(courtesy The Truth About Guns)

For the first four years of this website, TTAG’s Facebook page was a red-headed stepchild. We programmed WordPress to automatically post on Facebook whenever we pressed play on the main site. And…that’s it. At this year’s SHOT Show I ran into a red-headed social media manager named Celby Richoux. Ms. Richoux recommend we manually post on Facebook and hire her for more tips. Unfortunately, she fell off our radar. Fortunately, we followed her advice . . .

In less than three months our Facebook likes have soared from 5k to today’s 67,559. More than that, we’ve discovered the joys of Bookin’. Specifically, posting material that would otherwise end-up on the cutting room floor.

So if you can’t get enough TTAG, click here to like our Facebook page. Just don’t forget to come back to the mothership, where your eyeballs pay the bills. Thanks!

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64 COMMENTS

      • Come on man. Paul’s third chin?? Seriously? Leave Paul alone. For the most part Paul is pro gun and is one of us. On a few levels – Paul’s ideals don’t always match up with our opinions, but we should debate and reason with him on that level not on the basis of a third chin.

        • Yeah, you’re not exactly winning hearts and minds by picking on a man of the cloth for his weight, no matter how wrong or irritating he may be. Show some class.

    • Congrats on the Facebook improvements. I’m sure those who choose to use Facebook will be happy.

    • I used to have a FB account.

      Then I started reverse engineering their code, and the conclusion I came to was that it would be a huge security issue, there was no way they could fix it with the security model they had from the get-go, and it would be easy for various government yahoos to scrape tons of information out of FB and into their databases.

      That was in early 2010. Scrubbed all my information off the account quietly, deleted comments off anyone else’s page/photos methodically, and deleted my account a couple months later.

      Events since proved me correct. FB is a huge security blight upon the American public.

      • ^This^ I’ve always likened Facebunk to a fetid swamp full of the walking dead, alligators, deadly snakes, Ebola, ex-girlfriends, and government agents. Although I understand and even applaud the attempt to reach out to a different crowd, I see it as stupid people doing stupid things in stupid places. Just no security there at all.

      • You confirm my long-held suspicion that there is no good reason to be on Facebook. And this is to say nothing of the fact that they claim to own anything you post, including personal photographs. Unlike Vegas, what happens in cyberspace doesn’t stay there, and it lives forever. Never had an account, never will.

      • Come on Dyspeptic. It’s called “bogus accounts” 😉 I have several. You sign on and make radical fantastic comments on other’s blogs and forums when you are at the coffee shop, or some other free random Wifi. Civil comments – but radical. ATF head turning comments – you know what I’m talking about.

        -Anonymous

    • Personally, I don’t do FaceBook, Twitter or any of the other zillion ridiculous social media. I think they’re beyond stupid.

      For business, I don’t care for them either and would never visit a FB page, let alone “like” a page. Although, I do understand that’s part of a modern marketing strategy. So I grudgingly accept that some businesses I enjoy also maintain a social media presence. I would just never be a part of that.

    • That was my reaction too -_-

      Not one your finest moments TTAG, a bit disappointed. Ah what the hell, you guys are the best gun blog out here.

    • There’s nothing mentioned about firearms in that writeup.

      Here’s mine:

      Name: Gene

      Age: Old

      Occupation: Doer of deeds

      My favorite thing to wear to the beach is: My 9 mm

      The first thing I’m going to do when I get to Miami Beach is: Look for .22LR

      In my next life I want to come back as a: Person who can afford a SCAR

      My favorite album of all time is: Can’t hear – have hearing pro on.

      Most People don’t know that I: Really like .45’s, too

      My go to outfit is: My NRA jacket

      On the weekends you’ll find me: In the back field shoorting

      If I could have one superpower it would be to: Reload faster than a 550

      My life motto is: Mini-14’s work just dandy

      My friends are: willing to take turns tossing the clay pigeons

      If I had to live off of one food for the rest of my life it would be: Deer

      I dunno what to put here, so…

      <3

    • I am seriously concerned about Farago’s eyesight, judgement, or both. In some states, this would be sufficient grounds to prevent you from owning firearms based on obvious psychological deficiency.

    • No kidding! Even without my lifelong redhead fetish she is special. Now if I were only single and about forty years younger…

  5. Sorry Robert but I don’t do Facebook either. Paraphrasing the recent comments of Minecraft’s inventor on Facebook’s purchase of Oculus Rift, “[Facebook] has become very creepy”. Overvalued stock. Emphasis on user growth at all costs. Anti-gun stance. No fundamental profitability outside advertising. A giant social media hug-box.

    I and many others should do well to stay far away.

    • I hate your guts sometimes Paul. I want to do one of those mortal kombat knock outs (KOs) with the largest bible you have close-by upside your face – but we still love you. Don’t listen to these others giving you a hard time about your weight. I think everyone puts on some pounds sometime during their lives – I know I have. I only wish they would debate and reason with you on a constructive level to bend your understanding towards our perspectives, rather than referencing the chin. Regardless, don’t worry – we still love you.

  7. I visit here almost daily, sometimes 4+ times daily. I check arms list and buds gun shop for deals 1-2 times a week and sometimes check YouTube (Hickok 45).

  8. Do you need me to hunt this beauty down? The Diggles has the ability to find people who don’t want to be famous. Ask Shannon. 🙂

    • Yeah, Shannon Watts doesn’t want fame and public attention. Just like I don’t want to find a winning Powerball ticket on the sidewalk.

  9. Have a Facebook account. Never use it, have never posted on it, no photos. Don’t need to “share” my world with just anybody/everybody. Visit TTAG most days, sometime multiple times a day. Interesting stuff.

  10. i spend way, way too much time at TTAG. Sometimes I head over to Facebook for a banality break and there you are! I end up getting hooked on the subject matter and forget all about those riveting accounts of cute pets, sick children, what passing acquaintances are having for dinner and memes involving the Most Interesting Man in the World. Is TTAG saving me from Facebook? Or is… Okay, now I’ve forgotten what my original point was. Carry on!

  12. Facebook? What the hell’s that?
    You mean there’s a place on the internet where people with nothing important to do can post photos and made up stories about themselves?
    Christ, what will they think of next? I suppose somebody is going to come up with a device that you use to talk to your friends and is connected to the internet.
    Good grief!
    Stop the world! I want off!

  13. I hope her disorderly conduct arrest was for protesting something…

    That I can respect.

  14. To all the too-cool-for-Facebook kids… Working for a media outlet I pretty much have to be on FB but it wasn’t until I discovered reloading groups that I found something of value. My father who is 80+ discovered a genealogy group for the tiny town in KY where he grew up and is now on almost every day. So before you act like you have all the answers maybe open your mind. You might just discover some of those TTAG articles that didn’t make it on this forum.

    • I’m not ‘too cool’ for FB, I just operate on the notion that if I want to talk to someone, I’ll physically talk to them, not leave meaningless platitudes and half-assed cries for attention on a digital bulletin board.

    • I’m not “too cool” for FB.

      I used to work in the computer industry. I’ve been slinging code in more than a dozen languages since I was 15 and the computer I had access to was a PDP-11/03 and the operating system was RT-11/FB.

      When you look at the code that implements all the stuff in FB and you know what you’re doing, you can see how easy it is for you to lose control of your data, even if you restrict access to only your friends. It has security holes you can barrel-roll a B-52 through.

    • Ugh, gimme a break. Don’t project your insecurities about needing to feel ‘cool’ onto others. There are folks who live relatively ascetic lives who just don’t want to participate. There are some who are paranoid about what is being done with their personal information. There are some who are simply private people and don’t feel a need for a constant window into their lives, or to have a window into someone else’s. Some of us don’t want the unnecessary distraction. Some people get hooked on social media and lay off of it when they realize it soaks up their time. Others might have a problem with the hive-mind that regurgitated quotes and memes creates and don’t want to see their friends and families get absorbed. Some folks don’t want to support their d-bag CEO, and some people have reasons that neither you nor I have thought up.

      Your reason for liking Facebook doesn’t make you any more correct than someone else’s reason for avoiding it. Making decisions sometimes involves personal experiences and reasoned approaches, not emotional problems.

  15. you guys do know that you can create an FB account with zero personal info attached to it, right? use a fake name, don’t fill out a bio, nobody cares.

    if you just wan an account to read/comment on FB pages, that is how to do it.

    • And FB will still be pumping all manner of code into your browser when you log in…

  16. I deleted my account, because Facebook is primarily for women and gays to endlessly post pics of themselves and talk about inane crap I don’t care to read.

  17. Well, Robert, if you need someone with social media and marketing expertise (I got a Master’s degree in it) who’s looking for full-time employment, I’m only an e-mail away.

    Regardless, Facebook is an incredible tool to reach a broader audience, and I’m glad that TTAG is getting its foot in the door in a legitimate way…unlike a Bloomberg-financed (and owned) FB page that seems to be following this strategy: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/05/buy-facebook-likes_n_4544800.html

    • Yep, that’s how markets work. The supplier gave the customers something, and they responded.

      Turns out many readers don’t have a demand for a TTAG FB page. It could be that the non-FB crowd is more vocal than the rest, but the overwhelming response has been ‘no thanks.’
      See: Arch Deluxe; Crystal Pepsi

  19. I only recently got a FB page. I don’t post anything on my page. Mainly to keep in touch with my kids & grandkids. My wife uses FB to push her business and stay in contact with people. If the gubmint wants to get you they don’t need FB. I already spend WAY to much time on TTAG(LOL).

  21. FakeBook. No thanks. I already have the NSA and Google and Microsoft reading my email and documents, and geo-locating me by phone, and merchant visa records, and the IRS auditing people based on political contributions.

    Why would I want my friends and family photos tagged with facial recognition and spread all over with out my permission? Next you’ll be asking me for permission to share private medical information thats supposedly HIPPA protected. Uh- wait, thats not until April 15th when Obamacare goes live…whew!

  23. Man, you sure zing’d the hell outta me.
    No, wait…
    Yes, I do mean aside from those. The people on this site – the site you’re commenting on- have mostly replied that they’re not interested. As I said, they may simply be the more vocal group of consumers in this case, but the ones who spoke were almost unanimous. TTAG wrote an article trying to draw readers from one site into a new area, and those users didn’t bite. Big deal.

    As an aside, you should understand that Facebook follows and likes don’t mean much of anything; it’s why Facebook has had a hard time showing any kind of value aside from ad revenue and app sales. It turns out that someone clicking a button isn’t a strong enough indicator of their tendencies to be that valuable to most companies, and when you can buy blocks of followers or likes from marketing companies to boost your results, it diminishes their value even more.

    So now you’ve made me wonder- why are you defending FB like someone insulted your mother?

  24. I think “Creepy” is definitely the right way to describe what Facebook has become. It’s a weird mix of exhibitionists and voyeurs that either don’t know or don’t care that their uniquely identifiable personal information is being monitored, stored and ultimately “monetized” through advertising, market research, pre-employment background checks, etc.

  27. A note about my weight: I am 6’4 and big boned. I have what appears to be a surplus of fat, but it is simply steel-like muscle.

    It amuses me no end that people have so little mental horsepower available to them that they have to resort to fifth grade fat jokes.

    I win the Internet!

  28. I thought firearms was my first love, then I did a google image search for Celby Richoux. She looks better than a full bank vault.

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