Welcome to our 4th birthday party!

Mini treasures wiki will be 4 years on Sunday 14th April 2013. We are celebrating the occasion with several ways:

• we are show-casing the cakes from our Flickr group
• we have a special Facebook event 
• we will be tweeting about our birthday using #mtw4y
• we are giving away the MTW Awards for 25 sites bringing us most traffic
• there are give-away (feel free to donate too by this Sunday, e.g. by leaving a comment on this blog post)

Come and join our party (the main page for the event is of course in the wiki itself) and do not forget to spread the word about it :). Make us a birthday card or leave your kind words in the comment section of this blog. 

Mini treasures wiki's year 2012

White swan by Nina-chan

I told you earlier that I have been busy. I still am. But next week I am going to start a new course targeted for community managers. And as Mini treasures is my biggest community I am going to do some stuff for us during the course - two tasks at the same time :). On the first time we are introducing ourselves and our communities and for that I updated the presentation I have been doing earlier showing the highlights of last year from the social media point of view.

When I started the Mini treasures wiki in 2009 I used A LOT of my time for building the site and starting the social media channels for it. It acted as my portfolio then showing what I can do. It still does that but now I have also other communities and my own business to take care of.

But looking at the figures shows me that the site can survive and grow even if I am not spending that much time on improving it. We have Linda and and we have plenty of fans and users who like us, thank you :).

Flickr used to be my main arena where I did the community management stuff for Mini treasures as the pictures are critical for miniature hobby but last year I got hooked up with Pinterest and used more time for that. I still believe in the possibilities Pinterest can offer for us but every now and then I try to find time to spend in Flickr too.

Now look at what we accomplished last year and have fun with us this year too. Any help with Mini treasures world is appreciated as always. :)

 

Mtw 2012 from Johanna Janhonen

Mini treasures on Facebook

If you like Mini treasures on Facebook you might have noticed that most of the updates from Mini treasures are not shown to you at all. This is because Facebook has changed its Edge Rank algorithm to get more money from the Page owners who need pay for the updates to get them shown to more people.

E.g. an update made four hours ago was shown only to 46 of 829 fans and an earlier update to 77 fans. Not much or not enough if you ask me...

On average an update is shown to only 7 % of you.

The result for seeing more updates from pages you actually LIKE is to start using interest lists.  I created a list for Mini treasures updates, feel free to subscribe it or create a list of your own with all of your mini related pages on it :).

The place where you create the Interest list is in the beginning of the page next to Like:

We also have a group in Facebook, you are welcome to join it too. :)

600 fans in Facebook!

We have just reached 600 fans in our Facebook page, amazing amount, thank you all :). I wanted to look who our fans are and now I´m sharing it with you too :).

4.3% of our fans are male
28% of our fans are 45-54 year old female
25% are female between 35-44 years
22% are over 55 years
15% are between 25-34 years

Our top 10 countries are
United States
Finland
United Kingdom
Spain
Denmark
Canada
Indonesia
Italy
Sweden
France
Hong Kong

Merry Christmas

I wish all my mini friends a very merry Christmas (or what ever seasonal holiday you are celabrating)!

If you have a mini related seasonal greeting, you are welcome to share it with other Mini treasures people in Facebook or Flickr.

And remember to check all the windows from our advent calendar (no peeking allowed;).

I have also a Christmas gift for you: The Mini Treasures Daily newspaper :)

MTW Advent calendar starting - help us!

Hi bloggers, Facebookers, Tweeps and other social media users!

I need your help! The second MTW Advent Calendar starts in two days and I need all the help I can get in promoting it. So please add a button to your blog, share the link in Facebook or tweet about it.

I do not want any miniaturist to be unaware about the fun that is about to start :). I already filled my page (no peeking allowed, I can see if you do and so will the Santa) and can't wait to see what others come up with. :)

Many ways of being part of MTW community

Do you know that anyone can edit Mini treasures wiki?

Do you know that you can add links to your web sites (photo albums, blogs, mini shops and other mini sites)? Start by introducing yourself.

You can also promote other mini things you like, e.g. museums, books, shops, brands, cool projects.

You are also encouraged to
- write instructions related miniature, e.g. in trash minis.
- correct all the grammar mistakes I have made :)

Do you know you can add pictures of your minis? You can add them either in our Flickr group or directly to our wiki. See wiki faq to learn how.

Do you know that you can help promoting MTW? E.g. by
-telling about it to your friends (e.g. in club meetings or forums), use e.g. wiki abc to get you started or ask help from me
-adding wiki link or button for your site
-joining our Facebook page or
-following our Twitter account,

The best way of being part of our community is of course reading the wiki pages - after all the wiki is made for readers. :)

From now on I'll be mainly offline until I go back home. You can follow me either in Facebook or in Twitter.

For those of you who have not visited MTW lately...

Hi mini friend

As it seems you have not logged in to Mini treasures wiki in the last months I am writing you to tell what has happened lately there :).

First of all we got new icons and the whole site looks much fresher now. Go and press the buttons to learn to navigate in the wiki again.

Then we started having theme weeks. During the past weeks we have visited US, Finland, Canada, UK, Germany and the Netherlands. This week we do Spain and after that we go to Australia, Italy and France.

And we have started piloting contests. The very first one is about a hot topic: football (soccer) and it will last one week still - one Sunday we will know the winner. To participate you only need to write a hint for miniature projects related to football.

Start following us either in Facebook or in Twitter .

Welcome back! :)

Mini hugs,
Johanna Janhonen

Interviewing Debbie, our new Facebook moderator

The other day I told you about our new Facebook page moderators, Debbie and Linda and I realized I had not interviewed her yet so it was about the time to do it. Debbie is not only promoting MTW at Facebook but in her site and she has been among the biggest traffic sources since the beginning of the wiki which I am very thankful :). So let's start the interview...
Hi Debbie! How does it feel to be a new moderator in our Facebook page? It was an honour to be asked. I'm always looking for Mini Links, to share with everyone and I also have a Mini Link Blog, where I share all the links I find.

Tell a little about yourself: who you are, where do you come from and what do you do? Do you have any hobbies other than miniatures?
My names Debbie, I originate from Greenwich, London. Lived in Kent for 18 years and moved to Wales 5 years ago. Married to my Hubby for 21 years and have two teenage sons. I make Dolls House Miniatures and breed Miniature Shetland Ponies. You can see I am obsessed with all things Mini.

Haha :). When and how did you start doing miniatures?
I started making Miniatures in 1989, after my Parent's presented me with a large hand built Georgian House for Christmas. I didn't have a Dolls House as a Child and was more of a Tom Boy, climbing trees and playing with a Train set.

What is your latest / next mini-project?
I am currently working on a Diagon Alley Street Scene, which includes The Apothecary, Flourish & Blotts and Eeylops Owl Emporium and a separate Room Box of "Honeydukes" Sweet Shop. My next project is going to be a Witches Hat Shop. Pictures can be seen on my blog page.

Very personal projects :). How did you find Mini Treasures wiki and what is your favorite page in the wiki? What would you like to see in the wiki in the future? I've been a member of the Mini Wiki since it was first set up. I don't have a favourite page as the Wiki is being added to all the time.
Thanks for the interview and thanks for boosting Mini treasures wiki!

Mini treasures @ Facebook

Improving a website is about learning from your mistakes. The more mistakes you correct the better the site will be.

5 days ago I made one of the right decisions - I chose two new moderators to our Facebook page to make it more active. Debbie Wright is one of the most active Facebookers I know and as she has been actively pushing miniaturists to network with me I thought she would do wonderful job at Facebook too. My other co-moderator is Linda, the most active person in Mini treasures wiki (we are SO FORTUNATE that she found us). I am very pleased to have these ladies on board helping me :). And just look what they did for the amount of Facebook fans (officially people who "like" MTW) - look at the peak! Amazing!

Speaking of Facebook I am not very active in networking with people there. I am accepting there only people I have met in real life or who I have learnt to know in Internet. Lately I have got a lot of friend invites and it makes me sad not to accept them but I try to keep up with my policy. The amounts of contacts in other services (Flickr, LinkedIn, Twitter) are much bigger, network with me in them if you want.

But now I would be interested to hear your personal Facebook policy :).

Ps. BTW we have a short url for our page: http://www.facebook.com/minitreasures

Hi Facebook user: do you like Mini treasures wiki?

As a social media specialist I need to follow my time and now that Facebook introduced a new feature called Like button I tried it in my own sandbox: Mini treasures wiki. In the end of the main page you will see that currently 7 people likes Mini treasures wiki. Cool, thanks for liking the site :).

I teach you a good word to know in Finnish Tykkää = Like.
E.g.
I like dollhouses = Minä tykkään nukkekodeista
and
7 henkilöä tykkää tästä = 7 people likes this

100th Facebook fan - Doreen

This week we got the 100th fan to our Facebook page - now we have 104 :). To celebrate the occasion I interviewed Doreen - here we go.


Hi Doreen - How does it feel to be the 100th Facebook fan of Mini treasures wiki? It feels great to be number 100 as it feels like I am part of a milestone. I am sure this number is going to grow.

Tell a little about yourself: who you are, where do you come from and what do you do? I am retired and live in a small resort town just south of Georgian Bay in Ontario, Canada. I originally came from Toronto, Ontario but we do not like city living and prefer much quieter living.

Do you have any hobbies other than miniatures? The only other hobbies I have other than miniatures is reading and observing nature. We live on the river and love to watch the wildlife.

When and how did you start doing miniatures? I started miniatures about five years ago when my husband bought me my very first dollhouse for Christmas. Since I am retired, I can no longer afford to buy furniture and all the little things for the house so I have learned how to make them myself. I especially love Trash to Treasure projects as it gives me great satisfaction to make something from nothing. I also like to use dolls to create scenes with and to give life to the rooms.

What is your latest / next mini-project? I just finished my dollhouse today. It has taken me a long time because I do each room separtely like a roombox and I like to add a lot of detail to each room. I also change the house according to the season. I have done some projects inbetween like a burger stand and an ice-cream parlour.

How did you find Mini Treasures wiki and what is your favorite page in the wiki? What would you like to see in the wiki in the future? I do not know what I would like to see in the wiki in the future because I am still exploring it in the present.

Johanna found me and asked me to join. I was very pleased as I am an amateur and I need all the help I can get to create the miniatures that I love. So of course my favorite page is the DIY!

Thanks for the interview and congrats for your dollhouse!

Photos in Facebook

Not all of you have an account in Flickr so I decided to take the biggest photo service in use. And that is Facebook. I added an album for Mini treasures but I am not sure if anyone can add photos or just moderators. Somebody please test and inform me. If you can add photos there, add also Easter photos.

PS. I have not been active in other photo sites lately. Are there groups or pools like in Flickr in them? We can have Mini treasures wiki pictures in other services too if they support groups and tags and embedding. Let me know will you :).

Top 10 sites bringing traffic to the wiki

I am a statistician so I love studying the numbers, stats and graphs - and I want to share my studies with you :). This time I looked the top 10 web pages that are bringing traffic to the wiki.

1. direct traffic, i.e. people who have bookmarked the site
2. jasminasnoussi.punt.nl - this is something amazing, Jasmina beat Google! Hurray! She is writing an online web magazine with cool links she has seen recently - see it translated to English
3. Google
4. nukkekoti.pbworks.com - this is the big sister of Mini treasures wiki, the first wiki I established (in Finnish) - you can study it in English too
5. poohbeers.eigenstart.nl - another Dutch site full of cool mini links, see it translated to English
6. miniaturama.webavenue.be - a Belgium based miniature discussion forum in French, see it translated in English
7. minitreasures.blogspot.com - this blog :). Thank you readers! :)
8. adventkalender.punt.nl - a Dutch miniature advent calendar with links to other calendars, see it translated to English
9. mustix.vuodatus.net - one of my favorite miniature blogs in Finnish, see the translation in English
10. facebook.com - I guess the Facebook traffic is coming mainly from the new wiki fan page but there might be people linking to the wiki from their own profiles as well.

So what do you think, was this interesting information and did you find any cool new sites? It is quite funny that all the top ten sources were in other languages than English (except Google and Facebook of course). I think I will share the same stats with you again as this was so interesting :).

How to follow the Mini treasures wiki?

I just updated the FAQ of the wiki and realized there are quite many ways to follow the wiki.

1. you can order emails from the wiki
2. you can order RSS feeds from the wiki
3. you can follow this blog
4. you can join Facebook fan page to get notified of some wiki news
5. you can follow Twitter to get these notifications:
* notifications of new blog entries of Mini treasures blog
* notifications of Facebook updates
* some notifications of wiki updates (not all)
6. you can bookmark the wiki and visit it when ever you have time

Now it is up to you to choose the one that suits best for you. :)

It would be nice to hear how you do it?

Mini treasures in Facebook

In the spring I created a Facebook group for Mini treasures wiki. Currently there are 16 people in it and there is not that much happening there. What I have learnt from other organizations in Facebook is that fan pages tend to be more active than the groups - mainly because the fan pages you will see on your own wall while group messages can be read only if you remember to visit the group - or if you will get email messages.

So this week I took the time and moved Mini treasures wiki to a new level by setting up a fan page for us as well. After just 2 days we have more members (fans) than we have in the group - wow!

So if you are using Facebook join our fan page to get updates about the wiki easily on your Facebook wall. :)

Figures of Mini treasures

Building up a wiki or a forum is tough - it takes time before people find the place and start contributing. I know that during the fall more and more miniaturists will find the wiki but what´s the situation now when the wiki is 4 months old?

Let´s see. There are

-already 246 pages in the wiki. Sounds a lot but most of the pages contains only few links - I´m hoping that you will add more links about your favorite subjects eventually.

-22 wiki users (=they have signed in) and every day on average 11 wiki visitors.
-54 members in Flickr group
-40 followers in Twitter
-22 so called Followers in this blog (=they have signed in) and on average 6 blog visitors daily
-12 people in the Facebook group
-12 friends in YouTube

When I started the wiki I thought I could make some small money with it (at the moment I´m between jobs) but soon I decided not to "ruin my hobby". So while I´m looking for work I am using the wiki as one of my portfolios. As time goes by I hope the wiki grows to be a real treasure: the biggest and nicest dollhouse/miniature link collection in the world.

If you want to help me in that you can do it easily. :)

-If you have a web site or a blog, add a link to Mini treasures wiki (see buttons here).

-If you have account in Google/Flickr/Twitter/YouTube/Facebook join one of the fan groups (see the links in the main page) and feel free to promote it to your friends too.

-Get yourself an account from the wiki too and start adding some links every now and then. It´s perfectly ok to promote your own stuff there whether you are a seller, a newbie or an artist - the wiki is meant for all of us who love miniatures.

Mini treasures in YouTube and Facebook

Mini treasures has had a Flickr group for some weeks and now there's an account in YouTube as well. If you create dollhouse/miniature videos or if you are following them in YouTube, send me an invitation. :)

Or if you have an account in Facebook, join the Mini treasures group there.