Size Does Matter

Size Does Matter

The Larger the Mafia the Better

The first priority of any beginner is to concentrate on growing the size of his Mafia. Mafia size is what determines your strength and the acquisition of good bonuses. It is a good idea to try to get many players who are of high rank and levels as possible to join your Mafia, but do not limit yourself to just high ranking members because even the low ranking players add to your number of Mafia members which translate to strength. Also there is your Top Mafia to consider. These are positions in your Mafia that make up the top tier of your family. You need to appoint someone from your Mafia to fill each position in order to complete a crew and in turn gain bonuses from jobs and fights. You will want to fill these positions with high ranking veteran players because they are the ones who will provide you with the best bonuses. There are six positions to fill. These are as follows with the correlating bonuses dependent upon the which Mafia member you promote to that position:

Mastermind : More experience from jobs.
Wheelman : Use less energy on jobs
Buttonman : More bonus on attacks
Bodyguard : More bonus on successful defense
Safecracker : More cash from fights
Bagman : More cash from jobs

Here are some tips on recruiting Mafia Wars family members. I have included four recruitment strategies. I'm sure there are more and I do welcome any ideas you may have, just leave a comment and perhaps I can include it in future updates. The four methods I have used are as follows:

1. Invite Existing Network Friends to Play
This is the first thing you want to do. Ask any of your friends on Facebook or whatever social site you play Mafia Wars on to join your Mafia. If your friends have no interest in playing it is okay. You can just tell them that they do not need to play but just subscribe to the application and become part of your family because what is important is the number of Mafia members you have. If they are your friends they really shouldn't mind doing this because it really does not affect them in any way to become a part of Mafia Wars.
You can even use the built-in Mafia Wars invite and select all your friends. After you press send you will be given the opportunity to also write a personal message. I would suggest you do send a personal message that way it will not look like they are being spammed.

2. Forums/Groups

This option is a great and can garner you many family members. You can go to any forums that you frequent and post a link to your profile and the Mafia Wars recruitment message found on your "My Mafia" category on the Mafia Wars interface. Remember to also write a little personalized message. Here is an example:
(This is my profile link and Mafia Wars invite. Feel free to add me to your Mafia with these links.)

If you play Mafia Wars on Facebook please add me.
Friend me: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1130964526
Join My Mafia: http://apps.facebook.com/inthemafia/status_invite.php?from=1130964526

Also there are many groups dedicated to growing Mafia Wars families and I find that it is probably the best way to recruit members. All you have to do is go to the groups tab on your Facebook profile and click on it. After you are taken to the groups page type in a search for Mafia Wars. Many groups will come up. You can join one or all if you want and you can either follow the instructions that they give you or go directly to the comments section at the bottom and write a message for people to add you to their Mafia. You can provide your profile link and Mafia Wars invite link or you can simply just write "Add Me Please". A person who reads these comments will click on either your provided links or your name and add you as a friend. When you accept their friendship you should go to your Mafia Wars and invite them to join yourself (that's the respectful way) or you can wait until they invite you. After you post your message you can also go through the comments and seek friendship/Mafia Wars members yourself by clicking on their links or names. I strongly advise you to always add a little message whenever you request a friendship such as, "For Mafia Wars" or "Mafia Wars". This helps the potential friend to distinguish the request from spam and authentic Mafia Wars requests. You can grow your Mafia without limits doing this as long as you have the time and the determination.

3. Other Social Sites
You can also use other social sites such as MySpace to recruit since many people who have Facebook accounts also have MySpace accounts. In fact Mafia Wars is also available to play on MySpace. There will invariably some who are not members of Facebook and your recruitment may entice them to join and play Mafia Wars through Facebook.
Another site that can be utilized is Twitter. The best way is to use the "Tweetlater" and with the auto-welcome you can paste your recruitment links. The only problem is that you have a limited space to do so. so you you may have to use a service such as http://www.tinyurl.com/. There you can change any long link to a shorter link which will be easier to fit in places where space is limited for long urls.

4. Blogs

This method involves looking for people who have blogs dedicated to Mafia Wars. There you can request their friendship and also take advantage of their suggestions to grow your Mafia. Many also give you the opportunity to advertise through comments similar to a forum. The bonus is that these blogs are usually from avid Mafia War players that have tons of experience and can offer you some great tips and strategies that will give you an advantage in the game.