My ColecoVision Fan Facebook Page and Why I Made it...

[TPR]

...I'm just gonna cut to the chase. I was told today that there have been some questiones raised about the Facebook Page that I created last month:

 

- Why did Robb create that page?

- How did he get so many likes?

- Are those likes real?

- Where's he going with this?

 

Well, I'll tell you...

 

When I got back into all this retrograming stuff a little over a year ago, I has NO IDEA there was the level of activity going on in the community. The ColecoVision was my favorite system growing up and the idea that I could get a system upgraded to work with modern TVs, I could get a device that would play lots of games on one cartridge, and there were NEW GAMES and hardware being made for the system, it was like I was 12 years old all over again! It was AWESOME!!!

 

And while I fully appreciate and love the forums on AtariAge here, there was one thing I realized - the majority of the people that are on these forums are die-hard collectors and hobbiests who have been in this community for years...decades even. There had to be more people out there like me, and the barrier of entry to these forums is that you had to go looking for them. But what if I went looking for the fans instead?

 

My background is in social media. I've run my theme park site for 20 years and we have 1.4 million people who follow us on our socials. I'm not throwing those numbers out there to brag, but just to give you an idea of what I can accomplish with that medium.

 

After talking to some of the homebrew developers hearing that numbers were down from where they used to be and other things in the community seeming to slow down a little bit, I thought to myself "I don't want the community to slow down, I want it to thrive. And the more customers the homebrewers have, the more incentive there will be to make more games."

 

I do not have the talent to program, do artwork, or put together a game. But I *DO* know how to spread the word about something. And that's what the Facebook page and the other socials is for. I built the page to help promote the community as a whole. The homebrew publishers, the different users groups, these AtariAge forums, the podcasts that exist, the guys doing hardware upgrades, people selling games, my socials were created to help them. The goal is to help find more people like myself who were fans of the system growing up, are not that big into modern gaming, and can have their ColecoVision hooked up to their HDTV and buying new games for it as if the system never went out of style.

 

Some people might want to play new XBOX or PS4 games, I want to play new ColecoVision games. And I want to do what I can to help the community.

 

Are all those likes real? Yes. Absolutely. I have been spending my own money to a very specific target audience to find these people. People who are 38-50 and love video games and had the ColecoVision has a kid/teenager/etc is exactly my target. Turns out... there's a lot of them!

 

Are they all going to be active members of the community? No, absolutely not. But the more people I can make aware that the system is not dead the better chance I have of helping everyone involved with the community sell more games, get more listeners on a podcast, get more views and likes on their Facebook pages, get more members of these forums, THAT is the goal. I have been told that the overall awareness of the community is up and homebrew publishers are already seen more interest in their products. And that IMO is fantastic!

 

There is nothing in it for me other that the fact that I'm totally having a good time running the socials posting about something that I love and attracting more people into this community so that more games that I want to play will get created. That is the only selfish goal I have invested in what I'm doing.

 

That's my story and I'm sticking with it!

[ValkerieSilk]

Love It!

[Kamshaft]

I think what you're doing is great!

[+lawdawg710]

Well, I can say this, I Love what your doing and how you are making people more aware. I know from speaking to you through the Facebook pages how passionate you are for the Colecovision community as well as playing it etc. There will always be naysayers amd detractors, even within our own "group" but they are almost always the minority and not the majority. So keep it up, amd while my little Colecovision page doesnt have 1% of the following yours does, I fully support you and I appreciate you for helping bring more life into the shstem we all cherish. So thank you Robb, and if you need any type of help with pages/groups, I would be more than happy to assist!!

Edited June 3, 2016 by lawdawg710

[TPR]

Well, I can say this, I Love what your doing and how you are making people more aware. I know from speaking to you through the Facebook pages how passionate you are for the Colecovision community as well as playing it etc. There will always be naysayers amd detractors, even within our own "group" but they are almost always the minority and not the majority. So keep it up, amd while my little Colecovision page doesnt have 1% of the following yours does, I fully support you and I appreciate you for helping bring more life into the shstem we all cherish. So thank you Robb, and if you need any type of help with pages/groups, I would be more than happy to assist!!

 

One of my goals is to also spread the love to other people who run Facebook pages/Facebook groups. We all post different content and I firmly believe that content should be seen by as many people as possible. I'll keep sending as many people your way as I can!

[HkryCrkStudio]

Robb, you using your know-how to reach a wider audience and promote our beloved ColecoVision is awesome. I'm still blown away by the number of people you've been able to reach and the number keeps growing. Love it. Keep it up please, I think you're doing the console a great service. Your videos are cool too and I'd like to share them. Cheers

[TPR]

Robb, you using your know-how to reach a wider audience and promote our beloved ColecoVision is awesome. I'm still blown away by the number of people you've been able to reach and the number keeps growing. Love it. Keep it up please, I think you're doing the console a great service. Your videos are cool too and I'd like to share them. Cheers

 

You absolutely may! In fact, it works better if you download them and re-upload them to your page. You'll get better exposure that way, and I'm totally fine with that. Whatever we can do to spread the word a bit more!

[+Yurkie]

After reading the thread title, I half expected the opening line might read.

 

Too make Yurkie jealous over all my cool ColecoVision stuff.

 

Interesting story about your background in social media.

 

Happy Gaming:)

[TPR]

After reading the thread title, I half expected the opening line might read.

 

Too make Yurkie jealous over all my cool ColecoVision stuff.

 

Interesting story about your background in social media.

 

Happy Gaming:)

 

You're welcome! Did you see your balls on the page this morning? I mean.... your ball knobs? Wow, that still doesn't sound any better! lol

[+Yurkie]

I thought it was my old lady busting my balls about the lawn this morning.

 

Seriously though thanks for the plug:)