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Who's Who in the Fishing Industry on Facebook

We asked one of our interns, Chelsey Mitchell (Econ, Fordham '13), to look at the Facebook pages of the major brands in the fishing world and record their total fans as of just about now June 2011. (If we missed your company, let us know and we'll add you to the list. info@gosportn.com)

We created this list in part because GoFISHn is #3 and we're not above a little self-promotion. The results are pretty interesting, which you can see for yourself below. There were a surprising number of no-shows (you know who you are) and of course there are powerhouses Basspro and Cabela's. Lots of important product brands have practically no presence on Facebook while media and retail brands do well. 

Maybe we could summarize this way: Retailers want buyers. Media want readers. They know what they want, and they are clearly paying attention to Facebook as a source for both. Tackle makers, on their other hand, appear less sure about Facebook, with a few exceptions, like Costa and Plano. That's probably because they aren't so sure about the value of a Facebook fan or how to go after them. The idea of an ongoing, direct conversation with fans though the medium of Facebook is still a pretty radical idea for many brands. But it's coming on fast, and smart brand managers will soon figure out that Facebook page fans are a stunningly cost-effective way to stay in touch with customers and get feedback.

At GoFISHn, we're ready to help any company that wants to crack the code on Facebook or any other digital project. Click here to see the results of our latest project, Bassmaster.com, which was the re-launch of old ESPN Bassmaste site for the new owners of B.A.S.S. The new site includes a complete Facebook integration, which lead to a doubling of traffic from Facebook in the first month after launch. Give us a call if you'd like to know more... -Ned Desmond 

Here's the list: 

Company Name	Fans	As of…
Bass Pro Shops	1,161,023	6/8/11
Cabela's	1,153,836	6/8/11
GoFishn	169,197	6/8/11
Costa Del Mar Sunglasses	160,412	6/9/11
Plano	126,376	6/9/11
Patagonia	106,426	6/9/11
Panther Martin	65,687	6/9/11
L.L.Bean	62,232	6/9/11
The Sportsman Channel	42,395	6/10/11
Abu Garcia	40,753	6/8/11
Bassmaster	35,572	6/8/11
Garden & Gun Magazine	34,192	6/8/11
North American Fishing Club	33,504	6/8/11
Field & Stream	30,515	6/8/11
Sport Fishing Magazine	28,418	6/10/11
Outdoor Channel	24,005	6/10/11
Rapala	23,490	6/10/11
World Fishing Network	19,092	6/8/11
Orvis	16,283	6/8/11
Strike King Lure Company	15,901	6/8/11
Simms	12,773	6/10/11
Flambeau Outdoors	12,611	6/9/11
Quantum Fishing	12,547	6/10/11
Trout Unlimited	12,255	6/10/11
Take Me Fishing	11,367	6/8/11
Outdoor Life Magazine	9,786	6/10/11
Stren	9,400	6/10/11
In-Fisherman	8,825	6/10/11
GAFF Magazine	7,678	6/8/11
Lowrance	6,939	6/9/11
Frabill	6,883	6/9/11
Catch Magazine	6,697	6/8/11
Florida Sportsman Magazine	5,961	6/10/11
Ross Reels	5,639	6/10/11
Northland Fishing Tackle	5,618	6/8/11
The Drake Magazine	5,395	6/10/11
Old Town Canoes & Kayaks	5,045	6/9/11
Nautilus Reels	4,999	6/9/11
Salt Water Sportsman Magazine	4,675	6/10/11
Marlin Magazine	4,191	6/8/11
On The Water Magazine	4,184	6/8/11
Vicious Fishing	3,903	6/10/11
Loon Outdoors	3,733	6/9/11
United States Catfish Association	3,627	6/8/11
Fly Fisherman Magazine	3,552	6/8/11
Rio Products	3,429	6/10/11
Fishpond	3,426	6/9/11
Pinnacle Fishing	3,281	6/9/11
Cortland Line	3,215	6/9/11
Sage	3,183	6/10/11
The Flyfish Journal	3,027	6/8/11
Federation of Fly Fishers	2,999	6/10/11
Whaling City	2,726	6/8/11
American Rodsmiths	2,678	6/8/11
Lindy Legendary Fishing Tackle	2,654	6/9/11
DOA Lures	2,646	6/10/11
Scott Fly Rod Company	2,634	6/10/11
Kaenon Polarized	2,494	6/9/11
Fly Fishing in Salt Waters Magazine	2,453	6/10/11
Scientific Anglers	2,452	6/10/11
Redington	2,396	6/10/11
Sturgeon Slayers	2,386	6/8/11
Albright Fly Fishing	2,306	6/8/11
Coastal Conservation Association: Florida	2,306	6/10/11
Recreational Fishing Alliance	2,300	6/10/11
Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership	2,272	6/10/11
Zebco	2,268	6/10/11
Shimano	2,266	6/10/11
The Fiberglass Manifesto	2,163	6/8/11
William Joseph Fly Fishing	2,133	6/10/11
Optimum Baits	2,091	6/9/11
Ardent	2,020	6/8/11
Professional Fishing Instructors & Guides Association	1,964	6/8/11
Cajun Line	1,957	6/9/11
Fetha Styx	1,930	6/9/11
Pure Fishing	1,851	6/10/11
Umpqua Feather Merchants	1,843	6/8/11
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services	1,784	6/8/11
Midcurrent	1,729	6/8/11
Delaware River Fly Fishing	1,704	6/8/11
Recycled Fish	1,634	6/10/11
Deneki Outdoors	1,619	6/8/11
Wright & McGill	1,578	6/10/11
Lurenet	1,574	6/8/11
Owner Hooks	1,483	6/9/11
ICAST	1,424	6/8/11
Culprit Riptide	1,374	6/9/11
The American Fisheries Society	1,358	6/10/11
Loop Tackle	1,350	6/9/11
Leland Fly Fishing Outfitters	1,319	6/8/11
Lamiglas	1,230	6/9/11
This Is Fly Magazine	1,195	6/10/11
The Saltwater Edge	1,109	6/8/11
Seaguar Fluorocarbon	1,024	6/10/11
Van Staal	1,006	6/8/11
Shakespeare	919	6/10/11
Skate The Fly	895	6/8/11
Tarbone	875	6/10/11
Galvan Fly Reels	845	6/9/11
Martha's Vineyard Striped Bass & Bluefish Derby	843	6/8/11
Yakima Bait Company	840	6/10/11
Fin-Nor	803	6/9/11
Winston Fly Rods	802	6/10/11
Tenkara USA	780	6/10/11
U.S. Carp Pro Magazine	763	6/8/11
Sea Striker	707	6/10/11
Montana Fishing Outfitters	693	6/8/11
Gamakatsu Fishing Club	607	6/9/11
Potomac Conservancy	555	6/8/11
Falcon Rods	527	6/9/11
Penn Fishing	518	6/9/11
US Youth Fly Fishing Team	505	6/8/11
Buckeye Lures	488	6/9/11
The Billfish Foundation	487	6/10/11
International Fly Tackle Dealer Show	475	6/8/11
Tibor Reels	471	6/10/11
Humminbird	457	6/9/11
American Fly Fishing Trade Association	455	6/8/11
Game & Fish Magazine	447	6/10/11
Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation	445	6/8/11
Spiderwire Braid	437	6/10/11
Abel Reels	422	6/8/11
Coastal Conservation Association of Georgia	418	6/10/11
Online Fishermen	399	6/8/11
St. Croix Rods	390	6/10/11
Bass Fishing Hall of Fame	389	6/8/11
Chota Outdoor Gear	351	6/9/11
Mann's Bait Company	329	6/9/11
Great Bay Rod Company	310	6/10/11
Gray's Sporting Journal	284	6/10/11
Jack Dennis Fishing Trips	277	6/8/11
Eagle Claw Fishing	272	6/9/11
Discover Fly Fishing	260	6/8/11
National Fish Habitat Action Plan	246	6/8/11
Fly Rod & Reel Magazine	234	6/8/11
Tony's Salmon Country Guide Service	226	6/8/11
The Waterworks Lamson	211	6/10/11
Berkley Fishing	209	6/9/11
Family and Youth Casting Call	193	6/8/11
Daiwa	167	6/9/11
Journal of a Minnesota Angler	145	6/8/11
Booyah Baits	124	6/9/11
Water Gremlin	106	6/10/11
Hall Em In Lures	105	6/10/11
Betts Tackle	93	6/9/11
WaveSpin Reel	78	6/10/11
Fish Finder Charters	72	6/8/11
Bass Assassin Lures	68	6/9/11
The Creek Company	65	6/10/11
Coastal Conservation Association Maryland	63	6/10/11
Thill	23	6/10/11

 

Bassmaster.com has launched!

One of my all-time favorite figures in the media world is Don Logan, who ran Time Inc. for ten stellar years and did a no less outstanding turn as the co-COO of Time-Warner. He retired a few years back to Birmingham, Alabama and began investing in local businesses, including the Barons baseball team, and spending more time on his favorite occupation, largemouth bass fishing.

I talked to him from time to time about the GoFISHn project, and tried to get him involved as an advisor. He seemed interested but not quite ready to take the bait, and last year I found out why.

Don long had his eye on a much bigger project: the acquisition of B.A.S.S. and Bassmaster from ESPN. That deal went through last fall, and Don and his partners Jerry McKinnis and Jim Copeland got started on the tough business of extracting the extensive B.A.S.S. businesses (Bassmaster magazine and website, Classic, Elite and Open tournaments) from ESPN.

That led to a call from Don asking if I'd take on the effort to re-build the Bassmaster.com site. In my former life at Time Inc., that was my line of work. The project was clearly a terrific challenge for an iconic brand. The 500,00-member B.A.S.S. organization is by far the biggest and more powerful media and membership entity in the fishing world. And it had some obvious resonance with GoFISHn. I said "yes."

That commenced a very hectic six-month project that examined questions like this: How can a small B.A.S.S. staff and run a very high-powered website without the deep pockets and very deep technical expertise of ESPN? At the same time we had to move quickly into the relentless planning and execution to design and build a much-improved website on a tight budget and a short timeline. 

The result of all that is the new Bassmaster.com, which launched on schedule, May 1, and on budget. Here's a link to our press release about the project. Don, as you can read, is pleased with the outcome.

The new Bassmaster is a significant improvement over the old one in several respects:

Design. The former site was shoe-horned into an ESPN-page template designed to showcase video. That makes sense for ESPN.com, which is centerered on lucrative game highlight video, but was not quite right for Bassmaster, which prides itself on great writing and photography, as well as strong tournament video coverage. To re-balance that design equation, we created deep editorial wells on the home page and main channel pages to better showcase every piece of content equally -- articles, photos, and video. 

Recirculation. Every Web editor knows that it's all about keeping the visitor clicking, and the former site had far too many dead-ends, especially on stories and photo galleries. The new site has multiple options on every page to get reader clicking to the next story.

Organization. Bassmaster is about a few clear subjects: tournament bass fishing, professional anglers, bass records, bass fishing gear, bass fishing tips, and the Federation Nation organization. The former site did not make that clear in the top navigation, which probably confused visitors. We streamlined and focused the navigation as well as the organization of the content.

Social. To take full advantage of all that Facebook is doing for publishers, we incorporated Facebook "likes" and comments on all content pages, as well as a Tweet link.

Search. The former site search was unhelpful because results incorporated everything on ESPN. The new site is built in Drupal, which means content is easy to "tag" content with subjects and the site search is SOLR, which is designed to use tags to organize search results. It works really well, and Bassmaster fans now can find what they're looking for.

Professional Angler Stats. Bassmaster has a treasure trove of stats for tournaments and pro anglers, and ESPN did a good job making the data interactive. We improved the page-layouts for the pro anglers, added more data, added more ways to sort the data, and tucked in a news feed of stories for each angler. It's stats heaven for pro angler fans. See rockstar pro bass angler Kevin VanDam, for example.

Tournament coverage. The Bassmaster team works extremely hard to cover a demanding tournament schedule and produces everything from live video to articles to photo galleries to real-time live leaderboards and more. On the former site, that impressive media line-up was not easy to find or follow. We created persistent homepages for each tournament to capture all the content, and we placed a navigation module for that tournament above every relevant article, gallery, video post etc. The first tournament since launch, the Bassmaster Elite Pride of Georgia, launched today, and so far the new set-up is working well. 

Publishing. It's a shame when online publishing systems are so cumbersome that editors are reluctant to use them. Bassmaster's new Drupal Open Publish system (designed by Phase2 Technology) makes publishing online what it should be -- fast and easy. Now the editorial teams can publish more and publish faster, which is a key ingredient for success in online media.

We made many additional improvements in the realms of performance, SEO, video, analytics and more. 

As a veteran of many projects like this, I have to say Bassmaster.com has been one of the smoothest and most enjoyable. The Bassmaster crew are both both good teachers and good students. The ESPN technical team was unstintingly helpful and resourceful. Phase2 Technology team did a great job, and taught me a lot about Drupal. And my friends and colleagues Dmitry Paperny, Matt Kaufman, Brian McClintock and Clarence Kwei were as ever invaluable sources of experience and insight.

What's next? as I mentioned in the press release, the next big step is the launch of Bassnation, which will come in a few weeks. Stay tuned. -Ned Desmond