[Mageia-marketing] Mageia social network strategy

[loqo]

Hi guys,

Hope it's ok to jump in here. This is about Mageia social marketing, 
after reading SebSebSeb's comments (and others)!



To be successful, the following points should be considered:




1) Form an intelligent, efficient social marketing strategy.

And make sure everyone knows it and sticks to it!



2) Have a presence on Twitter/Facebook/G+/identi.ca/Diaspora

ONLY do this so people can find Mageia on these networks and be brought 
to the main Mageia site (or planet).

Think about these networks as PIECES of a social network strategy. Each 
is a small but vital service to the Mageia community... but it's the 
OVERALL strategy that is important. Focusing too much on just one 
service is not good use of resources!



3) Use media wisely.

In all honesty, the best use of time and energy is connecting with 
magazines and high-profile blogs, building relationships with them and 
letting THEM promote Mageia to their EXISTING followers! (These 
followers will spread the news on all the various social networks. Let 
them use time and energy for this purpose.)

That's the smart, professional approach and it's far more efficient than 
trying to gather followers or spit out news at random on different sites 
and networks.



4) Maintain strong brand guidelines.

All successful brands control their identity firmly.
e.g: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/brand/identity/

Mageia has a fantastic brand (name and icon are excellent) but it must 
be protected and cared for. It is never too soon to care about this!!!

For example: the identi.ca group icon is just a black cauldron, not the 
usual blue Mageia icon. This makes the group seem fake - or at least not 
part of Mageia. Little details like this dilute the brand over time. 
Someone should have noticed and cared to put this right!





BRIEF SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS


Twitter, Facebook and Google+ :

Tainted but necessary promotional tools. They should be used to 
broadcast news and events and gather followers, simply because they are 
mass mediums. Mageia needs exposure to a wider audience and should focus 
on these proprietory channels. These channels excel at connecting people 
to brands, quickly, directly and easily. People expect this!


Identi.ca:

isn't the same thing. The users there are more Linux/FLOSS oriented and 
they can smell promotions a mile off. It seems hard to break into the 
community in a meaningful way and the tools to do so are lacking -- the 
Android apps, for example, are frustrating and nearly useless. Identi.ca 
users will, however, promote news among themselves if they find it in 
the mainstream. We should take identi.ca seriously but not over-spend 
energy on it. The number of users is small compared to FB/G+/Twitter. A 
gentle push from time to time on identi.ca (like Seb is doing 
brilliantly) is enough to keep awareness raised.


Disapora:

Again, it's not mainstream and users are not there for official 
promotions or to "follow" their favourite brands. They seem very warm 
and welcoming and the users of various distros seem to get along very 
well together. It definitely merits some promotion of Mageia but will 
not bring many users to Mageia. The users it does bring will be loyal 
and enthusiastic though!





Thanks for reading. Hope that helps move the conversation forward!


loqo,
new Mageia contributor

About me:  https://wiki.mageia.org/en/User:Loqo