Re: Twitter and Social networks
Hi,
I can give some feedback regarding social networks from the GNUmed
perspective.
I started out with blogging.
gnumed.blogspot.com
From google stats it seems about 25 people read it per day. Those might
include search engines. Sometimes someone comments on the blog posts so it
must be at least some humans that read it.
Blog posts are good for reports on new major releases, conferences etc. It was
like this for some years.
There are two people who moved forward from commenting on the blog to raising
their voice on the mailing list.
This might indicate that without a blog those people might not have been made
aware of GNUmed.
The blog is syndicated at some low level sites so I guess most people came via
search engine.
About a year ago someone mentioned that it would be essential to have all the
accounts (twitter, facebook etc.)
So I went out and created an twitter and identi.ca account. I have no clue how
many people read this.
On twitter GNUmed has I think 5 followers who seem to have subscribed to what
we have to say.
It took another year or so until someone answered on the tweets which
indicates someone reads it.
I assume that this person would not have found GNUmed without twitter or
identi.ca.
I use twitter and identi.ca for release announcements ,calls for help, bug
announcements etc. In short for short messages. Nothing automated here.
Then facebook was all the hype. I created a page and basically replicated the
content from blog and twitter
So far 6 or 7 people subscribed to that page. I don't know how many people
read this.
The point is. Speaking for the GNUmed project a small number of people were
made aware of GNUmed because of Twitter ,Identi.ca, blog, and facebook page.
The key is to realize that it can be helpful but it takes ressouces to update
the content.
Another key factor seems to be networking. One need to use the various options
to have people subscribe to feeds ot tweets and one need to subscribe to other
feeds as well to appear as follower there.
Third point to realize is that these measures reach the technophile crowd. The
computer guys and girls.
If you want to reach doctors who don't use facebook in their daily life there
is little chance to catch them there. Same for scientists.
If you want to reach scientists who are not computer afficionados you might
have little chance on facebook. Ask yourself. "Do I read facebook, twitter ,
blog etc. ?"
Social networks are (IMHO) not a must but are hip, cool and fairly easy to
work with. So why not.
To reach your target crowd speaking on conferences is (IMHO) more effective.
Combining the two the "best of breed tactic"
Now head over to
gnumed.blogspot.com
http://twitter.com/releasedude
http://identi.ca/releasedude
http://www.facebook.com/pages/GNUmed-EMR/316812324929
and show some love.
Best regards,
Sebastian
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