Google Alerts is a great way to keep track of the latest news on your favourite subject. It probably doesn’t take much to guess that one of my alerts is for WalesCymru, and this is why …
According to Alexa WalesCymru.com is the 510,882th largest site within .COM and has a Global traffic ranking of 951,345. Not bad I suppose being in the top 1m websites in the world.
If you are a member of Facebook you will know they are going to drop Regional Networks. Their argument is that to provide the level of privacy users now demand they need to remove a feature which, in my view, provided a great attraction. The argument goes … “Almost 50 percent of all Facebook users are members of regional networks …”, but this doesn’t matter to so we have come up with a “plan” and this is “to remove regional networks completely …”. Huh?
I don’t get this, how is something that was used by 50% of users a bad thing?
Personally I think Regions are an important feature that defines a community, even virtual ones. True I share interests which cross global boundaries, but I also share interests which can only be expressed in social interaction, and in ‘locally focused’ world, this means shared with people who live close by. To me, some of the most interesting aspects of Facebook were the local groups I found by accident, because they were local. With the removal of regions, how will I find these now?
This naturally brings me to the role WalesCymru has, or should have. Are we a regionally focused Social Network? Should we be?
This was the ambition we had in 2007, but is still some way off. Should this be pursued as our goal now, or should Regional Networks, as Facebook thinks, be consigned to the past?
What do you think?
Running a website is time consuming and sometimes you just don’t have enough time. Friends will know I’ve been busy helping others progress their use of blogs and social media activities, and hope to be able to make some announcements about these shortly. I’m now also working on a full-time contract with a Welsh Government Agency helping them ‘go digital’ - but again can’t say much more at this time; which means I have little time for other activities.
In the coming weeks I hope to make a few minor updates to WalesCymru and remove some of the out of date listings that have built up over the last two years. If I delete your listing by accident, please restore it immediately, as I’m sure listed businesses and users are getting some value from the site.
Being FREE helps at one level, in that it has no barrier to entry; but also means you have no income to pay for any resources or updates. The site is still seeing around 5000 visitors a month and around 20,000 page views - so I’m hoping some Welsh businesses are seeing real benefits of a WalesCymru list and positive review. If you’re one of these businesses and have any suggestions on how this site might progress, please drop me a line.
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