Marketing the Community – January 4 2017 Meeting Notes

The Community Marketing team met for the first time after WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. US. We reviewed what was left from that previous meeting and brainstormed a number of new suggestions and deliverables to discuss and work towards completing.

If you’re interested in contributing, please have a read through our chat and the items listed below and leave a comment with which you’d like to help build! You can read the whole meeting in Slack here or the recap below.

Recap of Goals/Scope: Marketing the WordPress Community: this subgroup feel strongly that the community is a very big selling point of the software, and promoting some of the things that are coming out of the community would raise awareness and encourage adoption of the software; that could include raise awareness about accessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) or internationalization advancements, or even helping local groups with marketing materials or resources for their community. (Read about the other marketing subgroups in The Four Horsemen of WordPress.org Marketing)

Immediate Priorities and Projects Suggested for the Future

The following were suggested in the chat – these are not a definitive nor finalized list of projects, just suggestions! Other suggestions are welcome (please bring them to the next monthly chat).

If a particular suggestion strikes your interest and you have time to work on it, please raise your hand in the comments with a mention about which one so those interested can start coordinating in SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/..

The first two items were leftover suggestions from WCUS working with the community team. Please refer to the content in this GDoc for that.

1. Editorial Calendar for WordCamp CentralWordCamp Central Website for all WordCamp activities globally. https://central.wordcamp.org includes a list of upcoming and past camp with links to each. to help promote meetupMeetup All local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area. events – currently unassigned.
2. Email Newsletter Content for Meetup Organizers – @jenblogs4u will review what’s been created in the document linked above
3. A collection of videos on what makes a meetup great, for both small and big towns. There may be existing content on WordPress.tv on this subject! We can add these to the Meetup Organizer Handbook. @jenblogs4u will take a look and see what we have.
4. Marketing templates for local meetups to self-promote: posters, written copy for local community listings, etc
5. A Foundation-backed online advertising strategy (for the Community) for 2017 – if there’s a solid advertising proposal, it’s possible funds could be allocate for this, but not guaranteed.
   1. @rosso99 notes: “in the open-source way, let’s see what we can do for free, first – we should be using our efforts and ideas to help as many in the community as possible, whether or not they have access to funds. Let’s assume they don’t.”
6. Testimonials from meetup attendees, talking about the value of these meetups. Can be written, video, audio. @andreamiddleton will look at adding this recommendation to the monthly Organizer email.
7. A guide with tips on promoting one’s local meetup, such as co-promoting with other relevant local meetups, coworking spaces, other open-source projects. @gidgey started a Google Doc with ideas here.
8. A “Humans of WordPress” style of promotion – showcasing what WordPress has done for the lives of people who use it, what happens at meetups and WordCamps, etc.
9. Support for meetups with low content – a list of interesting WordPress.tv talks + blog posts for group discussion, improving and sharing a list of Meetup ideas, or a list of speakers that can Skype in for meetups that have no speakers. @meaganhanes and @andreamiddleton are continuing chats about this.

#community, #meeting-notes