Why do the Pro Hunting organisations not post on here?

[The Singing Stalker]

Let’s face it, as one of the largest U.K. hunting forums, surely if you were a pro hunting organisation looking to engage people, increase membership, lead the good fight, you would go to talk to the people where they are, i.e. here.
Why would I, for example, go join a gamekeepers organisation? I am not a gamekeeper. I mean, it’s in the title. I have seen their stands and not bothered talking to them because, I am not a gamekeeper, same as I walk past stands selling clay traps, because I don’t do clay shooting. (Again, it is an example, I am not singling them out)

Only one organisation contributes here, and that degenerates quickly. Please do not refer to that organisation, this is ALL about the other organisations that are out there.
So why don’t any of the others come on here and tell us what they are doing? Do they have enough members? They don’t want our money? I mean, a members magazine is to tell the members how good a job they are doing. You won’t get people to join by not telling non-members. Why would I want to join an organisation that doesn’t (seem to) actively promote itself?

Game fairs etc are ok, they can reach a couple of hundred people over a weekend when they talk one to one, but look at the expense of running the stand.
But if I put a post on here, it could be seen by thousands, and it is free.
Are the fairs seen as Jollies? Rhetorical question, as I understand why they go to them, But, that is a limited audience. Doesn’t matter if there are 120,000 people at the show, you are only going to engage with a very limited amount of people working a stand.

So, perhaps someone here can explain, why only one organisation contributes to this site. Where are all the others? I just had a look online, there are plenty of them.
If you run a business, then you target your audience. Perhaps it is a good idea that these organisations are not running a business because they do not appear to be very good at marketing and selling themselves.
Here is an example, the media require a story, motoring, they go talk to Geoff buys cars, schooling going to crap, Anna Boulter, shooting, Charlie Jacoby. This is not me making stuff up, these are all contacted by the media, because of their internet presence and you increase your presence by marketing. Ok, that is skimming the surface, but you get the gist. They get in the press and then are seen as experts, then the politicians, who also watch tv, know these people and suddenly, they are “An Expert”.

And here is a good example of how crap they (the pro hunting organisations) all are.
Type in “hunting organisations uk” and the first one that comes up is LACS. The third one is hundsabs. So that shows me, that all the other U.K. hunting orgs may not be very good. So maybe that is why they don’t come on here. Let’s face it, if they cannot get their online presence working, and for most of us under 60, the internet is the place we go, then, why would we want to engage with companies who seem to live in the dark ages.


So, plenty of people on here who are members of the other organisations, go back and ask them 2 questions.
1, why are they not engaging with hunters on forums.
2 why are they rubbish with their internet presence and letting anti hunting orgs top the search engines?

I am genuinely interested to see how they respond to this. The more I think about it, the more I think that these organisations are probably full of well meaning, intelligent people with a superb knowledge of what they do. But fxxx all clue about how to engage with large numbers of people and the internet and if they can’t do that, how are they going to be taken seriously by politicians.

Please feel free to respond back here with their answers.

Bet we don’t get 20 pages with this one.

 

[willie_gunn]

This is “the home of UK deer stalking”, not “the home of UK hunting”.

I struggle to think of a good reason why a “hunting” organisation like the Countryside Alliance would come on here, since we are hardly their core audience. Similar for the Scottish Association for Country Sports. Nor does this seem like the kind of place the GWCT would get much traction. As you point out, the NGO would probably see deer stalking as a minority interest for their members. The British Deer Society is not a hunting organisation but a charity ‘dedicated to educating and inspiring everyone about deer“.

What other organisations are you thinking of, that are specifically targeted at deer stalkers?

 

[VSS]

BDS does post on here from time to time, but nowhere near as often as perhaps they should.

 

[finnbear270]

TSS , Why not e mail a few yourself inviting them to join up?.

 

[jall55]

I said a very similar thing the other day to one of our organisations - when they could have put a couple of our real world conservation clips on their Insta feed but didnt

I have said to some of them many times - the general public like cooking - so show normal game cooking - not the arty stuff many do - So many of us and indeed the general public don't do flare cooking - its simple things like pheasant in bacon - or partridge in bread crumbs that could get us a few wins. Normalise all we do

I have also said - show them what they like and maybe dont expect - something like clips of raptors hunting on shooting estates

 

[WalkedUp]

Following the 2004 hunting ban I would expect that, unfortunately, those who hunt and their organisations prefer to distance their sport from other fieldsports that involve either pest control or sustainable food production.

 

[cjm1066]

Posting on here takes time and organisations want to engage with their members so us their own SM channels.

The one organisations that posts regularly spends a lot of time on followup posts, which probably aren't a good use of officer's time.

 

[The Singing Stalker]

To answer Willie, I was going to change my comments to Deerstalking, as yes, technically you are correct, (my bad, this is why I am not in marketing, lol) but then, I thought actually, deer stalking is, whilst a large part of what I do these days, not everything, in fact, maybe about 60% of my time is deerstalking, the rest is pest control, rabbits, etc, and most of the people I personally deal with, who are on here, also, are heavily involved in other areas as well, so, whilst technically, whilst I may be wrong, I will stick with hunting as so many of us cover such a wide brief. Or isn that a separate debate about terminology?
I mean I don’t go onto another site to ask about advice on rabbits, I will post it on here.

As for the name of the organisation, I don’t want to name anyone, your calling me out here, but, people say, “I am leaving the unnamed organisation and joining X, because they are representing the members more.” So should all these other organisations not be looking for us or are the people joining for the wrong reasons.

Nb, I wrote a series of deer articles which were printed in the local parish magazine during covid. Six in all, all about the different species. I also subscribe to the local parish magazine, but I am not religious, and, dare I say it, neither I suspect are the majority of people in the village. Deer species are probably not core to the parish magazine either, but I had a lot of conversations with people after about it.

And to answer Finnbear270. It is not for me to sell myself to them. It is for them to sell themselves to us. I mean, why else would they go to the shows if not to sign up new members as well as all the other things they do?

 

[finnbear270]

Do they know we are here??????

 

[The Singing Stalker]

Posting on here takes time and organisations want to engage with their members so us their own SM channels.

The one organisations that posts regularly spends a lot of time on followup posts, which probably aren't a good use of officer's time.

But that is my point. Let us take the case of a lifestyle magazine for, cough, seniors. If you pander only to the members, after a few years, they all die off and the magazine goes out of business. The have to market heavily to replace the membership as the turnover is likely to be quite high.
All organisations need to recruit people due to wastage, new blood, people throwing their toys out of the pram etc. this is why business have salesmen. They go out and recruit. You have separate people I.e. internal sales to maintain the current membership. No different in any organisation.
So saying it isn’t a good use of an officers time, I would highly disagree with you.

 

[The Singing Stalker]

Do they know we are here??????

If they are doing their research they would. That is why business spend a lot of money on marketing. part of marketing is identifying customers and where they are, their demographic, their requirements.

 

[willie_gunn]

Nb, I wrote a series of deer articles which were printed in the local parish magazine during covid. Six in all, all about the different species. I also subscribe to the local parish magazine, but I am not religious, and, dare I say it, neither I suspect are the majority of people in the village. Deer species are probably not core to the parish magazine either, but I had a lot of conversations with people after about it.

That's pretty cool, and a great way of doing outreach to those who may not be overly familiar with deer in the UK.

I did something similar, as we ran a series of talks in the village on various subjects based on the occupations and interests of different villagers (forensic science, nuclear submarines, overland through Africa) - in my case it was a presentation on deer. This also led to a lot of conversations, that have continued to this day.

 

[jall55]

If they are doing their research they would. That is why business spend a lot of money on marketing. part of marketing is identifying customers and where they are, their demographic, their requirements.

Indeed - one of the clips of some of our work has had over 220,000 views on Insta - many from none shooting people - I wonder why some of the organisations would not when offered use of such clips put them on their social media outlets and benefit from engagement

 

[VSS]

Do they know we are here??????

Yes.

 

[Bo Diddley]

I have said to some of them many times - the general public like cooking - so show normal game cooking - not the arty stuff many do - So many of us and indeed the general public don't do flare cooking - its simple things like pheasant in bacon - or partridge in bread crumbs that could get us a few wins. Normalise all we do

Just like Hugh Fernley-Whittsall's first few series of River Cottage, people mock him and his TV show, but I thought it was an okay way to promote the idea of hunting a little wild meat for home consumption.
I'm a member of the NGO for the insurance cover, £55 per year, and I think it's worthwhile.

 

[jall55]

Just like Hugh Fernley-Whittsall's first few series of River Cottage, people mock him and his TV show, but I thought it was an okay way to promote the idea of hunting a little wild meat for home consumption.
I'm a member of the NGO for the insurance cover, £55 per year, and I think it's worthwhile.

Said about Hugh the other day - simple field to fork stuff in some of the early days

Again said to one or two of our organisations about doing something like this - on discovery there is no issue with catching fish - shooting bears for the table - spearing tuna - So many our issues seem to be simply of our own making and sometimes our own paranoia

 

[Goingback]

I think that most shooting organisations are quite lazy. They all have a fun time at the various country shows, signing up members who get a few frebbies every year, whilst long-term members get no such dispensation.
That said and I am a member of four organisations, they do a good job overall.
It would be nice that there were more supporting the site. TSS is right using the term hunting. Most derive some of their income from our portion of fieldsports and we need to stand together with each other. The recent banning of course fishing on a lake should be a rallying call. After all, they want it all banned bit by bit.

We have a local 'legend' who purports to have a vast acreage and is an expert in all fields....... truth is that it's mostly all in his head but he blags and bluffs his way to minor stardom. Sadly the way of the world now with internet hits

 

[One on top of two]

I would say maybe they can’t be doing with the hard time they will no doubt get , poor old Connor gets his arse chewed off now a then for just doing his job .

Heaven forbid if he ever confessed a desire to own a creedmoor .

 

[Dickie]

I would say maybe they can’t be doing with the hard time they will no doubt get , poor old Connor gets his arse chewed off now a then for just doing his job .

Heaven forbid if he ever confessed a desire to own a creedmoor .

I think there’s probably some truth there if you worked for any shooting/hunting organisation and came on here for a look and saw the flak Connor gets you’d hardly think I’ll stick my head above the parapet and perhaps half Connor’s stress.

 

[Pedro]

Yes, there's a smidgen of bolshy folk on here. Not necessarily a bad thing, voicing your opinions of course. But it can be a bit off-putting, making folk not want to throw themselves into the snake pit.

And there's also a bit of insulation. And, let's face it, that's a problem with many who indulge in different field sports. It's all very well sticking up for what you indulge in, but to outwardly say you don't like game shooting, pigeon control, clay shooting and so on, begs the saying: "Together we stand, divided we fall".