social media targeting

Running Chess Tournaments
1

This could go either here or US Chess Issues; I’ll start here, because I think the more practical folks hang out here.

Has anyone played with Facebook targeting (or social media marketing campaigns in general) to figure out how best to target potential chess-friendly audiences? We spent about $1,600 on FB advertising in the past year. That was a bit under 2% of our budget.

  1. Our primary goal is to create a small, steady stream of new players.

A) We need beginners for our frequent RBO events.
B) If we bring chess players back into the tournament fold, that’d be great, too.

In both groups A and B, some will experiment once and drop out; others will become a program service revenue stream for the active nonprofit organizer.

  1. As a nonprofit that needs money to run programs, it’d also be nice for us to attract potential donors.

  2. As a nonprofit that needs to serve the community to justify its existence, it’d also be nice for us to get young people from underserved & at-risk communities.

  3. And creating general awareness is a good thing.

Goals 1 & 2 fit together nicely, as do goals 1 & 3. Goals 2 & 3 probably require two different search strategies. Maybe goal 4 just happens?

In Facebook, Google, or whereever, it would probably be better to have a search with 10,000 good targets than 25,000 mediocre targets.

Not every piano player is chess-friendly, but there is likely a positive correlation between two activities that produce prodigies.

Are Texas hold’em players more likely than other poker players to be chess-friendly?

There are probably some negative correlations too. As a example not to be taken seriously: do chess players love spinach but hate Brussels sprouts?

In doing these searches, one can obviously screen positively for chess-crazy subcultures.

Example: “Born in Moscow, Manila, or Chennai? Then yes.”

Example: “Igbo yes, Yoruba no?” (Most of the Nigerian-American players I know are of Igbo descent.)

This last example bothers me. There are ethical issues that nonprofits shouldn’t ignore. Are we inadvertently discriminating as we “improve” the quality of our searches?

What keywords have you used successfully in searches?

2

Thanks for the questions, which we ought to think about. My marketing tends to consist of flyers brought to other events, which is probably not ideal for attracting new folk. But I find it cheap and effective.

Perhaps my next event I’ll consider an RBO and try some online.

3

This classic is still the most effective, along with listings on the state affiliate website. TLAs and US Chess email blasts definitely improve our attendance for a very reasonable cost. (We see the difference when we don’t advertise).

Facebook is an addon, not the basis of a campaign. (Is it more effective than Google?) Both/and, certainly not either/or.

4

IMHO, flyers bring people to your tournaments who were at other tournaments, not generally newcomers to US Chess or rated chess.

A few years ago US Chess started offering rated events in conjunction with Chess.com and ICC, but neither of these have turned into significant sources of new members. So, I’m somewhat skeptical that Facebook and other non-chess social media are going to be significant sources of new members, too.

In fact, I’d go so far as to speculate that we have LOST far more adult members as a result of the Internet than we have gained as a result of the Internet.

Since the scholastic boom began in the early 90’s, that has been by far the most significant source of new members. I suspect most chess players learned the game as kids. I know I learned to play chess in 5th grade, though I didn’t learn about and join the USCF until I was in college. But I grew up in a small town and it wouldn’t surprise me if I am the only US Chess member ever from that town.

We know there’s a lot of turnover in scholastic chess, though we are starting to see some signs of people who were introduced to US Chess through scholastic chess coming back to US Chess as adults. Some, possibly even most of these are parents who are now introducing their children to chess.

It is something of a truism that it is far cheaper to KEEP a member than to recruit one. Whether social media can be used as a vehicle for improving youth membership retention is a somewhat different issue, though.

5

The best way to attract people to tournaments, in my experience, is to first have a chess club. I started a chess club 7 months before we held our first tournament, and 9 of the 16 people who came to our first tournament were people who had been coming to our club meetings. The other 7 came because they read about the tournament through ads we put in Chess Life and Chess Life for Kids (5 of those had played in other USCF tournaments, while the other 2 were first-timers).

How do you get people to come to your club meetings? Well, you can advertise it on the USCF website, but that will only get you people who know about the USCF site and look there. There are also stores that will let community organizations put up posters for free (they’re more likely to let you do this if it’s a poster advertising a particular meeting on a particular date, rather than a poster that you expect to stay up forever). You also may be able to find groups that will allow you leave handouts or even speak for a few minutes about your club.

Bob

6

Well, we are expressly not a club (though our goal when we “grow up” is to have a permanent physical location).

Looking to market events like these in an major metro area with “fallen away” US Chess members & many scholastic players with match & tournament experience outside of US Chess.

http://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?201803102662

Though we think there’s room for improvement, we’re reasonably pleased with our results so far. These events tend to be modestly cash-flow positive, even after TLA, email blasts through US Chess, and Facebook.

Also looking to market events like these to beginners of all ages…

http://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?201708127792

Here there’s a more significant gap between our goals & our results to date. These latter events are designed to be cash-flow negative (community service).

The Internet exists, and will probably continue to exist.

7

Recent news stories have suggested other ethical problems with targeting prospects. :open_mouth: