Facebook top tips
Nick Griffin, head coach of Heart of England Community Boxing Club, explains how these organisations can improve their Facebook following.
His club won a £200,000 Persimmon Homes grant and he credits it to being ‘social media savvy’, allowing Heart of England Community Boxing Club to reach more people for votes.
The video opens with the Buddle logo shown in the centre of a white screen, with the National Lottery and Sport England logos underneath it.
The video switches to a man sat on the side of a boxing ring. There is a caption in the bottom right of the screen introducing him as ‘Nick Griffin, Head Coach, Heart of England Boxing Club’.
Nick Griffin says: Hi, my name’s Nick Griffin. I’m a Head Coach of Heart of England Boxing Club.
The screen changes to footage of a group of children running laps around the main area of a boxing gym as Nick’s narration continues. The children are mostly young boys, but there are a few girls too.
The footage changes to the same children doing warm up exercises in the main space of the gym, with an instructor guiding them.
Nick Griffin’s voiceover: We recently won a grant of £200,000 from a company called Persimmon Homes. They operate a Healthy Communities award scheme.
A screenshot of the Persimmon Homes Healthy Communities scheme webpage is shown. The first heading on the page is ‘How can we support your local good cause?’, with information about the Healthy Communities scheme and a Community Champions scheme shown below.
The screen zooms in on the information shown about both schemes.
Nick Griffin’s voiceover: Thirty finalists are selected purely from your short, sharp application form to get the grant. It’s then down to a public vote to achieve the big award and I’m delighted to say we were indeed fortunate enough to win the £200,000.
The screen returns to footage of the same group of children doing exercises in the boxing gym. They are shown using skipping ropes. The footage changes to the children in pairs and using punch bags which are hanging from the ceiling around the outside of the main space.
An instructor is seen in the middle of the space demonstrating punches.
Nick’s voiceover: That’s the point we became social media savvy, because without social media we could never, ever have made people aware that we needed these votes on a daily basis.
The footage onscreen changes to one pair of boys who are using a punch bag together. The boy on the left practices punching the bag, whilst the boy on the right holds it still. The camera pans round, still focused on the two boys, but another pair of children using a punch bag are seen behind them.
Nick’s voiceover: Social media, and our effective use of it, is what won us the grant.
The footage changes to another pair of boys who are using a punch bag. The boy on the right practises punching the bag whilst the boy on the left holds it still. The screen then switches to a shot of the boxing gym, where children are running across the main space. Some run from left to right, whilst others run from right to left.
Nick Griffin’s voiceover continues: It was the short films that were the most engaging.
Onscreen, a video made by the club is shown without the video’s sound. In it, Nick Griffin is seen talking to the camera he is holding before he moves it round to show a boxer who is knelt down and also talks to the camera.
The footage changes to another video made by the club, showing a young boy training with a punch bag. There are adults visible training in the background, and upbeat music can be heard.
Nick’s voiceover: During the process of getting the grant, we found a number of strategies were very successful, not only for getting the grant award…
The footage onscreen now shows the group of children in the boxing gym taking part in circuits. They are running across a smaller space to pick up medicine balls.
The camera focuses on a girl as she picks up a medicine ball, before the footage changes to the children running across the main area of the boxing gym as part of a circuit.
but also for supporting the club, for publicising the club and its events generally. So, we came up with some tips and strategies that could be useful for other clubs.
The footage changes to show two boys both training with a punching bag, then a different pair of boys doing the same, before showing the feet of a group of children who are doing step-ups on a wooden bench.
Three groups of children doing step ups on benches in the main area of the boxing gym are then shown. The video returns to Nick sat on the side of the boxing ring.
On a blue screen, the text ‘6 tips on how you can help grow your Facebook following’ is displayed in black.
This changes to the text ‘1. Try to post something every day’.
Nick Griffin’s voiceover: Post something every day – keep it fresh, keep it interesting, keep it up to date.
As Nick narrates, the screen shows the club’s Facebook profile and scrolls down to show the different content on there.
The screen returns to blue and displays the text ‘2. Ask people to share / repeat important message’.
Nick Griffin’s voiceover: Spread your message by asking people to share it. If they share it, their friends will share it and your audience of a few hundred quickly becomes a few thousand.
The screen again shows the club’s Facebook profile and scrolls through it to show different photos and posts.
The screen goes blue and displays the text ‘3. Never post to insult’.
Nick Griffin’s voiceover continues: And don’t insult people. Praise people, inform people, but there’s no room for being keyboard warriors and insulting anyone. Keep it all positive
The video returns to Nick sat on the side of the boxing ring as he speaks. The footage changes to him using a skipping rope in the boxing gym, before returning to him sat on the boxing ring.
The screen changes to blue and the text ‘4. Follow a wide range of other sports clubs’ is displayed.
Nick Griffin’s voiceover: Become a follower of other sports. Look at their pages, look at their points of interest. Share them, steal them, repost it, republish it, because if it’s of interest to the boxing world in general, or the sports world in general, then you can bet that it’s of interest to our members.
The club’s Facebook page is displayed onscreen, and the video focuses in on an infographic with the heading ‘What’s most important in coaching?’. The club’s Facebook following is shown in a box labelled ‘Community’ on the right of the post. The screen then returns to Nick as he is interviewed on the side of the boxing ring.
The screen goes blue and the text ‘5. Seek written permission from parents’ is displayed.
Nick Griffin’s voiceover: If you do use images of any children in your club, with children being under 18s, do make sure you have 100% certain permission from their parents to do so. In boxing, our safeguarding rules give us no choice.
Onscreen, the club’s Facebook page is shown, focused on an image uploaded by the club which shows a large group of girls next to a boxing ring. The video then zooms out from the image to show the Facebook page in full before the screen returns to Nick’s interview.
The screen changes to blue and the text ‘6. Have several administration logins’ is displayed.
Nick Griffin’s voiceover: We do try to share the workload because one person looking after all the social media accounts can be time consuming and can be boring, if I’m honest, so we try and make sure we’ve got, at any given time, five or six people that are able to access the social media and regularly post.
Onscreen, Nick is shown talking from the side of the boxing ring before changing to footage of him training with a punching bag wearing orange boxing gloves with ‘Heart of England’ written on them.
Nick Griffin’s voiceover continues: That can mean that sometimes two or three things go on per day, but it does give us good coverage.
Since winning the Persimmon Homes award, we’ve become aware that these grants and awards via public vote are actually quite common and we’ve seen that companies and organisations that offer them include…
The screen returns to Nick sat on the side of the boxing ring as he talks. The screen then changes to show the Healthy Communities scheme webpage again, before returning to Nick in the boxing gym.
The screen changes to blue and displays the text ‘the following organisations offer grant schemes for sports clubs. For more information go to…’. The text then changes to show the below fund titles and links as Nick narrates the name of each.
Aviva Community Fund – aviva.co.uk/services-and-support/more-from-aviva/aviva-community-fund/
Natwest Skills and Opportunities Fund – skillsandopportunitiesfund.natwest.com/
The One Family Foundation – onefamily.com/your-foundation/community-grants/
The ITV People’s Project – thepeoplesproject.org.uk/
Transform Foundation – transformfoundation.org.uk
Nick Griffin’s voiceover continues: Just use Google and you’ll find plenty of them. If you do go for one of these grants, you need to really go for it. You need to plan a campaign.
The Persimmon Homes grant was something like a three-month process and that means you need to commit to publicising your requirement for votes on a daily basis. In fact, ideally two or three times a day.
The video returns to Nick, talking from the side of the boxing ring. The screen changes to footage of him training with a punchbag, before returning to Nick’s interview.
Nick’s voiceover: You need people looking at your Facebook page and your other social media pages constantly. Every time the open up their phone or their computer, your club name should be there, and the grant awarding body name should be there.
The screen displays the club’s Facebook page and scrolls down through it, before returning to Nick at the side of the boxing ring.
Nick’s voiceover: I hope this has been useful information for you and good luck as you strive to use Facebook and other forms of social media to develop your club.
The screen shows Nick at the side of the boxing ring before it goes white. The Buddle logo then appears on the left of the white screen, with the Heart of England Boxing Club logo on the right.
Underneath, the following text is displayed:
‘For more tips on how to manage your club’s social media accounts please visit: www.thebuddle.co.uk And many thanks to Heart of England Boxing Club for providing their expertise to help make these videos.’
Video ends.