Opera Facebook group very close to 400 members!
Opera Facebook group very close to 400 members!
Hi everyone! My name is Charlie Reinehr, and I've been lurking on the forums for a few years now. I was lucky enough to be appointed a moderator for this fine group, so I'm going to make the best of it!
One of our goals here at Choose Opera is to make sure that Opera is represented on as many of the social networking sites as possible. (Read: all of them!)
A lot of you are probably familiar with Facebook. It's a social networking site that was previously available only to college students, but now is open to everyone. It boasts an interface that's much, much cleaner than that of MySpace.
When the Facebook devs gave us the ability to create "global" groups, I hurriedly created the "Opera Web Browser" group. I started by inviting all my "technical" friends - those who were already familiar with Opera or had heard of it, those who used some other non-Internet Explorer browser, and those who used IE but who I thought could easily be turned to our side.
Up to this point, the group has mainly focused on existing Opera users. I kept us all up to date on Opera-related news and provided tips, tricks, and FAQs. I made a loose attempt to reel in newbies by providing some links about why they should switch to Opera and how easy it is to make the switch.
The mission of this group is about to change. Now we need to introduce the group (and Opera) to those who have never heard of us!
Currently, if a person who has never heard of Opera stumbles in, they see so much information and so many links staring them in the face that I believe a good number of them just turn right around and walk out. We have to keep the potential customer interested! It's a tough sell, but that's what our job is here at Choose Opera.
To that end, I'm going to reorganize the information in the Facebook group so it is much less intimidating to potential new users. This Opera Community should be the focus point - where people go for tips, tricks, and FAQs. The Facebook group should act as a conduit. The Facebook group is for them. My Opera is for us. Let's help get them from A to B! Let's help them become one of us!
If anyone has any thoughts or suggestions, please feel free to comment here or send me a message. You can PM me here in the Opera Community, send me a Facebook message, etc.
P.S. Right now we're sitting on 399 members!
Readers' comments 7
Left under the original article, as archived.
About this article
| Published in | Choose Opera |
|---|---|
| Date | May 2, 2007 |
| Author | Charlie |
| Tags | |
| Original | Internet Archive |
MissPlacedThursday, May 3, 2007 12:38:55 PM
It's great to see a post from you so soon after the launch. You've done a great job with the 'Opera Web Browser' group on Facebook. It's definitely very detailed and comprehensive.
You have a good point that Facebook should act as a means to Opera for those who have never heard of Opera. By providing prominent links to several of Opera's pages and to My Opera, you've made it easy for one to quickly know what Opera is all about.
I think we can also help increase awareness of both groups (Facebook and Choose Opera) through each other, and by constantly updating on each other. To introduce Choose Opera to those on Facebook who are interested to spread Opera, you could, for example, put up a post on your Wall and also under the Opera news section. Over here at Choose Opera we can put some prominent links to the Facebook group. This way, we can contribute with the crossover traffic and work towards our ultimate goal of spreading Opera.
Everytime someone expresses an idea that can become a project that will promote Opera, he or she should be led here to Choose Opera, where user-initiated projects are the central focus.
It's great knowing there are active Opera fans out there. Keep up the good work!
PS: In the description of Opera browser in the Facebook group, could you please add in our latest features 'Speed Dial' and 'Fraud Protection'? They've become very popular very quickly.
Espen André ØverdahlThursday, May 3, 2007 1:14:12 PM
Lawrence EngThursday, May 3, 2007 4:56:37 PM
Also, here's a new Facebook widget (for Opera) that just came out: http://widgets.opera.com/widget/6696
I haven't tried it yet, but it looks pretty cool.
CharlieThursday, May 3, 2007 8:44:51 PM
The group is now a lot more streamlined, with fewer links to confuse potential new users. I think it's a good change overall. Let me know what you guys think.
Lawmune: I saw the widget yesterday - neat stuff! I may have to put a link to that in the group.
CharlieThursday, May 3, 2007 8:46:24 PM
Lawrence EngThursday, May 3, 2007 9:38:20 PM
The changes look good so far
As for using the logo, that's a good question. My first instinct is that we should limit the use of the logo to one site so that people won't get confused, but at the same time I think it looks really nice and should be seen by more people.
Perhaps we can work on creating a custom graphic for your group that is similar. I certainly think we should work on creating new buttons and banners featuring our group name and tagline: "Choose Opera - Join the revolution"
CharlieFriday, May 4, 2007 8:22:13 PM