Mithrandir - from a place I used to work.
The newest person became the FNG =
Friendly New Guy (or girl)
This torch was passed as new people came aboard.
It was funny then.
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What do you need, you reckon? For project home, I mean. Private forums here? A mailing list?
In the past this was done with a very small group, 2-3 people.
Lots of direct face-to-face, some phone, and some email.
Lots of collaboration on one plan document.
So I am pondering how to do this with a larger global volunteer group.
- a mailing list for sure
I have mixed feelings on "private" anything, it makes the project less visible.
- a private forum may be useful (certainly to limit the signal-to-noise ratio)
Could we have permissions which would allow editing, deleting, moving, etc.
Document creation, management, would be needed.
Our marketing and PR plans are usually a big table in Word.
Perhaps it is time I get better with OpenOffice.
A mailing list and a forum would be a good start.
The rest will come as needed.
Herko - I share your feelings regarding setting up a big project management app.
At this point this would be overkill and an impediment to progress.
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About the goals, we will have to discuss it, but I think it is fair to assume that we want to have less of a "geeky" image. We want to be useful for companies, both for intranet and internet, but know too little of what companies really need in order to use XOOPS for this.
But we will need some ping-pong on this. We (Core Team) cannot just set some goals and expect the M & C Team to make it so. We can give some general goals of what we would like, then you can run with the idea and its feasibility - and maybe we will end up with a quite less ambitious first goal, but with the aim of reaching the next.
Regarding projecting a less "geeky" image - this will require embracing
and addressing the needs of non-technical users. I see a lot of the
non-tech-end-users-are-stupid undercurrent in the forums.
Non-technical users are not stupid. They have different knowledge, different
strengths, and different needs. Not knowing this is ignorance.
I agree 100% regarding ping-pong and setting goals.
The marketing person's job in this area usually is to assist and help guide the
client in establishing marketing and PR goals which are appropriate and achievable.
Project ScopeIt is becoming more clear to me.
This was not driven by "We should be doing better marketing."
It was more like - "Mambo got some PR, we should too."
To get a better idea of the XOOPS market focus, I went and read the
All about XOOPS info and the announcement thread about the XOOPS Foundation.
I browsed through the documentation site for any kind of marketing collateral.
Found nothing. If it exists, please point me to it.
From reading these and what you are saying above, XOOPS has had no targeted focus.
I found absolutely nothing.
We are starting from zero.
Because of this, I think it prudent to limit the scope to a couple small
pieces of a full marketing plan which we (the team) can plan and execute in
a
relatively short time frame. Try to get some successes under our belt.
Trying to create and execute a complete marketing plan would be futile.
There is no marketing infrastructure, no marketing culture, no marketing
awareness, no marketing expertise in place now that I can see.
I suggest three things:
- Media Plan and Campaign (PR) (2-4 months for first results)
- XOOPS Case Studies (1-2 months)
- XOOPS Marketing Flyer and/or brochure (1-2 months)
Media Plan and Campaign - the goal is to increase awareness of XOOPS.
This is done by getting XOOPS covered in articles and news online and in print.
First we figure out who is covering this type of product and
then provide them with the info for them to include in the article.
A database of the authors is created - the Media List.
Things people can help with:
- Gathering articles already written about CMS systems, open source, etc.
This will tell us who is doing the writing and what is being covered.
Reporters who cover CMS and open source are more likely to write about XOOPS.
How to find the articles - article links on other CMS web sites, articles.com,
Google search for subjects and for competitors names, . . . be creative.
The result should be a list of article titles, author name and email, URL links.
We can then customize an article idea for the author based on their history.
- Media list. A list of name, publication, email, beat, articles written.
This database will be the target list for XOOPS article ideas, press releases, etc.
Example - go to InfoWorld site, find list of editors and reporters, see who
covers open source, CMS systems, corp IT, etc.
Name, title, email, publication, relevant articles written.
Sometimes this is a reporter, sometimes an editor.
When in doubt select
managing editor, then main editor.
Some sites have a designated email for article or press release submission.
Goal - 1,000 to 2,000 names globally who may cover XOOPS.
- Editorial Calendars. Most publications online and offline publish and editorial
calendar which shows what subjects they will be covering in each issue. If eWeek
is covering CMSs in Sept.2005 we want to submit info about XOOPS to the writer.
Usually these are online HTML or PDF. We need to gather hard copy of these calendars.
The PDF or saved web page. This info will be used to create our own calendar
of opportunities for getting coverage.
Lead times. Print publications must have the info 2-3 months in advance of the
publication date. Online publications - lead time is much shorter.
Online news sites even shorter.
Goal - top 10-20 publications we want, and then the rest (could be 100s)
XOOPS Case StudiesCase studies are useful in many ways. For a media campaign they can be
easily re-purposed into an article, or a portion of an article.
Reporters write about what their readers care about. A case study
about their type of reader gives them a big head start on an article.
Case studies are also very useful for influencing the non-tech decision makers.
Need Xoopers input here for sure to identify good case study candidates.
Let's aim for three. Three different types of users. (who ???)
Obviously you want to present the best implementations you can.
Who is selected will affect what we can get covered. For example, InfoWorld is
not going to write about a game site, that is not their reader.
A case study about a corporate user is more likely to get their attention.
How you can help:
Please post your ideas for XOOPS users to cover in a case study.
An incentive - the user covered will get lots of free publicity.
Please collect other CMS case studies for ideas.
Write a case study!
Goal - 3-5 quality case studies.
XOOPS Marketing FlyerThis summarizes the
benefits of using XOOPS.
And some of the
features which create those benefits.
High quality design print piece. PDF and print.
Useful to attract attention, influence decision makers.
Helps create a quality image.
Features do not sell, benefits do.
Benefit -
What it does for me.Feature -
How it does it.Tech people tend to list all the features on a flyer.
Users do not select (or buy) a CMS based on features.
They buy benefits.
How you can help:
- List the benefits of selecting and using XOOPS.
- List the advantages of using XOOPS
- List the features that support or enable those benefits.
Thanks to all for the positive input.
Ken McDonald