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  • #16
    One way we might be able to drive more traffic from facebook to the forum is to not only post articles/videos/etc from shaolin.org, but also point people who want to discuss/comment on post to the relevant thread in the forum. Some will still just comment in facebook, and that's fine, but we can still generally guide the discussion to the forum by gentle redirection. For instance, if someone makes an interesting point in a facebook comment, we can choose to quote it and discuss it further in the forum thread while also responding in facebook with something like, "That's an interesting point that has generated further discussion in our forum. Check it out: <link to forum thread/post>".

    We could do the same for articles posted on other Wahnam (or non-Wahnam) websites, using facebook to build awareness but housing the discussion in the forum.

    Additionally, we could promote interesting forum threads and posts directly in facebook with a little teaser/excerpt that causes readers to want to follow the link and read (and hopefully comment on) the thread. (This could be a good reason to use the forum's "share" feature.)
    Chris Didyk
    Shaolin Wahnam USA


    Thank You.

    Comment


    • #17
      It looks like there is a possibility to create / install a native Android and iOS App to optimise the mobile device experience of the forum. Before I research this option further, how do you think having an optimised mobile experience and custom apps for the forum would change the forum's attractiveness?

      Do you think it is worth the time, effort and financial investment to move this idea of an optimised mobile performance forward (it may require a forum software update / platform change to make this possible)?
      Sifu Andrew Barnett
      Shaolin Wahnam Switzerland - www.shaolin-wahnam.ch

      Flowing Health GmbH www.flowing-health.ch (Facebook: www.facebook.com/sifuandrew)
      Healing Sessions with Sifu Andrew Barnett - in Switzerland and internationally
      Heilbehandlungen mit Sifu Andrew Barnett - in der Schweiz und International

      Comment


      • #18
        Originally posted by Grimlock View Post
        The one thing I miss in the forum is the ability to have discussions that should maybe not be totally public. For instance, I would love to be able to easily discuss aspects of the Essence of Shaolin course and insights gained from continued training of the material with others who took the course. That would be difficult to do in the forum without potentially giving away secrets that are not meant for the public. But I also don't want to put that kind of information anywhere on facebook, and would prefer to keep such information as part of our Library of Alexandria, as Santi said.
        This is an interesting point, Chris. Whilst we don't want to drive discussions behind "closed doors", this may be doable. A potential danger, of course, is that the majority of discussions could end up behind the "closed doors" and thus reduce the public activity even further.

        On the other hand, I think most of the things that we would want to discuss as secrets would not even be understood by the uninitiated. Hiding secrets in the open?
        Sifu Andrew Barnett
        Shaolin Wahnam Switzerland - www.shaolin-wahnam.ch

        Flowing Health GmbH www.flowing-health.ch (Facebook: www.facebook.com/sifuandrew)
        Healing Sessions with Sifu Andrew Barnett - in Switzerland and internationally
        Heilbehandlungen mit Sifu Andrew Barnett - in der Schweiz und International

        Comment


        • #19
          Hi everyone,

          While most people are using facebook much more than discussion forums today, the quality of information in our virtual kwoon is much higher than on facebook.

          Most of the times I experience visiting facebook a waste of time, endless scrolling through useless information… though some healthy laughs might be included. Visiting the forum is always worth the time.

          I am using the desktop mode on my smartphone, which works quite well for me and is enough to read and to follow what’s going on. As I generally don’t like to type on the phone, I will always prefer to write on my PC, no matter if there’s a distinct app or just a website.

          Personally, I don’t think that preparing an app will be much of help in making the forum more lively. But I have not checked which additional possibilities that could bring. Maybe push messages when a new post is made in a thread I am following? (Compared to the current e-mail notification this would also be just different, not new.)

          Originally posted by Grimlock View Post
          One way we might be able to drive more traffic from facebook to the forum is to not only post articles/videos/etc from shaolin.org, but also point people who want to discuss/comment on post to the relevant thread in the forum. Some will still just comment in facebook, and that's fine, but we can still generally guide the discussion to the forum by gentle redirection. For instance, if someone makes an interesting point in a facebook comment, we can choose to quote it and discuss it further in the forum thread while also responding in facebook with something like, "That's an interesting point that has generated further discussion in our forum. Check it out: <link to forum thread/post>".

          We could do the same for articles posted on other Wahnam (or non-Wahnam) websites, using facebook to build awareness but housing the discussion in the forum.

          Additionally, we could promote interesting forum threads and posts directly in facebook with a little teaser/excerpt that causes readers to want to follow the link and read (and hopefully comment on) the thread. (This could be a good reason to use the forum's "share" feature.)

          Thanks for sharing your idea, Chris. This could really be worth a try.

          Originally posted by sancrica View Post
          - To increase the frequency of posts. We have a lot of content that we can actually share from Sifu's website. We can aim to have 1 post per day or 1 post every 2 days, for example.
          Thanks for your experienced input, Siheng. At the moment, we are posting about 2 posts in 3 days on average.

          We are planning to increase the facebook activities in a few months.

          Best wishes,

          Leo
          Sifu Leonard Lackinger

          Shaolin Treasure House

          Shaolin Wahnam Wien & Shaolin Treasure House

          Comment


          • #20
            P.S. Apparently the Facebook integration on this version of the forum software no longer works (due to changes in Facebook -- that happen quite often). This means that liking / sharing from directly within the forum software is no longer possible. Upgrading to the new software version would/should solve this. I am researching what this means as the new version is completely different to this one, rather than a simple update (i.e. we would need to go from 4.2.5 to 5.x.x).
            Sifu Andrew Barnett
            Shaolin Wahnam Switzerland - www.shaolin-wahnam.ch

            Flowing Health GmbH www.flowing-health.ch (Facebook: www.facebook.com/sifuandrew)
            Healing Sessions with Sifu Andrew Barnett - in Switzerland and internationally
            Heilbehandlungen mit Sifu Andrew Barnett - in der Schweiz und International

            Comment


            • #21
              Dear Shaolin Wahnam Family,

              Originally posted by Andrew View Post
              Do you think it is worth the time, effort and financial investment to move this idea of an optimised mobile performance forward (it may require a forum software update / platform change to make this possible)?
              In my opinion, the better the user experience is the more likely people will use the Forum.

              I am no expert in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) but it can be another great strategy for attracting traffic to the Forum. Having a software update might help in getting better ranking at Search Engines.

              How well / often does the Forum show up in Google results? Are there many visitors finding Forum threads at Google and clicking on them? I usually check all this data in Google Analytics but you might be using another Web Analytics software.

              Originally posted by Leo Shaolin View Post
              Thanks for your experienced input, Siheng. At the moment, we are posting about 2 posts in 3 days on average.

              We are planning to increase the facebook activities in a few months.

              Best wishes,

              Leo
              That sounds great Sidai.

              With Love, Care and Shaolin Salute,

              Santi

              Comment


              • #22
                Originally posted by Grimlock View Post
                One way we might be able to drive more traffic from facebook to the forum is to not only post articles/videos/etc from shaolin.org, but also point people who want to discuss/comment on post to the relevant thread in the forum. Some will still just comment in facebook, and that's fine, but we can still generally guide the discussion to the forum by gentle redirection. For instance, if someone makes an interesting point in a facebook comment, we can choose to quote it and discuss it further in the forum thread while also responding in facebook with something like, "That's an interesting point that has generated further discussion in our forum. Check it out: <link to forum thread/post>".

                We could do the same for articles posted on other Wahnam (or non-Wahnam) websites, using facebook to build awareness but housing the discussion in the forum.

                Additionally, we could promote interesting forum threads and posts directly in facebook with a little teaser/excerpt that causes readers to want to follow the link and read (and hopefully comment on) the thread. (This could be a good reason to use the forum's "share" feature.)
                I do agree completely but I think we need to have enough followers on Facebook first to generate the traffic. For example

                Shaolin Wahnam Institute has 656 followers
                Shaolin Wahnam Institute Puerto Rico has 1880 followers

                You would think that the Shaolin Wahnam Institute Facebook should have the most followers. Puerto Rico looks like they have a good following

                The more followers we have on Facebook, then doing as Chris mentioned above, then more traffic on the forum.

                Comment


                • #23
                  Originally posted by sancrica View Post
                  I am no expert in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) but it can be another great strategy for attracting traffic to the Forum. Having a software update might help in getting better ranking at Search Engines.
                  The new version should indeed improve on SEO. It is not possible to say what the effect will be though,

                  From my research to date, the forum update would take just a few hours ---- after several days of preparation and pre-testing (which I have already started, just in case ).
                  Sifu Andrew Barnett
                  Shaolin Wahnam Switzerland - www.shaolin-wahnam.ch

                  Flowing Health GmbH www.flowing-health.ch (Facebook: www.facebook.com/sifuandrew)
                  Healing Sessions with Sifu Andrew Barnett - in Switzerland and internationally
                  Heilbehandlungen mit Sifu Andrew Barnett - in der Schweiz und International

                  Comment


                  • #24
                    Dear Shaolin Wahnam Family,

                    Originally posted by Andrew View Post
                    The new version should indeed improve on SEO. It is not possible to say what the effect will be though,
                    Great to hear that Siheng. Organic Results is an important traffic source and if there is a chance to improve rankings on Search Engines it sounds wonderful.

                    With Love, Care and Shaolin Salute,

                    Santi

                    Comment


                    • #25
                      Originally posted by Andrew View Post
                      This is an interesting point, Chris. Whilst we don't want to drive discussions behind "closed doors", this may be doable. A potential danger, of course, is that the majority of discussions could end up behind the "closed doors" and thus reduce the public activity even further.

                      On the other hand, I think most of the things that we would want to discuss as secrets would not even be understood by the uninitiated. Hiding secrets in the open?
                      Driving discussion behind closed doors is a good point and I agree about its potential danger. In general, I prefer public discussion and agree with what you say about the discussion of secrets, but of course I also want to abide by Sifu's wishes. Using Essence of Shaolin again as an example, Sifu asked us to not share the course material with those who didn't take it. I could probably (and have considered) posting in such a way to still honor this wish, but it would certainly hamper the discussion, and I suspect others would be as wary about unintentionally revealing secrets meant to stay private, which itself could hamper participation.

                      I wish I could offer a good solution, but I haven't come up with one yet.
                      Chris Didyk
                      Shaolin Wahnam USA


                      Thank You.

                      Comment


                      • #26
                        Shaolin Wahnam Institute has 656 followers
                        Shaolin Wahnam Institute Puerto Rico has 1880 followers
                        Aren't followers only one aspect? In my experience what is most relevant on Facebook and Social Media in general is interaction, thus active followers that share posts, react with likes and comments. This results in more people seeing the posts and thus in further interaction. Plus it creates a lively community to which people turn for advice/questions/further information/share their own experience.

                        Maybe we can try what Chris suggested...
                        One way we might be able to drive more traffic from facebook to the forum is to not only post articles/videos/etc from shaolin.org, but also point people who want to discuss/comment on post to the relevant thread in the forum. Some will still just comment in facebook, and that's fine, but we can still generally guide the discussion to the forum by gentle redirection. For instance, if someone makes an interesting point in a facebook comment, we can choose to quote it and discuss it further in the forum thread while also responding in facebook with something like, "That's an interesting point that has generated further discussion in our forum. Check it out: <link to forum thread/post>".

                        We could do the same for articles posted on other Wahnam (or non-Wahnam) websites, using facebook to build awareness but housing the discussion in the forum.

                        Additionally, we could promote interesting forum threads and posts directly in facebook with a little teaser/excerpt that causes readers to want to follow the link and read (and hopefully comment on) the thread. (This could be a good reason to use the forum's "share" feature.)
                        Enjoy some Wahnam Tai Chi Chuan & Qi Gong!

                        Evening Classes in Zürich
                        Weekend Classes in other Swiss locations


                        Website: www.taichichuan-wahnam.ch
                        Facebook: www.facebook.com/Taichichuan.Wahnam.ch

                        Comment


                        • #27
                          Originally posted by Andrea View Post
                          Aren't followers only one aspect? In my experience what is most relevant on Facebook and Social Media in general is interaction, thus active followers that share posts, react with likes and comments. This results in more people seeing the posts and thus in further interaction. Plus it creates a lively community to which people turn for advice/questions/further information/share their own experience.

                          Maybe we can try what Chris suggested...
                          Yes there are many aspects. To increase your natural audience you need people to follow, like, share and interact. This requires lots of work to make all this work in the right direction.

                          Comment


                          • #28
                            I support what others have said about the relative differences and advantages of the two mediums.

                            I much prefer to read the forum as a consolidated store of excellent information, organised by thread.

                            Facebook is too fleeting even though it's very convenient. I don't think forum-like discussions work well on FB.

                            FB could be good for articles, things like Sifu's Q&A, links to other self-contained content rather than discussion. We could still post links to threads elsewhere, like the 10 Q&A threads for example, but users coming from FB will suddenly find the format much less user-friendly. The fact that there are headers/footers and separators between posts, even when a post may be an icon or a single word, can make it more difficult to read.

                            I use tools like Reedy on web pages to strip out extraneous "noise" from webpages to read the content more easily, and this doesn't work well on the forum.

                            I'd love to have better controls on mobile device as I can't post from mobile very well at all, so I avoid it.

                            I think its a case of tailoring the content to the medium if wider adoption/engagement is required.
                            With love and Shaolin salute /o

                            "Your purpose in life is to find your purpose & give your whole heart and soul to it." - Buddha

                            Gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi svāhā.

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