50 First Dates: How to Hook Your Friends into Geocaching

geocachingdate
After an adventure like this, how could you not be hooked on geocaching?

Boy meets girl. Boy falls for girl. Girl forgets about boy. Boy asks girl on yet another ‘first’ date. Multiply this by 50 and you get the plot of the Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore chick flick sensation 50 First Dates. Sometimes – between stumbling across a less-than-spectacular geocache and  landing a poorly-timed DNF – getting your friends and family to share your love of geocaching can also take 50 first dates.

Or at least it used to. We’ve asked the geocaching community for their best advice on how to turn 50 first dates into geocaching love-at-first-sight.

The first step is simple: Let us help you tell a friend! Because geocaching can at times be tough to explain (it’s…uh… finding tupperware in the woods?), we’ve created a tool that removes the awkward and allows you to send a message to all your friends explaining the game and inviting them to join you on your next adventure. Tell A Friend About Geocaching lays the groundwork to make your first geocaching outing together a success.

From here, the key is to plan well so that you know your friend’s first experience will be a great one! Geocachers (like you!) reported high success rates using the following strategies:

1. Go to one of your favorite geocaches. This guarantees the “wow” factor and removes the risk of  having a frustrating DNF experience.

2. Start off your trip by watching a few inspiring geocaching videos. Geocaching isn’t always easy to explain in words. Videos, like those on the GoGeocaching YouTube Channel, can help set the stage for your adventure.

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More friends means more fun! Increase your find count with the help of your friends. Sometimes it takes a village to find a geocache.

3. Combine geocaching with another fun activity. Casually guide your friends on a mind-blowing treasure hunt during your work lunch break or after a dinner party. Hint: Secretly plan out this adventure in advance so you know it will be a good one, but act like it’s no big deal (e.g. “What this? I do stuff like this all the time. Just comes with the hobby”).

4. Start ’em young. Kids take very little convincing….and their parents will naturally follow along.

5. Attend a geocaching event! What better way to introduce your friends to geocaching than to show them how awesome other geocachers are. You can check out the new Events & Groups tab on the Geocaching Facebook page to find an event near you.

Now that you have all these tips and tricks up your sleeve, we have one final (not-so-secret) secret for you. The timing is right! 31 Days of Geocaching kicks off in just 5 days. This is a golden opportunity to get your friends and family out geocaching…so get on it!

Did these strategies help you get others out geocaching? Do you have any pointers that we missed? Tell us in the comments below.

 

Paige (ThePaigeTurner) is a Marketing Specialist at Geocaching HQ. She likes books.