What is my vision for this Murphy NC social networking site?

[John Dilbeck]

Over the last few months, I've been working behind the scenes to bring a new level of online interaction to people who live in Murphy, NC and those who are interested in our wonderful corner of the Earth.

I know that nobody else can see the vision I have for what this site, and a couple of associated sites, can do for our community and the people and organizations located here.

This site is growing slower than I expected, but that's OK. We'll continue to grow as more people learn about us and decide to participate here.

So, how can a site like this be used to benefit all of us?

I've looked at a number of community social networking sites that are powered by Ning.com and a great example of what I'd like to see here can be seen at the iMatthews.com community.

There, you'll see dozens of people working together to build a more interactive community that promotes local events, businesses, non-profit organizations, and which builds new social ties through public discussions about the things that matter to the members of the community.

While I recognize that Murphy is different from Matthews, we share some similarities and I think by visiting that community, you'll have a better idea of what we can be doing here.

I am inviting, and urging, you to participate more in this community and to invite your friends and neighbors to join us. I know we're all busy, but it only takes a few minutes every week when we work together to let the world know what is happening here.

I'm always open to feedback, critiques, and suggestions for improvement. What can we do to make this a better social networking site for our beautiful town in the mountains?

I'm listening.

Act on your dream!

JD

[John Dilbeck]

For your information, I'd like to share some statistics about this site for the last month (April 25 - May 25, 2009).

There have been a total of 130 visitors who viewed a total of 570 pages, for an average of 4.3 pages per visit.

60% of these visitors came from other sites that link to this one. 29% came from the search engines. 11% came from direct visits by people who entered the URL in their browser or clicked on a bookmark they had previously stored.

The top 3 most visited pages were Courtnie Howard's Profile, John Dilbeck's Profile, and the Business Directory page. The last is rather interesting since I haven't had time to really work on building it, yet.

The top five countries from which our visitors came were: United States, Canada, Ireland, France, and Romania. Even though we've barely started, we're reaching a small, but global audience.

The top 10 keyword phrases that were used to find information on this site were:

1. murphy.nc
2. shrubs murphy nc 28906
3. why live in murphy, nc
4. acs relay for life in murphy nc
5. digital tv in murphy nc
6. glass blasting log homes
7. growing conditions in murphy nc
8. lake hiwassee nc
9. landscape maintenance murphy nc
10. log cabin restoration techniques

All of these statistics were gathered using Google Analytics and I'll be able to track the growth of the site over the coming months. Now and then, I'll share some of them with you.

Do you want to get the fair share of traffic coming to this site? Participate more. Tell us about what you're doing in your blog, on your profile, and in forum discussions.

Join a group on this site, or create one of your own, and talk about what interests you. As long as it is family friendly, you're pretty much welcome to talk about whatever you want. All discussions must be civil. If you insist on attacking, demeaning, or being socially unacceptable, however, I'll ban you from the site. Keep it friendly and constructive.

Act on your dream!

JD

[Carol Chapman]

Hi John ............ Since I will be moving to Murphy in the near future I am glad for this site and do hope it continues. For me it's helpful in finding out what's going on in Murphy and getting to know some of the activities and people in Murphy. My husband & I will be making a visit in september to look at houses- particularly the wood chalets. Does anyone know what areas are best and also what is going on on the river as far as water sports and other activities? And I will also need to know the best furniture stores to buy from and my biggest joy in shopping is finding the antique shops and does anyone know if there is a consignment shop in Murphy or even nearby.Help. ........................ carol chapman

[John Dilbeck]

Good afternoon, Carol.

It takes time and effort to build something new, and most of the people in Murphy are brand new to social networking, blogging, and online marketing. Some have a little experience and a few have a lot of experience, but we can all learn to do it better. So, some days I feel like I'm pushing a boulder up a hill, because I don't want to promote just what I do, I want to build a platform to help others tell us what they're doing, thinking, and wanting to do.

Now that I have some of my other ducks in a row, I'll be able to put more effort into this site.

I'll continue to invite people to join and participate and hope to keep this community online indefinitely. In fact, I'll be registering a new domain name for it in the next few days to make it easier to promote.

I know several of the real estate agents in this area and I'm happy to recommend John Poltrock to you. I've never used his service, but I've visited his office several times, read his blog, and like what he's doing. He's one of the members here: John Poltrock's profile page.

You can go to his page and send him a private message or leave a comment.

As you may remember, I was confined to home for the last six years as I cared for my Mom and I'm truly not up to speed on who to recommend regarding furniture stores, antique shops, and consignment shops.

I hope someone will chime in and offer some suggestions.

I'll start new discussions for those types of businesses and maybe you'll get some good information from someone.

Thanks for your interest and support. I'm looking forward to meeting you when you move here.

Act on your dream!

JD

[Dena Howard]

Hi Carol! Since I'm from Ranger, naturally I'm going to say this is the best area in Cherokee County! lol. Actually this whole county is great. We live close to Hiwassee Lake. There are a few marinas in the area. Duke's Hideaway Marina which is in the Hanging Dog Community and Bear Paw Marina, located in Hiwassee Dam Community. I think there is one other but I don't know the name of it. People around here enjoy tubing, knee-boarding, skiing, jet-skiing, and fishing. Lake fishing from a boat is the best. We have quite a few local furniture stores. Bellview Home Furnishings, Discount Furniture, Ritz Furniture, etc. I posted a reply about consignment shops here: Reply

Can't help you with the antique shops. I go antique shopping in my dad's barn!! lol. Right Grand-dude?

[John Dilbeck]

Good morning, Dena.

I laughed out loud when I read that. (Really, I did. I'm just glad I wasn't sipping coffee at the time or I would have had to clean my keyboard, again.)

In the case of digging around in our barn/shop/smithy/whatever, it's hard to make the distinction between antiques and junk.

;)

Since I don't own anything new, some of it has to qualify as an antique.

That reminds me, I forgot to see what you ended up doing with that white furniture you took home. What would you call that? A cabinet? Dresser?

Still grinning,

JD

(...probably the only person in Cherokee County who is known as Grand-dude...)

[Dena Howard]

lol - it is a dresser and I can't believe I didn't show it to you! It is gorgeous. I stripped off the white paint and refinished it. We cut a hole in the top for a drain and mounted an old bowl stacey's nanny made back in the 70's for a sink. Remind me and I'll show it to you on Monday.