Public SourceMage Discussion List

[Eric Sandall <eric AT sandall.us>]

Quoting Jaanus Heeringson <jaanus AT heeringson.com>:
> Thanks for all the kind words before. I vas afraid I might step on 
> someone's toes with my last post :)
> 
> I will gladly compile a proposal for a marketing plan for SMGL, but this 
> is definitely not a one man show. I need lots of input from all of you, 
> and even more form the project leaders. This is a pretty central issue 
> for the project, and if this is going to work, it needs to be officially 
> sanctioned from the project leaders.

I'm all for it. ;) Any nays?
 
> Also beware that this is something that will take considerable time if 
> we want it done properly. Marketing is close to being a one shot 
> business. If we would go out now and drive people to the project/site, a 
> lot of them would probably be disappointed due to lack of accessible 
> information etc. People are lazy and want everything served to them. 
> Getting them to come here a second time around is a lot harder. 
> Therefore we need to make sure we can satisfy our target audiences needs 
> before we bring them in.
> 
> This is a very rough outline of how these things usually work:
> 
> 1. Before I/we start working on some kind of marketing proposal we need 
> to decide where we want to head. That means we/you need to clarify and 
> decide on the general goals and visions of the project. What are we 
> working against?

Would our Social Contract[0] help in that?
 
> 2. When the above is settled we can move on to goals and visions for the 
> marketing effort. Basically, what outcome would you like? Do we want 
> more users, developers or just piece of mind? We need to set up some 
> targets for the future. Another important thing: goals are measurable 
> (there are specific conditions for success), while visions are not.

I'd say that our primary goal is enough developers to fill every Lead 
position,
every guru position, and have extras for the "general" positions (list of
positions is available on our wiki[1], after that more users are icing on the
cake.
 
> 3. When we have the goals and visions in place we can start defining our 
> target audiences.

Developers! Developes! Developers!
/me does a monkey dance
 
> 4. Figure out what attracts the target audience and adjust our 
> communication accordingly (redesign of visuals and information etc.)

Hmmm....easy one: women. However, that probably won't work out as we want, so
perhaps a cool-sounding project? One with lots of prospects? Able to put your
name on the web?

> 5. Find the best places to come in contact with the target audience.

Slashdot, OSNews, Penny-Arcade, Newsforge, others?
 
> 6. Bring'em in!.

Areed!

> 7. Follow up on progress and goals. Adjust accordingly.

Gotta get #1 going first. ;)

> Now would also be a good time for those of you who wish to be involved 
> in the creation of the marketing plan to sound of.

Hrmmm...I'm not much of a marketing person myself... ;) I'll help where I can.

-sandalle

[0] http://sourcemage.org/info/about/socialcontract.html
[1] http://wiki.sourcemage.org/index.php?page=The+Source+Mage+Developers

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Eric Sandall                     |  Source Mage GNU/Linux Developer
eric AT sandall.us                  |  http://www.sourcemage.org/
http://eric.sandall.us/          |  SysAdmin @ Inst. Shock Physics @ WSU
http://counter.li.org/  #196285  |  http://www.shock.wsu.edu/

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