Revitalize Scouting through Social Media or Program?

Every time we brainstorm about how to revitalize Scouting comments about social media and marketing are bound to come up. But, try as we might, it's difficult to gain traction and use social media to attract youth and families to Scouting. There are a BUNCH of reasons (or theories) as to why it doesn't seem to work for us - scouting in general. I often try to find things that DO work and listen to the nuances as to how Scouting works in some instances yet not all instances.

Here are a few of my observations / hypothesis
Clearly, a handful of families join local packs and troops when the families get excited about scouting because they notice a picture of  a friend enjoying a camping trip, or a pinewood derby. It often sounds like "I had no idea you were involved in scouting, tell me more about it" In that instance social media enhances the reach of parents and the relationship among parents is really at the core of the resulting registration.

As the guy who is often credited with creating BEaSCOUT.org (I was lucky enough to be one of the leaders in that great collaborative project) I have watched the usefulness of that site and the enthusiasm for that site ebb and flow over the past 7 years. It clearly connects about one hundred families each year to Scouting in our council - it's difficult to know weather these families would have joined with or without access to the local pack info. (BEaSCOUT generates about two leads per pack per year)

In the past couple weeks we did find a few direct ties from social media to people attending camp! This cub scout mom below follows my face book and called on Friday, she was seeking a great afternoon of outdoor fun for her two cub scout sons and her kindergarten daughter. As a den leader she brought the den to camp a couple years ago - but she didn't realize she could just attend, without the pack or the den. My favorite part of her post is that her daughter and wolf cub learned to skate on Saturday at Camp Sayre!

In similar experience this fledgling venture crew went ice climbing last week. When a friend of one of the venturers saw these picture on instagram she asked her friend all about it, the next thing we knew the girl and four other friends signed up for ice climbing again, the very next weekend! doubling the size and interest in the new Venture Crew.

It can clearly work! We can grow Scouting through program opportunities. And we (the council and Camp Sayre) continue to have a lot to learn about how to reach outside of our classic methods and encourage deeper engagement. It's encouraging to know that we are on the right track ....

Oh, and both the Mom and her cub scout family and the venturing girls come from out of council.

Please share your thoughts, observations and comments about growing Scouting through program or the use of social media to grow scouting.