Promoting SoCAPS

[Powerstroken090]

I'd like to hear some ideas on promoting SoCAPS to other PSD owners! We're working on getting shirts that will help. I've read where some members have made business cards to help promote the club and gain members. A lot of us have 1 or more SoCAPS stickers on our trucks. These are all really good ideas!!! Let's hear some more.:jump:

Truck show?

Adopt A Highway?

Think it up, chew it over and get to posting!:stirthepot:

[wkdjstr300]

Once stickers and shirts are made, what about hitting a show and setting up a booth or something like that. Could sell some shirts, stickers, invite a sponsor or two to go with...I don't know, just thinkin' I better stop before I hurt myself.;)

[Jfresh]

I read through the Socaps rules and looked over the site for some information about the goals and purpose of the site and could not find anything. I say this because with all the talk about the promotion of socaps i would like to know what the goal of the club is. Is it to be as large as possible? Provide the best info to powerstroke owners?... Before we go setting up booths at an expo, the decision makers should have a mission statement and all promotion of socaps should be directed to maintaing the mission what ever it might be. I really like the fact that the majority of people on socaps are nice and very knowledgeable. There is also not a lot of crap to weed through before you get to a post that is actually informative. I say this because a lot of other sites are so full of nonsense post that it takes to much time to use them. One more note, and I could be wrong, but I think socaps is very family friendly, and I don't want every A$% H*&^ with a powerstoke coming in here and talking about how trashed he got at the river and broke some part on his truck. To sum it up, I just think Socaps is a great group of guys and gals and I don't want the desire to grow membership numbers to overshadow that.
Thanks

[Samuel1941]

First off, for you who have posted here, I appreciate your enthusiasm and all ideas and suggestions are welcome!!!

Jfresh......
Take a look at the top middle of the Entrance page:
In part it reads:

SoCAPS was formed so that there was a local organization for Powerstroke owners to meet and have fun. SoCAPS is a family oriented association and we encourage all family members and friends to come to the events.

Also, in the SoCAPS By-Laws:

ARTICLE II: Purpose
The purpose of the SoCAPS shall be to develop, foster and promote enjoying Ford Powerstrokes.

You're right about the By-Laws, they're not on the site!!
Apparently didn't get transferred over when the new software was installed the first of the year and no one's caught that until now!! (I'll mention this to the site Administrator and see if he can get a link for them posted.)

Those of us who have been here since the start know that the purpose/goal of SoCAPS was made very general so we could get the club going and not be restricted in it's growth and direction.

Also, note that a large statistic for registered members is great, but really meaningless if a portion of those members are not active. The club officers agree that the members statistic should be as realistic as practical to maintain. About a year ago, the site administrator went through the member list, identified non active members, sent an email to them asking if they wished to still be members, and then deleted those who did not reply or replied and wanted to be deleted. I don't remember exactly, but I think we dropped about 100 "members". The plan is that periodically non active members will be weeded out.

Please remember that no one on this site is paid for his/her services including the Site Administrator (BWilliams). Maintaining a web site of this quality really does take some time, and the officers are doing the best they can balancing SoCAPS with their jobs, families, etc.......

We always welcome new ideas and members, and members who want to get involved more than just posting on the site and attending events.
Note: We will be looking for some new club officers next January/February.

[deadrock69]

:yay:This is all very true. It would be nice to see the club as family oriented as it is now no matter how big it gets . Dose the club have a order form for business cards or do we make our own ? :yay:

[weweld]

I make my own :yay: :yay:

[deadrock69]

I make my own :yay: :yay:

:yay: ok so it would not make anybody upset then ?:yay:

[mattymx]

LOOK HERE for the card file you can use to make yours with. This is what we have had in the past....

[Samuel1941]

At one time Sunrise Ford paid to have some cards made for us and I think they are all gone.

Stickyfingers even at one time had made a brochure that was folded and worked well.

I can't find any of the examples, so I guess you'll have to start all over.

If you want to be sure what you make up is good in the eyes of the club, go ahead and make up something and post an example and we'll critique it for you!! If it's good, some other members may want to use it too!!

If you have a card making program on your computer, it's not hard to make something up and print it. The cards from Sunrise were only available to members at meetings, so you only got your card supply ever 3-4 months. Print your own and they're always available!

Here's one I made up just playing around, but it never got into production.


On edit: I see Matt found one of the files. That file is clean and a good example!!

[deadrock69]

:yay:Wow ok cool i'll work on some stuff and see what i come up with.:yay:

[SoCalSuperDuty03]

I would love to see socaps written on one of the signs, I will inquire from one of my CHP or Caltrans friends and find out about it if you would like me to.



Tim

[Powerstroken090]

Jfresh, you hit it right on and I think Samuel summed it up nicely. I see it as a family oriented club for "PSD owners to meet and have fun".
My first SoCAPS meeting was the Poker Run and it was a blast! I think if we could promote SoCAPS as a club with a website (instead of a website that happens to be a truck club) we could grow ACTIVE members. Next Poker Run will have 50 trucks. And the next... 100 trucks!


Tim, the sign you mentioned... One of those Adopt A Highway signs right? I have no idea how that works but I agree with you. It would be pretty cool to see our logo on one!

Edit: Dude, every time I spell check, the font size grows! What the Heck?
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[ryanPSD]

Yeah that is so weird!

I like the adopt a highway idea!!

I have been meaning to make up some cards for myself too but have never got around ot it. The problem there for me is I'd be sticking them on every PSD I see, I love them all!

[Samuel1941]

Tim......

Interesting idea on the freeway sign! Please look into it!

Two possible problems that would need to be worked out:
1) Cost?
2) Don't the sign "owners" adopt that portion of the highway and have to keep it clean?

[Samuel1941]

Now that we're on a roll with ideas, here's a couple more ideas!

Contacting a news paper and/or magazine and having them do a human interest story on club for Ford Diesel owners...people from all walks of life bonded by the smell of diesel! Who would have thought?

Good possibilities with this, just no one has taken the initiative to actually do it. I don't have any news contacts and I've not tried to do it. But, if we have someone in the club with contacts and/or journalistic skills, might be able to pull it off.

We're done Support The Troops with goodies at Christmas and other times. The troops drive some PSD Super Duties in Iraq...how about a news story: "Local PSD Club Supports PSD Driving Troops In Iraq"?

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Here's one my daughter came up with a while ago...it's been on hold because I'm not sure we could finance it or break even money wise.

We do a SoCAPS calendar!!
We would auction off the months' pictures to members who would then be able to have themselves and their trucks in the calendar. There would be twelve auction winners in the calendar (picture for each month).

The actual rules for the calendar and auction are a bit detailed and would be posted.

Problem I ran up against is that custom calendars ain't cheap!! I checked local printers and on the internet. Minimum order is usually 500 and cost starts at $5-6 and goes up! Big initial cost.

If we auction off the month pictures on this site, what do think members would be willing to bid to have their truck(s)/SUV and themselves + family, etc on a calendar 8X10 photo?? I'd like a month with my truck + my daughter's truck + my daughter and son and me!! If members would bid enough for the months, and then later we could sell the calendars for say $10 each, and possibly Sunrise Ford or an other sponsor would help out with some ad space on the calendar...could we pay for the calendars without hurting the club's treasury??

I don't want to set expectations to high...do you think there would be at least 12 members who would be willing to bid $100+ for a month?? For instance, I'd like September (my birthday) or March (my kids' birthdays) and would be willing to get into a bidding "war" to get one of those months. An other possibility is for several members to pool their money for a bid and buy a month for a group photo!

The calendar could be printed showing tentative club meeting dates or anything else we wanted included.

We could give out some of the calendars as promotional to our sponsors. Some of the calendars could go to Sunrise Ford and Bobby could give one with each PSD he sells!!

Cost to produce is my big concern and also, I don't know anything about what is required photo quality wise for the pictures. I've talked with several printers and get different stories. I'd think a high definition TIFF digital ought to work OK. Some print shops seem easier to work with than others!

Anyone ever done something like this that can give me some guidance?

Ideas? Comments??