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Author Topic: Social Media, Layonara and You  (Read 1738 times)

Rowana

Social Media, Layonara and You
« on: May 22, 2012, 08:02:22 pm »
Hello ladies and gents,
 
 As you may have noticed Layonara's social media platforms have reawakened somewhat recently. Over the last year or so we have been learning about and exploring the usage of social media. It's possibility for growth, for developing more interactive options for the community and overall build of enjoyment of everyone who participates. There have been a lot of ideas and some have been cast aside. One thing is for sure however, social media is definitely something we want to pursue and think it will be useful to everyone who chooses to use these platforms.
 
 To this end we're going to officially announce our move forward with social media. We will be using Facebook, Twitter and Google+ to do a host of things ranging from quest promotion, rumor spreading (you know, the kind that happens IG, not ... that other stuff from RL *winks* ), announcements, and anything else fun we can think of. These three mediums are not the extent of our intentions but it's what we are starting out with for now. We will “soon” have compatible buttons for promoting things you like on the forums. Google+ has some options to us that we're still playing around with and we might rearrange some things as we go.  
 
 Along with this we're going to put forward some incentives. At some specific goal markers we'll be offering the community special reward time periods as we achieve them. Our first goal is we'd like to have is an increased number of members on our fan groups.  

 As of this posting Google+ (found here) has 12 members.
As of this posting Twitter (@layonara) has 22 followers.
 As of this posting Facebook (found here) has 151 fans.
 When we reach 50 + users, 50 followers and 200 fans we'll celebrate with a double exp weekend. This is a test incentive. Other ideas are baking and we might just test them out sometime in the middle of our fan drive, and likely after we achieve these goals.  

 So, if you'd like to add some dimension to your RP, use #layoquest, #layorumor or #layoRP (as appropriate) on any of the three formats to make it searchable to your fellow members. The hash tag commands will make your activities searchable, Twitter and Google+ allowing it to be found with one click. If you you have a jam-packed feeds and are curious if there's been any announcements you don't want to miss, search out #layonara. Want to put a shout out to your friends for a spur of the moment get together? Yep, you guessed it #layoLFG! Long running series are more than welcome to develop their own hashtag usages. Make sure you use the #layoquest marker as well to loop us all in as appropriate.  
 
 Additionally, Gms will be using more of the social media formats to make announcements about their quests. That means we'll be retweeting (RT) and/or sharing information through our feeds to you. Alatriel has graciously allowed us to use her series as a tester for this and it seems to have gone over well. This will expand slowly over time as Gms grow more comfortable using this format. It is highly likely that quest tidbits or pre-quest work will be given out in this manner eventually. It is also likely that these formats will be utilized to alert players to impromptu or other special opportunities in game.  

 Will we RT/Share stuff from players? It's possible! Perhaps we see a rumor that needs to spread a little further, some RP that needs a particular nod, or an idea we rather like. We will definitely be watching to see what you guys do with this. One of the neat concepts in social media is the virtually limitless ideas out there. We are really excited to see what you all do with it.  

 ~row

ShiffDrgnhrt

Re: Social Media, Layonara and You
« Reply #1 on: May 22, 2012, 09:47:37 pm »
Interesting...
 

Nehetsrev

Re: Social Media, Layonara and You
« Reply #2 on: May 23, 2012, 07:13:52 am »
So, does that mean people who'd rather just stick to these forums are going to be left out or miss important information?  The reason I ask is that I don't use Google +, or Twitter, and I'm very rarely on Facebook.  Those things just aren't my thing, if you understand?  Heck, I even prefer to avoid much use of instant messaging programs such as IRC most of the time.
 

Anamnesis

Re: Social Media, Layonara and You
« Reply #3 on: May 23, 2012, 07:23:00 am »
It might also be important to mention that not everyone who plays here, will have access to facebook, from say Work due to company policies.

I do hope you fully intend to still use the forums otherwise you will be leaving people out of the loop, unfairly.
Elohanna Min A'Litae, Priestess of Aeridin
Breanna Shadowraven, Wizard/Rogue of Folian S'pae
Cord, Bard of Ilsare
Melaa A'nadivian, Ranger of Folian S'pae
 

Alatriel

Re: Social Media, Layonara and You
« Reply #4 on: May 23, 2012, 07:25:03 am »
None of this will be replacing the layonara forum.  If anything, it helps to share information that is on the forum in broader ways to try to get our information out more.  I've used it to help advertise my rumors and quests.
 

Dorganath

Re: Social Media, Layonara and You
« Reply #5 on: May 23, 2012, 08:25:14 am »
All, this is for purposes of exposure and visibility, not the exclusion of anyone not wired into social media. The forums are not going anywhere. They're still our most important tool.

We're not so foolish to think we can do everything through social media alone.
 

Nehetsrev

Re: Social Media, Layonara and You
« Reply #6 on: May 23, 2012, 08:43:04 am »
Alrighty.  Thanks for addressing my concerns.  It had just seemed to me, from some of the wording of Rowana's original post, that there might be some things done exsclusively through the social media platforms of Goggle +, Twitter, and Facebook, rather than on these forums.
 

Dorganath

Re: Social Media, Layonara and You
« Reply #7 on: May 23, 2012, 08:59:30 am »
I won't say there never will be, and certainly our players can use the hashtags themselves.  The point is that we're not creating any sort of policy that requires social media for participation.  For example, we won't announce quests through social media only and not the forums. That would be counterproductive at best.

This simply creates greater visibility for us and another potential avenue for interaction. It's no different than our IRC server in a lot of ways, except in that its reach may be far wider.
 

Rowana

Re: Social Media, Layonara and You
« Reply #8 on: May 23, 2012, 10:06:42 am »
In reality, that information that is posted to these social media places will be searchable (as I mentioned in the initial post). Everything we have is set to public so anyone can see it. Even if people who do not participate in social media at all can enter the hashtags I mentioned above and whatever combination of keywords into a search engine and they'd be able to have access to that information. No one's being elevated above anyone else due to what programs they choose to use. Google+ gives us the ability to post to specific groups as defined by us but thus far it is the only one. We may utilize this feature in the future, just like any other gaming company/organization. I imagine that anything we'd post to specific groups on G+ we'd also post to our active members via the forum. It is not in our (the community as a whole) best interest to start excluding people. Never has been. I realize why this thought might concern people but I honestly hope people will begin to realize that we aren't an trying to focus on a exclusive elite handful of individuals but instead spread the message far and wide that Layo is here, and we are looking for more like-minded people rather less. We aren't going to begin that new chapter of exploration by excluding our long-time members simply because they chose not to delve into the social media "marketplace."

So yes, there will be information dropped on social media sites that may or may not make it to other places, just like there are pieces of RP/quest that don't take place on the server from the forums. (Relevant tie in: People have complained for years about having to log into the forums for information.) In reality, the information on the social media sites will be easier to access than on the forums because a fair chunk of information on the forums is only accessible if you register. And yes, we're aware of the security issues as well as the interest in getting people to register and participate here. (We aren't kidding, we've done a lot of research, learning and evaluation over the last year.)

Just like inside a quest, the information will be there for all to get so long as you want to put forth the effort of obtaining it. Layo is moving forward to keep up with the times and we hope you will all move along with us because what is coming is going to be a blast, in my honest but humble opinion.

I hope this assuages the concerns of exclusivity in a rather final way! We do not want to exclude anyone at all.

~row
 

Nehetsrev

Re: Social Media, Layonara and You
« Reply #9 on: May 23, 2012, 01:06:05 pm »
I didn't mean to make it sound as though there's a 'elitist exsclusion' going on.  I understand the idea is to bring in more members to make Layonara more fun with a wider fan/playerbase.  I just wanted to be sure that anything posted on the new social media would also be posted here in the forums, since it's that "extra effort" of searching via a search engine, or using yet another piece of social networking software that I'd prefer to avoid.  I like the forums.  I know that when I come here to browse them most of the information posted is relevant to Layonara and it's current events and trends, with occasional unrelated posts in General Discussion or Just For Fun, etc.
 
Just wanted to clear that up.  By all means, bring in a new infusion of new players by whatever means are available.  We all can benefit from that kind of enrichment.
 

Aphel

Re: Social Media, Layonara and You
« Reply #10 on: May 23, 2012, 02:53:52 pm »
It is a good idea, I think, but apart from how and how not to share information (all information should be required to be present in the forum or on lore both as a form of redundancy and, well, for those who prefer the forums).

Focus, however, should not be to get new people in here.
It should be about actually keep them playing.

I have seen a lot of people which I found interesting to join and play for a while, then suddenly drop. Public relations are good and fine, but if you cannot convince the customer of using your product for a longer period of time, public relations don't help much.

So what are you planning on doing about the issue of keeping them here?
 

Masterjack

Re: Social Media, Layonara and You
« Reply #11 on: May 23, 2012, 03:29:04 pm »
Now we can +1 and like Dorg on other sites as well. I wonder how high those counts will go.  :)
 

RollinsCat

Re: Social Media, Layonara and You
« Reply #12 on: May 23, 2012, 03:36:01 pm »
Don't tell Pseudonym!
 

Rowana

Re: Social Media, Layonara and You
« Reply #13 on: May 23, 2012, 03:49:18 pm »
Quote from: Masterjack
Now we can +1 and like Dorg on other sites as well. I wonder how high those counts will go.  :)

This is something we had already thought of. *shifty*

Quote from: RollinsCat
Don't tell Pseudonym!

He already knows! *looks both ways conspicuously*

Quote from: Nehetsrev
I just wanted to be sure that anything posted on the new social media would also be posted here in the forums, since it's that "extra effort" of searching via a search engine, or using yet another piece of social networking software that I'd prefer to avoid.

I want to clarify that this is not in fact what I said. I said that nothing would be posted in such a way that someone would be forced to sign up for social media in order to get quest information or other relevant server information etc. I cannot say that there will not be social media specific projects/ideas used that do not get posted back to the forums. Nothing is on the table for that at this time. I can guarantee you it will be something we will be doing down the line.

Social media, unused for its purpose, is sort of pointless. Throwing up a fan page to like, a twitter stream to follow and all of that and then just letting it sit around to throw the occasional line of text will not serve the purpose of spreading the word. These tools need to be used and used properly. Again, this doesn't mean people will be left in the dark about general stuff, Plot level events, or anything like that because of their reluctance to be involved in social media. However, some GMs may want to alert followers of Twitter that they are running an impromptu, another GM may want to test some ideas or play some light RP stuff that will blossom into a quest later, others may want to use the social media that they are going to be late/have to cancel because they can use Twitter/FB/G+ on their phones and it's faster than trying to load up the forums on the same device and perhaps they cannot get to their computers (this has happened to me and at the time social media wasn't an option, but I was lucky enough to be able to contact other GMs with my phone through other means). -Players- may want to engage each other and GMs through this platform during periods when they cannot get IG.

Social media not your cup of tea? No problem, but we are adding it and full support to it for those who do enjoy it and that means they'll be doing some stuff with us that people who chose not to participate will not be doing. That is not to say all GMs are participating either. Many will likely not or at least not for a while. Anyone will be able to see what's going on, it will never be a secret, folks already have the tools to see what's going on in that corner without ever signing up. If that information changes we'll update you all so that you will always be able to see it.

Already we've opened up an avenue for people to RP somewhere off of the forums and outside of the game itself through social media, and that is up to each individual. We will very likely have social media things that participation will be geared toward them. Just like right now we have people who participate in Forum RP and others that don't. It's really all about opening Layonara up to all the different ways to RP and engage with people who want to engaged with us.


Quote from: Aphel
It is a good idea, I think, but apart from how and how not to share information (all information should be required to be present in the forum or on lore both as a form of redundancy and, well, for those who prefer the forums).
See above content for the reply to this.

Quote from: Aphel
Focus, however, should not be to get new people in here.
It should be about actually keep them playing.

I have seen a lot of people which I found interesting to join and play for a while, then suddenly drop. Public relations are good and fine, but if you cannot convince the customer of using your product for a longer period of time, public relations don't help much.

So what are you planning on doing about the issue of keeping them here?

Three things on this point that everyone is just going to have to agree to disagree on or whatever.

1) Layonara is a niche community. It is not for everyone. The administration accepts this as a fact and we always, always hope that people find what fits them personally. We will not alter the fundamental mission of Layonara to appeal to a wider audience. To do so would be to water down what it is that we do here. We've already widened the scope of what play styles are acceptable and now are pretty much as wide as we will put that. We are going to keep on going as we are, doing the best that we can in our volunteer hours to serve those who fit here and if that means forever serving 100 people, we're actually okay with that. Clearly, we'd like to see a wider audience at some point, and we hope that this and future projects with achieve that but it's not really something that's going to stop us from trying. Trust me, if it was going to do that, we'd have shut it down years ago (and the concept has actually been floated a number of times by the boss man himself as you'll see if you peruse the forums for the information).

2) Some of the onus for keeping people here is on the community. It cannot be solely the administration/staff's responsibility because that is not how a roleplaying community works. And that sort of loops back to point 1. This community is not necessarily the place for everyone no matter how cool they are and how much we wish they could stay. People always ask this question of GMs and staff but it really should be a community wide discussion about what each individual can do to make this happen. Layonara is lead by the world creator, Leanthar, and every one of us who has signed up to support that vision. We have -always- said that the full of what Layonara is resides in the spirit of the server and that comes from each and every person, leadership role or not. This, however, is a discussion for another thread. Feel free to start that thread if you like.

3) Sometimes people drop out of the world because of real responsibilities in their lives. It is not all of the time but it is the case many, many times. Does that mean we shouldn't analyze what we as a community can do to be more inviting? No, but we cannot ever negate things like, work, health, family, school etc. Indeed, we should never do such things. A great number of times when we have lost individuals, this turns out to be the reason more than anything. Many times too, they return to us months or years later. To me that speaks more about this community than most other feedback.

Last point to clarify the purpose of the social media endeavor, perhaps redundantly. This effort isn't just to look pretty and wave 'hi' to people. We will be engaging people in a full and complete level so this isn't just a "PR" move to get our name out there. It's a full fledged service, as my above response to Nehetsrev and my other posts indicated.

As always, if we have not completely answered your questions feel free to ask.

~row
 

Aphel

Re: Social Media, Layonara and You
« Reply #14 on: May 23, 2012, 04:36:51 pm »
Then I'll just wait what you have in pipline for us.
 

geloooo

Re: Social Media, Layonara and You
« Reply #15 on: May 23, 2012, 11:25:40 pm »
This is pretty cool! I could just tweet:

@InsertNameHere @Kalandi'ira @Faillaan @Xun'murss @Jar'ryna @Nym'roos Will be late. Coming from a meeting. Save me some fleshlings. #Layonara #DarkElfOuting
 

Alatriel

Re: Social Media, Layonara and You
« Reply #16 on: May 23, 2012, 11:29:48 pm »
If you put it on facebook instead of twitter... yep.  I don't use twitter ;)
 

Rowana

Re: Social Media, Layonara and You
« Reply #17 on: May 24, 2012, 12:02:04 am »
Quote from: Alatriel
If you put it on facebook instead of twitter... yep.  I don't use twitter ;)

There's an app for that... *shifty*

~row
 

Dremora

Re: Social Media, Layonara and You
« Reply #18 on: May 24, 2012, 05:52:28 am »
Facebook here too, though erin would probably just PM since I almost never check that thing.
 

Anamnesis

Re: Social Media, Layonara and You
« Reply #19 on: May 24, 2012, 08:18:29 am »
Perhaps another suggestions?

provide a tutorial for the socially networked challenged?

For those who use it everyday it may seem obvious, but for the old school of us.. not so much?

And how in the heck do you friend the Layonara site on facebook?

All I ever see are options to like and add to interests
Elohanna Min A'Litae, Priestess of Aeridin
Breanna Shadowraven, Wizard/Rogue of Folian S'pae
Cord, Bard of Ilsare
Melaa A'nadivian, Ranger of Folian S'pae