we do if we have opposing team fans on the site, via invitation as opposed to the random poster who comes in and wreaks havoc.

Barry

**Posted by FredD** 1/11/2024 5:12 pm

Done!