Reef nutrition

BAR and all things social media

SupraSaltyReefer

SupraSaltyReefer

Social media
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Hey BAR!
I haven’t made an official post introducing myself as the Social Media master yet, so here it is! I took over as the Social Media person back in December 2025. I’m really excited to help the club get more engagement across all our platforms and bring more people to the BAR website.

Prior to taking on the role, BAR had a Facebook page and Instagram. I created a TikTok and YouTube account since these will help engage more reefers and enable use to upload longer videos. All of these platforms are awesome for grabbing attention, but they don’t always create deeper interaction. My goal is to use them as a funnel to bring in new reefers and get them more involved on the website, so we can keep growing and strengthening our community together.

I'm open to ideas on the different types of content you'd like to see. Also feel free to post any pictures in this thread that you'd like me to review so I can feature it in post.

Here are the list of our current social media accounts. Like, follow and subscribe if you haven't yet!!!
 
Kensington Reefer said:
why...
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Only way for BAR to survive is with Supporting Members. Like any business if we don’t bring in revenue (membership dues) and operating costs increase every year it will drain the bank account. We need to acquire more new Supporting Members to account for the non-renewals. This hobby is expensive so I suspect the number of people leaving the hobby outweighs the people starting the hobby.

No money, no honey ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
Kensington Reefer said:
What appears here is NOT “confined” to this site?
I’m no fan of FB, insta, TikTok...
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What he's saying is the bar fourm is like a house. All these social media platforms are different entry points. Front door, back door, side door, garage door.

What to keep in mind is the aim is to give more people access to come inside the house. It's doesn't matter how we get people but more ways for people to find out about the club and get involved is always a good thing.

My poor attempt at a illustration lol hopefully it makes a little sense.

None of them are meant to replace the fourm only a way to connect to more people and steer them inside.
 
Kensington Reefer said:
What appears here is NOT “confined” to this site?
I’m no fan of FB, insta, TikTok...
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I will not be sharing specific threads or posts. All content has been my own creation or public events like CFM and Reef Talk & Chill, etc….Mostly announcing events. If I do use pictures taken off BAR I will contact the owner beforehand for permission. I also invite everyone to post pictures here if they want their pictures highlighted on our social media channels. BAR is a public website so any thing that appears here is not “confined” anyways besides for the specific areas that Supporting Members have access to. BAR has also had their FB page since December 7, 2011. Perfectly fine if you are not a fan, but BAR needs to evolve with the times. There’s a reason why 99% of reef message boards are dead. We are still directing traffic to the website as the main purpose. No one can enjoy, in your words “our place in space” if they can’t find it or don’t know about it.

Mental note: Exclude all of Erin’s comments from all social media platforms :)
 
While I acknowledge that it's the only real affordable way to market the club....

Social media is cancer. It has been the death of the countless forums and complete clubs in countless hobbies, drawing people away from the forums (that cost money to maintain) while creating toxic cesspools of data harvesting with no actually community to speak of. The personal attention seekers are contributing to the brain rot and great enshitification of the next generation.

I suppose someone has to do it, I'm glad it's not me but be part of the solution, not part of the problem.
 
If we dont evolve we will be left behind and no different from landlines and TV guides.

If there was social media and digital resources we have now available back then, I would have saved so much damn money avoiding mistakes.

BAR has died down significantly from what it was in the early 2000's. This place was crackin. Reefs.org and ReefCentral only had subforums where nor cal reefers could congregate.

I spend more time on @SupraSaltyReefer Hella Salty FB group than I do R2R.

We need young, fresh viewpoints. The more resources we have as a community, the better served this forum would be for all of us.

There are alot of serious reefers in the bay. Im still in contact with some of them. A few were former BAR members. These are great minds lost...unavailable to us..because what? We lack inclusiveness? We refuse to change with the times? Should we take out a Craigslist ad and post promo signs on telephone poles?

People doing professionally what Tu is doing for BAR, get paid well out there and he does it here on a volunteer basis for the betterment of US.

@SupraSaltyReefer Hats of to you for heading this. Rock the shit out of social media and let me know when you need someone to lean in with you.
 
While I share some of the concerns in relation to social media, it is potentially an effective and efficient way to market our club. Thank you Tu for managing all of this now.

Europe uses WhatsApp a lot for serious reef talk. Not FB or other SM, or even forums. I still find these forums that we, Humblefish and R2R use the superior format to talk about our hobby and I never before entering the hobby used or hung out in such forums.

But again, the point was not to move to another platform but to make ours better. It is hard to be against that.

I will not comment on the young and fresh viewpoint aspects mentioned even though it is very tempting.

Thanks again!

Oh, and regarding suggested content, you could ask AI to summarize our Kalkwasser discussion, or the nutrient thread which became an instant classic (yes, I am not serious).
 
Alexander1312 said:
I will not comment on the young and fresh viewpoint aspects mentioned even though it is very tempting.
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Let's be real...

We are a niche subset of a niche hobby and limited geographically for the most part. We need all the serious, respectful Bay Area reefers we can get.

To put that into perspective, on high tides you tube channel you can find the cocktails and coral talks featuring Jillian Sprung and Charles Delbeek on one, and Rich and Matt Wandel on the other...both combine for a total of <4000 views, yet feature some of the greatest influences in the hobby. THATS how small our hobby is...I know more people that play pickleball than I do reefers.

In our current state, Salem Clemens can post a question in our forums as a guest and he'd probably get bombarded with post pressuring him to become a supporting member for someone to actually respond.

Thats sad and frankly, quite embarrassing. People support things they believe in. They'll pay if they find value in it. If we wont welcome them as a community, its easy to find the answer to their question for free elsewhere. This ain't a cult. Eyes on the prize. Why are we here?

Bay Area Reefers (BAR) is a club for reef aquarists in the San Francisco Bay Area. The primary purpose of BAR is to promote, foster, and encourage education and appreciation for the ethical husbandry and propagation of marine life.

Lets keep that at the center of what were trying to accomplish.
 
Great points everyone, especially @FinalPhaze987 for driving the point across further.

Think of social media as a numbers game, a funnel. The more content you create, the more visibility, views and engagement you generate. The more people entering the funnel, the higher the chance that some will convert into Supporting Members after recognizing the value of the BAR community.

You'll be surprised at how many people I've meet from FB groups and marketplace when selling things to that have no idea what BAR is. Another good example is all of the people at CFM that doesn't know about BAR.

Here’s some numbers from BAR’s Instagram to digest. Keep in mind BAR website currently has about only 180 active members. BAR IG has 301 followers.

Imagine if we converted a fraction of the views into Supporting Members. The club would have more funds to offer raffle prizes, better venues for frags swaps, more equipment to lend out, we could hire a web master to revamp the site, etc….you don’t have to like or use social media, but the numbers don’t lie. We need to be embraced and used as a tool to get the job done, just like AI or be left behind or worst laid off.

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This is from the Hella Salty FB group I manage. 195 new posts from today alone! Other BAR members and myself always make and effort to feed the funnel and direct people to BAR’s website.
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some great points by everyone.. I am a big fan of transitioning with time and whether we like it or not, Social Media is here to stay - only the platforms may change (Orkut--> myspace--> Hi5--> facebook--> Instagram--> next?).. As a relatively new user to the website, I can probably add why I joined BAR as a supporting member even BEFORE I received my tank, and a few things that may help increase the footfall here:
  • BST and PIF forums: When researching about setting up a new tank, I needed some equipment and though personally, I am not a big fan of used products in day-to-day life, I quickly realized that the ROI is more when purchasing used products instead of new ones in this hobby. Since BST forum is only available for Supporting Members, it kinda forced me to purchase the ticket to get entry and find BST forum. So keeping BST and PIF forums only for supporting members is definitely something that works.. Just want to add that 6 months later, I feel it was one of my best decisions ever.. I see people giving away stuff for free all the time in PIF forum, and that tickles the generosity nerves inside of me and I try to pass along things I feel other people can make use of.. I am sure everyone feels the same way.. truly a great sign for community building.
  • BAR equipment: I see a lot of folks looking to purchase/rent equipment on Facebook (and maybe some other forums too) that the club holds and shares with the supporting members (PAR meters and fish traps/acc boxes are always something a typical reefer would need during their reefing journey).. I truly believe making the BAR equipment endpoint https://barcode.bareefers.org/bc/equipment public (without a need to login) will entice a lot of new folks to the hobby.. Supporting members shall post this link on each thread looking for any of these equipments and promote how this community is much more valuable than the measly annual fee they pay.
  • Moving help: Before purchasing my waterbox, I almost finalized a RedSea 200g tank and was about to pay $1500 in transport charges from El Cerrito to San Jose.. I personally would have hesitated even to ask for help before I joined this group of wonderful people.. After joining this group, I see how often people show up to help each other, expecting nothing in return! I see bunch of posts on FB asking suggestions on movers.. Suggesting those folks to join local forums (with a link to join BAR) and asking for help is a great way to increase footfall to the website.
  • Reverse Sponsorship: I know a few LFS sponsors and supports BAR.. but can we request those LFS to have a banner promoting BAR in their stores (even if it means paying a little fee to put the banner in their stores)? I know a few folks joined BAR coz someone at their LFS mentioned about this community. A cheeky promotional message on the banner with all the positives of joining this forum will go a long way.. LFS is most likely the 1st place a newbie will go to before making up their mind to start their reefing journey and if we can get their attention during their 1st visit, we are definitely getting a new supporting member soon!
  • Free Trials: We can offer free trials where they can see all the forums including BST and PIF for a week in read-only mode before paying for the membership. They might come here for an equipment but may stay here for other wonderful reasons that are keeping this community healthy and alive!
 
SupraSaltyReefer said:
Hey BAR!
I haven’t made an official post introducing myself as the Social Media master yet, so here it is! I took over as the Social Media person back in December 2025. I’m really excited to help the club get more engagement across all our platforms and bring more people to the BAR website.

Prior to taking on the role, BAR had a Facebook page and Instagram. I created a TikTok and YouTube account since these will help engage more reefers and enable use to upload longer videos. All of these platforms are awesome for grabbing attention, but they don’t always create deeper interaction. My goal is to use them as a funnel to bring in new reefers and get them more involved on the website, so we can keep growing and strengthening our community together.

I'm open to ideas on the different types of content you'd like to see. Also feel free to post any pictures in this thread that you'd like me to review so I can feature it in post.

Here are the list of our current social media accounts. Like, follow and subscribe if you haven't yet!!!
Click to expand...

Hi @SupraSaltyReefer ! You are doing an amazing job - thanks for helping us establish a solid online presence!
(Also updated site in the works, stay tuned!)
 
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