For what it's worth, while I may be in the minority here on CGN, I do think that twitter is a very effective and efficient way for businesses to update customers.
A sticky is only good for Marstar's customers that frequent CGN and check the sticky on a regular basis.
The same applies to a Twitter feed as well, though. Infact even more so. The odds are that a greater percentage of Marstar's customer base use CGN regularly as opposed to Twitter. It can be a great tool for a customer base that is inclined to use it in their day to day lives already, but in Marstar's case I think it would provide less benefit than distributing the information through a community like ours. It is certainly easier when you're in a gunstore or at the range to talk about something you read on CGN rather than Twitter, too.
That being said, it's not like there isn't room for improvement in how information is delivered currently. The best way would just be to make the website a little more intuitive and have everything presented in a more organised fashion. Right now, I regularly check the Used Firearms, Special Clearance, Unique Firearms, Online Specials, Expected Delivery Dates and New Items sections of the website. The first three or four of those are pretty well redundant and could easily be merged into something more intuitive that more people would see.
I don't know if I would be considered something of a fanatic (as if that word could possibly describe anyone on this site
) for checking all of those pages but it has seemed like that is the thing to do if you want to catch everything that pops up on the site.
Depending on how much information John wants to put on the site then New Items could also be streamlined to include the sort of information we get here on the forum in addition to updates on new items in stock. A general update page, so to speak.
However, I do enjoy going to bed at night with the warm feeling from knowing I will wake up in the morning and check this subforum to see what tidbits John has thrown our way or who had the cajones to bring up some question that has been asked a zillion times already, before the aforementioned proprietor and esteemed gentleman has had his coffee.
So I would personally prefer to keep the personal interaction with Marstar that we get through this forum intact and make it easier for those who don't check in very often by having something akin to an updates thread that is stickied and locked to only allow John or a designated minion to post in it. That system has the benefit of putting the information infront of people without them having to read long, rambling tangential posts like this one.
I applaud you if you made it this far and, ignoring my feelings on the matter, organising the website to provide similar information to what we receive here would be the way to go. And as for Facebook, well, I think ViktorF illustrated my feelings on that quite well.
And no, I'm not under the illusion that I'm saying anything John hasn't heard already..
