Social media

[Tideishigh]

I know this might not be big on everyone’s agenda within or outside club but social media is massive & I think as a club we so far behind other clubs.Too be fair the main twitter page isn’t too bad & has tweets going out regular but one complaint on the main heading we have a player that don’t even play for us now but the u21/23s & academy twitter page bar a few retweet’s it’s very sparse what is put out on it & the last normal post from academy was 8/7/22 & just think as a club we missing a trick & why have 2 twitter pages for academy sides unless 21/23s not part of academy set up or is that just when it suits?

[Dowlo]

I know this might not be big on everyone’s agenda within or outside club but social media is massive & I think as a club we so far behind other clubs.Too be fair the main twitter page isn’t too bad & has tweets going out regular but one complaint on the main heading we have a player that don’t even play for us now but the u21/23s & academy twitter page bar a few retweet’s it’s very sparse what is put out on it & the last normal post from academy was 8/7/22 & just think as a club we missing a trick & why have 2 twitter pages for academy sides unless 21/23s not part of academy set up or is that just when it suits?

I 'm going to say I completely disagree with this. Our clubs social media is up there with some of the best in our league if not in the Non League.
Yes their is the odd typo on Twitter sometimes but if you are tweeting live updates this can easily be excused.

If anything our outreach as a club is far greater with the social media than it is with the official website. Not many clubs can boast well updated Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts as well as a Youtube channel and Radio station! Other than live streaming I don't think we can offer anything else!

As for the U21/23 comments social media, without sounding harsh the vast majority of those who'll look us up on social media (away /floating fans etc) won't give a hoot about them.

[Dazzler]

I know this might not be big on everyone’s agenda within or outside club but social media is massive & I think as a club we so far behind other clubs.

Nice, "social media is massive" - that's great to know, am sure we'd never have guessed. As a recently registered user from early July, welcome aboard. We're always looking to improve this as in any club.

Maybe you can check out the long history of the club volunteers covering pretty much every match (I think bar one), with live tweets pre, during and post match since our formation - twitter being the best channel for that type of info, as well as cross posting info to other channels - primarily the Official Website and Youtube.

Am sure you're aware of our extensive youtube channel - https://youtube.com/afcrdtv again covering matches with a mixture of highlights, and interviews (managers & players) - (volunteer filmed and edited, usually within 24 hours of matches, then the last few years semi automated VEO footage to save on volunteer time - and also gives us coaching footage - we were an early adopter of VEO in 2019.).

We also have a long history of Radio Diamonds covering matches, which are also promoted on social media for engagement.

In addition we have presence on Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat.

As we're so far behind other clubs, can you give some interesting examples of other clubs at our level, or ideas of areas we as a club can improve - the social media team are always working on improvements and coming up with new ideas, and am sure if they are not aware that may be useful to them.

Too be fair the main twitter page isn’t too bad & has tweets going out regular but one complaint on the main heading we have a player that don’t even play for us now

The banners normally get updated soon after the first few matches once squads finalised and we get some official club pics in, and then maybe gets updated a few times a season as the social media team decide. Similarly for this unofficial forum where the banner gets updated as and when volunteers have pics and time to do it.

but the u21/23s & academy twitter page bar a few retweet’s it’s very sparse what is put out on it & the last normal post from academy was 8/7/22 & just think as a club we missing a trick & why have 2 twitter pages for academy sides unless 21/23s not part of academy set up or is that just when it suits?

I guess this is the main issue here? I believe these are in the process of being more integrated into the overall Social feeds -some having been run by individuals in the past, outside the scope of the social media team. Plus I think Academies are limited currently given school holidays - but that's not my area really. Anyway lots of work is going on behind the scenes on all aspects of the club social media presence.

[sussexdiamond]

A really good match preview last week with Joseph and Ollie on twitter, I didn't realise you could get twitter audio and then just yesterday Joseph's YouTube match review covering our game and all other games in our division. I'm not really sure what more could be done. As someone who lives 150 miles from Rushden these offerings are so useful for keeping in touch. There are always going to be rumours surrounding any club, Which I admit I enjoy reading and contributing concerning players, new Chair etc, but the club cannot announce anythin g official until it is signed sealed and delivered.

[Adrian]

I think our Twitter coverage is decent, unlike a lot of umm, football clubs it is not spammed with umm, stuff that isn't relevant.

With regards to the U21's and the like, I personally prefer a umm, format of them being in different categories so under their own account and I think the same about the umm, women's football too, take the umm, BBC football news pages for example, they mix the umm, men's football with the women's football so you see a story about x signing x and go to read it only to realise umm, it's women's football - this just irritates people and does more harm than good, I'm all for trying to raise the profile of women's football and youth football but forcing it upon people isn't the umm way to, you know, attract new fans.

Don't get me wrong, a pinned Tweet at the top of clubs umm, Twitter feeds with a list of links, umm, First Team, Reserves, U26's, U23's, U21's, Ladies, and so on, so that people viewing the Twitter can umm, choose if they want to visit those links it fine.

In my opinion if this forum was split to have first team, youth, women's categories then umm, those teams would possibly get some more attention because when people visit the landing page or index page whichever people wish to umm, call it, they would see 'last post from first team forum' then last post from 'youth forum' then 'ladies forum' where as in it's current umm, format, on a busy day topics soon get lost and slip down the list, but saying that, there is nothing wrong with this forum as it is, the Hitchin Town forum is ran in a very similar way and seems a very nice community.

[AFCRD_Dan]

I don’t know what more could be done, it’s professionally run, and much better than some teams who are higher up in the football pyramid.

I can only think of one or two times where it wasn’t updated during a match, but that’s down to having no volunteers to run it, even the guys on Radio Diamonds have tweeted updates in the past, to ensure fans are kept up to date.

Some clubs I’ve seen on Twitter don’t even announce team line ups, and only update their fans at the end of games. We get interviews after games, which a lot of other clubs don’t do.

An example of how not to run a Twitter page is K*ttering, who let a supporter run it who tweeted a throughly unprofessional comment toward our club.

[Stourbridge_Diamond]

On a tangeant - does anyone know when the new shirts will be available on the club online shop? Doesn't look like it's been updated for the new ones yet.

[Dazzler]

On a tangeant - does anyone know when the new shirts will be available on the club online shop? Doesn't look like it's been updated for the new ones yet.

Specifically for the teamwear items in the club shop you can go directly to the Macron AFCRD Store to order and by default I think these are shipped to the club shop for collection on matchdays - but you can specify other delivery addresses.

> Macron Store Northamptonshire - AFCRD Club Store <

[Stourbridge_Diamond]

On a tangeant - does anyone know when the new shirts will be available on the club online shop? Doesn't look like it's been updated for the new ones yet.

Specifically for the teamwear items in the club shop you can go directly to the Macron AFCRD Store to order and by default I think these are shipped to the club shop for collection on matchdays - but you can specify other delivery addresses.

> Macron Store Northamptonshire - AFCRD Club Store <

Ah thankyou - didn't know that and isn't particularly apparent through the club shop link on website. I'll order through the Macron store then.

[Dazzler]

Ah thankyou - didn't know that and isn't particularly apparent through the club shop link on website. I'll order through the Macron store then.

Normally the Club Shop is populated with local stock levels, so that it's available on matchdays in person, but as the shop is being refurbished at present there is no local stock available, so the Macron Store AFCRD mini site is the fallback site in this case.

Use their contact page for any queries.

https://www.macronstorenorthamptonshire ... on/contact