@atlantarobin Hi Robin.  I’ve been checking new messages via mobile, but not sure how I missed this one.

We do have a Getting Started Guide (http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/getting-started-guide/) which is linked on the main homepage for the clubs under Useful Links.  

I don’t think much was covered in the way of points and levels because SME wants it to be more of a discovery – everyone just being active because they want to learn & network.  As you network more, your badge / level moves up showing others that you are an active participant in the forum.  Most forums have an issue with people trying to “game the system” and if you give people the guidelines on how to do it, unfortunately a lot of people will take advantage of that.

There is a part in the Getting Started post that shows you points for activities which I’ll copy here.

Some guidelines to the points is that you could receive include:

• 100 points for registration.
• 25 points for joining a group.
• 20 points for posting in a forum.
• 10 points for replying in a club forum.
• 5 points for each accepted friend request.
• 5 points per day for logging in.

@kristi-hines @andrea-vahl

Thanks for the feedback, ladies. Now that I’ve poked around, networked a bit, and discovered the things that I think would make things easier for me, let me share a few usability requests I have:

1. When searching through the member list, at the bottom it shows the page you are on, the next page, maybe the next, but then shows the last page only, with no way to go to a page in the middle without going one page at a time. Very slow. As more members are added and page numbers increase, this will get very tedious go one page at a time. With 38 pages it was way tooooooooo slow. Can yall put a little box in there we can fill in the page number we want to connect with quickly?

2. A couple of things I did froze up my whole computer. Made my little Mac wheel spin uncontrollably and just had to pull the plug. Unfortunately, I was tooling along unaware at the time. I’ll pay more attention so I can give better feedback to you next time. But I do remember it was when I was trying to reply to a forum comment. I think I hit replay, started writing, then went to the Leaderboard and tried to click on Dea Irby’s @ notation to try to put it include her in my reply response (because she wasn’t in that forum yet and I knew she had the answer to a question posed there)… then poof, everything froze and I had to shut my Mac baby down. Just wanted yall to know…

3. Also, I added seven Forums under Facebook Club, but really need their own “Club” heading like Regional Networking Club or Regions Club or Geo Networking or Regional Club or Local SME Club or Local Peer Club or Local Club, something like that. Normally I’d say make it Networking Club, but since these are all Networking Clubs, that makes it kind of confusing. For the Regional Forums, I made six USA regions and one International Region, adding the state abbreviations for each one. As it turns out, Dea Irby and I live not too far from each other, just one county away, and I was working on my Master’s in Teaching English very near her years ago. We thought it would be a great way to help others identify local neighboring members, information, support, and resources that may be close by, but overlooked on such a big site.

That’s my three suggestions for now. Hope yall find this helpful.

Happy Networking!

Robin Carlisle

@andrea-vahl @kristi-hines

Three Club categories would be good to add:

Offline Marketer’s Club — geared toward consultants and businesses who market their online marketing services TO offline businesses or nonprofits, as opposed to the Small Business Club that I find is more geared to small business wanting to use social media and other online marketing tools to market their own business.

Afilliate Marketing Club — I’ve observed that many bloggers despise the mention of afiliate marketing and at times here I’ve felt uneasy bringing this topic up in the Blogging Club. It’s something I like to talk about and want to know more about. But I understand when the masses get here, it could completely overwhelm and dominate any of the existing Clubs if it doesn’t have its own little corner Club. Just my thoughts and my vote for an afilliate club.

Nonprofits Club — I’ve noticed many of us here are involved in, employed by, paid by or volunteer our marketing, media, training or consulting services to nonprofit organizations. Their needs, funding, legal issues, and social media policies are very different from for-profit businesses. Here’s my vote for a nonprofits club, too..

See you here again, I’m sure. Thanks for listening.

Robin Carlisle

@kristi-hines @andrea-vahl

Another Question: I’ve been encouraging new members to introduce themselves in the Regional Forums I set up in the Facebook Club (since more members seem to congregate there, and not all are small businesses or have a blog page).

Problem is, one lady came back to me saying she couldn’t find her region. I looked for it… and poof… it seems to be gone! Can’t find the NE (Northeast) Region anywhere. I’m making contacts in the SE and International Regions, so I know this is a good thing. Bad thing is they’re disappearing.

What’s the matter? Do the Forums just drop off after a certain period of time, of nonuse, etc? I tried searching in the searchbar, but found nothing, no matter what keywords I entered.

Can one of you give me some feedback on this, because I think we need to keep these Region Networking forums on the boards for new members to add their names, info, etc.

Please, pretty please? Thanky, thanky in advance!

Robin Carlisle

Perhaps your techs could make some subdirectories for each region. Which if the interest in any one area dropped off or grew inordinately they could be further subdivided or removed if necessary. Just a suggestion.

Another little techy tweak request:

I request a “Follow Topic” button / “Mute” button option right in front of the list of forums in each Club. I want to be able to scroll down the topics, hitting the follow topic button as I scroll, and continue scrolling and hitting follow buttons until I’ve gone through the list. THEN, I want to come back, open them up and start reading forum posts.

Currently, I can’t do that. If there are twenty forums on the first page, the time it takes me to open one and hit the follow button and come back and repeat the process takes entirely too long and its too cumbersome.

What I do instead is get stuck enjoying myself with all that someone’s posted in the first forum I open. Then I start getting sidetracked, following links offsite, sometimes never returning except to turn my computer off.

Sometimes, I never get past the first few forums. Which is great, but I’m missing out on reading and replying to posts in forums that I never get to see before “poof” they’re gone.

If you add a button, I would be on the follow list and I’m thinking that means it would message my onsite inbox so I’ll later be reminded that I had an interest in that forum, opening it up then, and encouraging my increased participation and networking with more people.

Just my thoughts, but I reeeeeeeeeally would like those Follow Buttons along side the Forum Titles. Pretty please?

The advantage to SME is that it would help keep readers onsite longer and reading material that they had wanted to read but had just forgotten about. A little internal reminder system. And, of course, I know yall know that keeping readers onsite, engaged, and interacting only leads to better rankings, conversions, and profits to SME.

Just my thoughts…

@atlantarobin Just wanted to say I finally got around to a main thread for beginners, people with questions, and a place to talk about club / forum functionality.  Will close this thread so the discussion can resume there if needed.  :)

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/clubs/blogging/forum/topic/new-to-the-blogging-club-or-have-a-how-to-question-check-here/