Notes: Global Marketing Team Meeting 22 April 2020

Section links

Task updates

Supporting members during the pandemic

Collaboration

Draft agenda for next meeting

Introduction

These summary notes focus on key items and actions from the meeting and to assist with asynchronous contribution to the Global Marketing Team. For those unable to attend a meeting due to timezone issues, please do join the discussion threads and tasks on Trello after the meeting and send your updates. 

We recognize it is a very difficult time for our members and community. We have included more informal, lighthearted items in our meetings coming from our Virtual Coffee Breaks as a way of supporting the community. In addition, we are providing more detailed notes and actions to help members who are working on or would like to participate in tasks. 

The meeting discussions on the Marketing team 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/. can be found at: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C0GKJ7TFA/p1587564032452100

Attended/Participated async

Meeting led by: @yvettesonneveld

Meeting notes and follow-up actions: thanks to @maedahbatool, @yvettesonneveld, @webcommsat

Attended: @maedahbatool, @harryjackson1221, @yvettesonneveld, @webcommsat, @timbb, @meher, @darls, @oglekler, @michelleames, @simonasn, @chaion07, @gkibria69, @antialiasfactory, @SatishPatel, @megphillips91, @lmurillom

Task updates

Contributor Events – WCEU 2020 Online Contributor DayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/.

Update provided by @webcommsat

TrelloTrello Project management system using the concepts of boards and cards to organize tasks in a sane way. This is what the make.wordpress.com/marketing team uses for example: https://trello.com/b/8UGHVBu8/wp-marketing. card: https://trello.com/c/1KagUPpT

The 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. Europe team is all geared up working towards conducting the first-ever online Contributor Day for WordCamp Europe. Preparations are in full swing. This online contributor day will take place on 4 June 2020. 

@webcommsat and others have been updating the Trello board ready for WCEU. Please can you update your task to help us move items further or adapt them for use at WCEU. Marketing team members are also preparing onboarding sessions to support newer members. Everyone involved is working hard to help WCEU be another amazing contributor event and we appreciate it. Thank you!

How can you help?

  • Create a screencast: Make a screen capture video with voiceover showing how to join the Make WordPress on Slack. Any personal login details captured would need to be removed. If you individually or in a small group who can volunteer to help on this, please add a note to the Trello card.
    • Actions: @yvettesonneveld to review video made by a Spanish WordCamp for joining the locale Slack and start a draft text which could be used for joining Make Marketing and adapted by others in their own language.
    • @webcommsat with WCEU to share a sheet with Polyglots and other teams to capture any other locales which may have similar screen capture videos for joining i) locale Slack and/or ii) Make WordPress team
    • If you can help with this, contact @webcommsat or @yvettesonneveld 
  • Guide for Google Documents: We need volunteers to work on an added guide for using Google documents specific to Marketing. This would suit members who are used to working collaboratively in Google documents and using features, like comments, replace text etc. In addition, a screen capture video could be an added feature too and this could be done by another person. 
  • Onboarding new contributors: There is going to be a pre-event onboarding session. We need people who have some experience with onboarding new contributors. As it is an online event, we need to try and help contributors in sessions which will be advertised to attendees before the event.

WordPress Online Meetups

Update provided by: @webcommsat 

The ongoing COVID-19 outbreak has meant in-person events in most parts of the globe. This has led to many WordPress 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. groups are now meeting online. We’re helping with the ongoing promotion of these events, working alongside the Community Team. Thanks to @nullbyte, @meher, @michelleames, @simonasn and @chaion07 for their ongoing work on this.

@simonasn and others have started work on a survey. We will be working on expanding the marketing and communications questions on this. This will be shared at a future collaboration session in the Marketing meeting. 

How can you help?

  • Please help us share the hashtag #OnlineWPMeetup with your local WordPress Meetup. If you can add the name and link to the Meetup you have shared this with to the Trello card we can add it to our spreadsheet.
  • A number of Meetups which could be suitable for an international audience or follow-up with interview with the organizers will be identified each week and promoted. We are working on a ‘press kit’ type / expanding reach approach so that these promotions can be shared and adapted by team members in their local networks. Please also share the items which will be posted on the Make WordPress LinkedIn.

Update from meetings on this task:

  • Breann McDede will help lead this task
  • @webcommsat and @meher have started the different continent promotions starting in Asia. 

Lazy loading and fasterwp workspace

Trello link: https://trello.com/c/dELGoIP8 

Task Lead: @harryjackson1221

You may know that companies in the WordPress ecosystem often work together. Some businesses recently collaborated on creating a standard as to how resources are excluded from lazy loading. We’re planning to create a content piece describing this.

This task will explain how some companies in the WordPress ecosystem collaborated on creating a standard on how resources are excluded from lazy loading. This feature is hoped to be implemented in coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. soon. They have created a Slack workspace to have better contact and facilitate discussion.

How can you help?

The task deliverables will be outlined as milestones. If you’re interested, contact @harryjackson1221 to find out more about the fasterwp Slack channel which has the relevant communication regarding this task. 

Team support during the pandemic

Virtual Coffee Breaks

Thanks to everyone who came along to the different coffee breaks in the last week. Thank you to those who are facilitating, providing video conferencing software or helped with tech queries and signposting: @webcommsat, @yvettesonneveld, @nullbyte, @michelleames, @megphillips91, @mikerbg, @harryjackson1221, @macgraphic, @JillianSMaxell, @maedahbatool, @timbb.

Lighter things to help the team at this team include a cookery trail and photo montage. We are sharing them in these notes in case they inspire others or in case anyone from other teams would like to take part in these informal, friendly activities at this difficult time.

Check out the schedule and join us for our Virtual Coffee Breaks.

#WPRecipeShare

Update provided by @webcommsat

Trello card: https://trello.com/c/1KagUPpT

A regular topic in the Virtual Coffee Breaks is food, difficulty in obtaining certain ingredients and motivation for cooking. @webcommsat has created a global cooking trail as a fun way to connect people, promote sharing of cultures and wellbeing. If you would like to take part in this during the current restrictions, here’s how:

Share your favorite recipe (with a picture) for others to try. You can join in by:

  • share a photo and recipe of something that you have cooked for others to try. Pick recipes that could be adapted to match food availability or cultural reasons
  • cooking at least one recipe that is shared, adjusting it for your needs, and taking a picture (before you eat it!)
  • use the hashtag #WPRecipeShare in your post

Staying Connected Picture Mosaic

Trello link: https://trello.com/c/KNOyWADa

This is another fun challenge that came out of a Virtual Coffee Break. @michelleames will create ‘walls’ of 16 photos with messages from contributors at or around their work stations. The deadline for the first wall of photos is 30 April 2020.

The original concept was for a wall of pictures to highlight how contributors are still staying connected, reduce the sense of isolation and show that members are continuing to contribute to the global WordPress project. 

How can you help?

  • Create a picture of you at your work  station 
  • Optional: hold up a sign with a key message. More details on the Trello card.
  • Once we have a Marketing example, we will share that with other teams in case they want to join in so that they can  or create a similar ‘wall’.

Collaboration time

The team collaborated on two projects this week:

  1. Online WordPress Meetup
  2. Q&A

Online WordPress Meetups

Brainstorming Questions

  • What do you look for when you are exploring an online WordPress Meetup to attend? What keywords interest you in the text? (View all replies on Slack)
  • What information would help you decide about joining an Online Meetup in another part of the world or different city to where you live (for the duration of the current situation)? (View all replies on Slack)
  • What topics would you suggest work well for Online Meetups where an audience is wider than the immediate locality? (View all replies on Slack)
  • In the survey we are building, we will be asking Meetup organizers what channels they use to market their Online Meetups. Tell us what sources and channels you use to find WordPress Online Meetups that may be of interest to you? Please include any search terms you use. (View all replies on Slack)
  • Have you been to any Online WordPress Meetups that you thought had a good marketing approach that we could share in our guides? (View all replies on Slack)
  • What do you value the most about: WordPress Meetups (in-person) and WordPress Meetups (online)? Please do give any suggestions for benefits of the in-person events which could be carried over to the online events. (View al replies on Slack)

How can you help?

If you are new to the team, we would like to hear your input into the threads for each question. You can contribute to these within 48 hours after the meeting async. If you’ve missed last week’s collaboration time, don’t worry, you can be a part of this next week or contact the person who led it to add your suggestions.

Q&As

A working group is meeting weekly to collaboratively create an article that could help pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party developers with creating helpful FAQ sections and help new WordPress users, linked to WordPress.tv videos. This is linked to other cards we have been asked to support in the Marketing Team. To help more people in the team get involved, a collaboration has been planned. Participants shared suggestions based on the following questions and other team members were encouraged to add their suggestions during the week: Thanks for all the comments and to the working group. If you want to join this working group, please message @timbb. Thanks to @webcommsat for her work on this and the collaborations.

Brainstorming Questions

  • When you are choosing a plugin or theme, are there are particular keywords that you look for to help you know if it is suitable for:
    • you as a beginner to working with WordPress
    • you as an experienced developer

Please choose the option which applies to you. (View replies in the Slack thread)

  • Did your approach to asking support questions change as you became more experienced with plugins? (View replies in the Slack thread)
  • When you find plugins for a particular task on your site,  do you tend to install each one individually and see how it affects your site? Or have another approach? This question is aimed at non-developers. (View replies in the Slack thread)

Actions:

  • Contact @timbb if you would like to help further with this area.
  • If you would like to add further answers to the questions, please let Tim know with the link to the message.

Draft agenda for Wed 29 April 2020, 2pm UTC

  1. Opening
    • Welcome
    • Attendance
    • Quick peek into our daily lives
    • Celebrations
  2. Task updates
    • Contributor events
    • Virtual coffee breaks
    • Online WPMeetup Marketing
  3. Collaboration time
    • tba
  4. New business
  5. Upcoming workgroup meetings

#make-wordpress-marketing