Long Beach groups gather on Facebook

When Long Beach native Brian Smith was a freshman at Purchase in 2007, he started a Facebook group called “Long Beach, NY” when the social networking site was still restricted to college students. 

“I originally started the group with people who went to the same school that I went to so that we could all stay in contact with each other,” said Smith, who is completing his senior year studying history and computer science at Binghamton.    

After Facebook went global though, Smith and his then girlfriend decided to expand the group to include anyone from Long Beach. At first, the group’s “friends” remained mostly college students who chatted about Long Beach nightlife, the West End and the beach, but membership has since grown to 2,700 of all ages. “It’s mostly positive things about Long Beach,” Smith said about the activity on the page.   

The group’s description reads: “This group is for all of the really awesome people who come from Long Beach, NY... 11561.”   

Smith admits that at one point there was a long discussion about keeping outsiders out of Long Beach, and some members were down on tourism. “But now there’s a lot of people going on talking about where they’re going on vacation and going to other places on Long Island,” he said.  

Facebook groups are pages that users can create based on virtually any subject, from social and political causes to fans of blue pens, and where members post comments on the group wall and send messages to within the group. Long Beach-related groups tend to center on businesses, surfers and lifeguards, while one dedicated to parking is dubbed “Changed the Parking Situation in Long Beach.” Another is “Long Beach, NY Teachers: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly,” which invites teachers, past and present, to chime in. Smith once was a member of “Long Beach Isn’t on Long Island,” which he said evoked a negative view of Long Island as compared to Long Beach. 

Mitch Tobol, a partner in the Amityville-based marketing firm CGT Marketing, who lectures on social networking, said that what Smith has done with his group reflects a movement online for more community and geographically-based social sites. “Google, for example, is trying to be more relevant locally,” Tobol said, “and that type of Facebook group or fan page actually represents that.”   

Tobol stressed that it’s important for people to keep their Facebook groups focused on a particular theme, and to keep other members from hijacking a page and turning into something entirely different.    

“Every social site has their own environment, and Facebook groups can be a very effective tool if used appropriately,” Tobol explained. “...You have to give people a reason to come, there has to be a theme and content around it that people can rally around, not just something that you’re selling them, but that they’re interested in.”   

Several Facebook pages in Long Beach are devoted to business, whether as individual pages or as groups. Andrea Shulman, who owns Pinup, a woman’s clothing store on East Park Avenue, started a Facebook group for her store, and then start another for Long Beach retail businesses and restaurants, called “I Love Long Beach, NY.”     

Shulman opened her store two years, when the financial crisis was starting to wreak havoc. A year last year, she started the group, and since then it’s grown to more than 1,530 members. Its purpose, she said, is to give businesses another way to advertise. The page description states: “Support your town! Why go over the bridge? Eat, drink and shop in Long Beach, NY!”   

“I was seriously just sitting around having coffee trying to learn about Facebook,” Shulman said about the origins of the group. “I did it for my business first to advertise myself and then before you know it there’s 20 businesses on it and about 1,500 members and I’m getting phone calls left and right. It took off amazingly.”    

Shulman does minimal administration of the group page. Accountants and attorneys, as well as people who live in Long Beach but own businesses elsewhere, contact her asking to join the group. But she denies them, wanting to keep the page restricted to store fronts and restaurants in the city. She mostly just advises businesses in the group to refrain from overexposing themselves. “I usually tell people not to send too many emails out to people,” she said.  

Tobol said that what Shulman has done, separating her personal business page from the business group page, is important, so as not to create unnecessary confusion among members and visitors.  

“I always tell people that when online be focused and transparent, but be focused on a theme,” he said. “Don’t try to move the page, the content, from a place it shouldn’t go, and if you do that you’ll gain a more loyal following and more meaningful interaction.”  

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