While scrolling on social media, CHS students will likely see a post from a school- wide organization. It might have been a reminder from the Cultural Communications Club (CCC) or The Inkblot about events happening at CHS or meeting information.
However, smaller clubs, such as the Baking Club or the Gardening Club, do not always have a social media page. For this generation, social media may seem to be the best way of reaching large numbers of students, but not everyone believes an online presence is a necessity.
CCC President and senior Garrett Stemetzki of Wall Township is one of many students who promotes his club on social media.
“Social media accounts for clubs give us the opportunity to reach out to people on a platform where they’re more likely to see it.”
Stemetzki explains that many students may not be willing to search through their emails to check for notifications from their respective clubs due to overflowing inboxes. Seeing as emails are the main vehicle for communication, students are constantly swamped with Google Classroom messages, incoming meeting reminders and other alerts, which can become difficult to navigate.
On the other hand, the founders of the Baking Club, Amelia White of Howell, Alexa Obara and Ava Obara, both of Brielle, do not feel the need to create a social media account to draw in new members. Despite the novelty of the club, they had no problems reaching a large number of students, with many attending their first two meetings of the year.
“If we did have any social media, that could help if we were looking to get new members, but considering that so many people are here, I don’t think we will need one,” White said.
Students typically follow clubs’ social media pages after joining in order to stay informed with the happenings of each club. Freshman Maeve Donovan of Wall Township did exactly this.
“I did not join clubs because of the social media, but I did follow the social media after joining the club,” Donovan said. While social media accounts do draw attention to clubs, there are plenty of informative meetings and events at CHS to call attention to clubs as well.
Sophomore Brody Salowe of Ocean Township used these in-person meetings to learn more about each of the clubs.
“The club info sessions and the club fair really got me into all of the clubs,” Salowe said.
Social media pages are useful as they keep people up to date with everything that is happening within each club. Posts relating to events serve as helpful reminders for people who do not check their emails, and this leads to higher attendance at each event. However, social media pages do not seem to draw in surges of students. While having a social media page helps to deliver information to current club members, it is not the best way to attract new members to the club.
