SandBox

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#title Building Buzz - The Buzz Cycle = Community Knowledge Base =
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''From The Art Of Community by O'Reilly
(http://www.artofcommunityonline.org) by Jono Bacon''		 ||<tablestyle="float:right; font-size: 0.9em; width:40%; background:#F1F1ED; margin: 0 0 1em 1em;" style="padding:0.5em;"><<TableOfContents>>||
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== Buzz Targets == Welcome to the community knowledge base!
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Buzz needs a target, and that target is the topic you are focusing on. Each time you steal away someone’s attention, she needs to know that it was worth it. You want to ensure that when someone looks in your direction, she feels it was worthwhile.
To do this, you need to decide what you want to promote. Of course, buzz is an ongoing process: you will need to bring attention and focus to your community many, many times. Each of these times you need to ensure there is a purpose. Whether the purpose is announcing the community, attracting new members, or anything else, you should ensure that your goals and
intentions are clear.		 This page is here to provide an index of documents and articles that can help you build strong, vibrant communities. It is encouraged that the community create new articles to help expand and grow our existing documentation to help create even better teams. If we all work together to expand this documentation, we can create a pretty compelling resource.
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Two kinds of buzz campaigns are useful in virtually all communities: If you want to add a document to the Knowledge Base, see [[BuildingCommunity/AddingCommunityGuide|this page]].
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 * The initial announcement.
 * Ongoing efforts to attract members.		 == Guides / HOWTOs ==
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We are going to explore both of these, looking at the four elements of the buzz cycle. This section contains guides and HOWTOs for doing things effectively in the Ubuntu community, from setting up resources to resolving issues and being productive.
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== Announcing Your Community == === Team Processes ===
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The very first time you need buzz is when you announce your community. The goal is to get the message out among people who can contribute to your community, pique people’s interest, and get them to learn more. Your announcement should appear fresh and exciting, and an effective buildup phase is particularly important. Earlier I gave examples of the approach to announcing The Art of Community and 5-A-Day; you should consider similar approaches. Multimedia can make an announcement more exciting and memorable. Lawrence Lessig launched his Change Congress (http://change-congress.org/ ) campaign on his blog (http://www.lessig.org/blog/2008/03/change_congress_launched.html) by recording a short online presentation in which he narrated the goals of the project. I used a similar technique when I announced my Severed Fifth (http://www.severedfifth.com/ ) project. I recorded an announcement (http://www.severedfifth.com/news/2008/06/severed-fifth-launched/ ) and put it online on the day of release. These approaches really help captivate the viewer. The desired outcome with this kind of buzz is to have people visit your website and to spread awareness of your community. Things that all teams should be doing.
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==
Applying the buzz cycle ==		  * [[BuildingCommunity/TeamReporting|Team reporting]] - reporting to the wider project what your team is working on
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'''Preparation''' === Team Resources ===
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Ensure you have your website in place, and that all of the key information about your community and how to get involved is available. You should also ensure syndication feeds are available. Decide where it’s important to get mentioned (websites, magazines, personal blogs by leaders in the field, and so forth). You can often source a list of places by asking your community and identifying related websites and magazines.  * [[BuildingCommunity/CreatingWikiHomepage|Creating your team wiki homepage]] - how to create a homepage for your team on the Ubuntu wiki
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'''Buildup'''
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If you have a preexisting blog or other site where you can post content, you could post “Coming Soon...” messages. If you are setting up a local community, you could put up fliers with the date of the announcement and a web address.  * [[BuildingCommunity/SampleTeam|Sample Team Wiki Site]] - see this collection of suggested wiki pages for a sample team and use them as the basis for your own team.
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'''Announcement''' ==== General Information ====
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On the date of the announcement, you should publicize in all the communication channels that make sense. You should provide a short blurb that inspires people to learn about your community and encourage them to visit your website. General information and details about the LoCo project.
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'''Review'''  * LoCoTeams - the main homepage of the LoCo project.
 * [[LoCoFAQ]] - one FAQ to rule them all! A big list of LoCo related questions.
 * LoCoTeamsList - the list of approved and new teams.
 * LoCoTeamContacts - how to contact the project leaders.
 * LoCoTeamMeeting - details of the fortnightly LoCo team meetings held on IRC.
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You can see where your announcement spread to and whether you were publicized in all the places you hoped. There’s also qualitative feedback: did comments and questions show that you described your project clearly? Did the types of people you want respond? ==== Joining a Team ====
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== Attracting Contributors == Details about joining teams.
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Contributors are at the forefront of what makes a great community. They are not only on the front line furthering your community in the direction of its goals, but they are also your representatives and spokespeople.  * LoCoTeamJoining - how to join your local LoCo team.
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Although buzz campaigns can be started to attract contributors, this activity should be seen as an always-present and ongoing promotional effort. Your goal here is to constantly communicate the positive message of your community, its achievements, and how people can get involved. The greatest communicators of this message are your existing members: you want to turn their
satisfaction into active promotion for your community. To achieve this, your members need to feel proud to be in your community. They should feel a drive and passion for your goals and objectives, and they should feel that they want to spread the word so others can enjoy the community too. A positive community will always generate a positive message and be a magnet
for new contributors. The first step in achieving this is to build a sense of enjoyment, ease of contribution, and pride
in your members. You build this by combining the elements discussed in this book: simple processes, effective governance, transparency, and so on. When you get these core attributes
right, your members will thrive on the opportunities and direction that your community offers them. You now need to encourage them to share their happiness and drive with others. Their own resources and social network are an excellent communication channel for this outreach. Your job is to identify methods via which you can help them use these resources to spread the word about (a) the good work your community performs, and (b) why they enjoy being part of it.		 ==== Running a Team ====
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For the former, give them buttons for their websites and blogs. Give them posters to print out and put in libraries, in stores, and on lampposts. Provide them with email signatures that they can use. Encourage them to set up Facebook/MySpace pages and more. Each of these resources should direct people back to the community’s website. To encourage your members to share their joy of being a part of the community, the key is that the communication focuses on the personal story: you need to encourage your members to share what they specifically enjoy about the project. In doing this you resort to the essence
of community that we discussed back at the beginning of the book: stories. 		Help and resources for running a team.
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Stories are a fantastic viral marketing asset. A great story is never told once; it is shared again and again. If your community members share great stories about their involvement in the community, the stories will travel far and wide and encourage new and unknown people to dip their feet into your waters. You should talk about the importance of sharing stories with your members. Help them to understand that on any given day they could talk to someone online, in a coffee shop, or on
a train or plane and potentially inspire someone to join the community. This can provide your members with a powerful sense of opportunity for bringing people in and will get them involved. You should now augment this discussion with some specific recommendations of viral approaches of getting the word out there:		  * LoCoTeamHowto - our main guide to starting a LoCo team.
 * LoCoTeamRegions - a guide to picking how much of a region your LoCo team covers
 * LoCoGettingApproved - how to get your team approved.
 * LoCoExampleApplication - an example approval application.
 * LoCoGettingCds - how to get free Ubuntu CDs.
 * LoCoResolvingProblems - details on resolving problems and conflict in your team.
 * LoCoWorkingWithOtherGroups - how to best work with other local groups such as Linux User Groups.
 * LoCoTeamLeader - thoughts on being an effective leader.
 * LoCoTeamDealingWithMoney - best practices for dealing with money
 * LoCoTeamSpeakers - a list of those who are available to speak at conferences about Ubuntu.
 * LoCoWorkingWithOtherGroups - how to further promote Ubuntu while helping your area LUGs
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'''Blogging''' ==== LoCo Resources and Facilities ====
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Blog entries get read, linked, and passed on across the Internet. They are easy to create,
accessible to all, and are permanently archived in search engines and often crop up in
random searches. Blog entries are also very gratifying for the author, particularly if the
readers leave comments.		 Guides and documentation about setting up the various resources and facilities your LoCo team may want to use.
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'''Microblogging'''  * LoCoCreatingWebsite - how to create a website, a map of your area in which users can add themselves, a planet blog aggregator, and details about free hosting options.
 * LoCoCreatingForum - how do you set up a forum for your team?
 * LoCoDocsDay - how to get involved in our regular documentation days.
 * LoCoBot - details about using our IRC bots for logging and other facilities.
 * LoCoTeamDocsToDo - Things for us to complete
 * LoCoTemplates - templates for your LoCo sites.
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Earlier we discussed tools such as Twitter, identi.ca, and Facebook as excellent methods
of sharing experiences: encourage your members to use these facilities as they do their
work.		 ==== LoCo Activities ====
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'''Word of mouth''' Guides about different types of work your team can do.
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Encourage your members to strike up conversations about your community in every
possible scenario. Glorify the most insane and ridiculous cases in which a story is told and
the recipient joins the community. As an example, one time I met a guy on the London
Underground and told him about Ubuntu. He visited the website and eventually joined		  * LoCoActivism - How-to guide for digital freedom activism
 * UbuntuAtConferences - how to get a "conference pack" from Canonical
 * LoCoRunningInstallfests - a guide to running a local Installfest event.
 * LoCoRunningReleaseParty - a guide to running a Release Party event.
 * LoCoTeamEducation - how to advocate Ubuntu / Kubuntu / Edubuntu to educational users and organisations.
 * LoCoComputerFairHowto - organising a computer fair booth
 * '''Jams!''' - Jams are get-togethers of Ubuntu activists who work on Ubuntu directly to make it better. Useful information and materials about running '''[[RunningBugJam|Bug Jams]]''' and '''[[MOTU/RunningPackagingJam|Packaging Jams]]'''.
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and participated in the community. This was incredibly satisfying. Share these
experiences, and encourage and celebrate them.		 ==== Mailing Lists ====
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'''Interviews'''  * loco-contacts - the main mailing list for the project is loco-contacts. You can join it by visiting https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/loco-contacts
 * Team Mailing Lists - see https://lists.ubuntu.com for details of the team mailing lists.
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Some of your community members may have the opportunity to be interviewed on
websites, podcasts, videocasts, or in magazines. These are harder to come by, but
encourage your members to ask these publications if they can be interviewed. If you don’t
ask, you don’t get!		 ==== IRC Channels ====
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'''Conference presentations'''  * #ubuntu-locoteams - the main IRC channel for the LoCo project.
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If you have members who are keen to speak at conferences, encourage them to submit
papers. If you have some experience of this process, you should offer them help and advice
on putting together a submission.
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'''Meetings/events/open days''' === Events ===
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You should encourage your members to organize meetings and events in which they can tell their story about the community. When I first got involved in open source, I organized presentations and open events at my university to help others understand how fun and satisfying our community is. All it needed was a room and a projector, and planting the idea in the minds of your members is sure to inspire some to organize an event.
An important element in building buzz to attract contributors is to showcase great work. I used many of these techniques when I started Severed Fifth and provided a range of website buttons and Severed Fifth posters (many of which were produced by the community). To generate buzz, I organized a campaign for fans to put the posters and stickers up in their local area. As part of the campaign, I encouraged typical destinations for the posters such as music shops, notice boards, and lampposts, but also showcased some of the wackier places. I saw examples of Severed Fifth stickers and posters in fish and chip shops, on the London Underground, in railway stations, toilet stalls, concert venues, buses, and even stuck to someone who was sleeping. As I heard these stories, I blogged them and encouraged fans to send me photos that I could put on the blog. The viral nature of the campaign encouraged more people to participate.		  * [[BuildingCommunity/TeamIrcSessions|Running Team IRC Sessions]] - how to run discussion, training, show and tell or other team related sessions via IRC
 * [[BuildingCommunity/BookingUbuntuMeetingChannel|Booking #ubuntu-meeting]] - how to book the #ubuntu-meeting IRC channel
 * [[BuildingCommunity/RunningReleaseParty|Running a Release Party]] - how to organise and run an Ubuntu Release Party.
 * [[BuildingCommunity/RunningCommunityStands|Running community Ubuntu stands at shows/conferences]] - a guide to running an exciting, dynamic, well staffed stand at a conference
 * [[BuildingCommunity/RunningAnUbucon|Running an Ubucon]] - a guide to running a community-driven Ubucon event
 * [[BuildingCommunity/EventsGettingOrganised|Getting Organised]] - Getting started with organising your event
 * [[BuildingCommunity/OrganisingPhysicalEvents|Organising Physical Events]] - How to organise your real-life physical event
 * [[BuildingCommunity/EventsGettingSponsorship|Getting Sponsorship]] - Use the best available methods to secure sponsorship for your event
 * [[BuildingCommunity/OrganisingOnlineEvents|Organising Online Events]] - Plan and organise your on-line event
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This viral marketing approach to building buzz has become the new way of doing business on the Internet. The idea is simple: you build buzz and encourage the consumers of your buzz to also build their buzz on the same topic. With this approach, when you unleash something on this network of viral volunteers, it spreads like wildfire. The key here is having this network available, and building that network can require a tremendous amount of energy in helping people to feel engaged, but when they do it will pay dividends in buzz. The key is in making people feel a sense of empowerment and responsibility to spread the message. === Supporting Workflow with Tools ===
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An interesting project that really set the standard for this kind of outreach was the Mozilla Firefox promotional campaign, Spread Firefox (http://www.spreadfirefox.com/ ).
Back in November 2004, the SilverOrange Canadian web firm was commissioned to build Mozilla’s website. As part of their work they produced an evangelist application on their intranet to manage the structure and content of the site. Blake Ross (one of the forefathers of Firefox) conceived the idea that Mozilla should encourage and inspire the global Firefox community to lead the marketing for the launch of the popular browser. One of the people involved in this work was Chris Messina. At the time, Chris was a Firefox community member, keen to see the project get better recognition and more widespread focus. Eventually he would go on to lead the Spread Firefox community marketing project in raising over $220,000 in micro-donations to launch Firefox to a worldwide audience with an ad in the New York Times. 		 * [[BuildingCommunity/UnderstandingWorkflow|Understanding Your Workflow]] - Learn how to select the right tools for the right job!
 * [[BuildingCommunity/BuildingGreatInfrastructure| Building Great Infrastructure]] - Points to ponder when setting up your teams' or projects' tools.
 * [[BuildingCommunity/BuildingAndMaintainingTransparency|Building And Maintaining Transparency]] Transparency leads to stronger communities.
 * [[BuildingCommunity/RegularWorkflowAssessment|Regular Workflow Assessment]] Regular assessments will refine your team or project.
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Chris remembers the formation of the project well: === Building Buzz ===

 * [[BuildingCommunity/MindShare|Mind Share]] - Perception, change of attitudes, based on common goals and beliefs.
 * [[BuildingCommunity/BuildingBlocksOfBuzz|The Building Blocks of Buzz]] - Building excitement, and Motivate others.
 * [[BuildingCommunity/SettingUpYourBase|Setting Up Your Base]] - Specific examples on setting up your environment for buzz.
 * [[BuildingCommunity/TheBuzzCycle|The Buzz Cycle]] - How to evaluate your affectiveness with buzz.
 * [[BuildingCommunity/BuzzTargets| Buzz Targets]] - Real World Examples of Buzz Targeting done right.
 * [[BuildingCommunity/BuildingAlliances| Building Alliances]] - Harvesting your relationships, can help you spread your buzz.
 * [[BuildingCommunity/BuildingBuzzSummary| Building Buzz - Summary]] - Summary of the previous links content.
 * [[BuildingCommunity/BuildingBuzz|Start Building Your Team's Buzz]] - List of places and ideas where you can start applying what you've learned.

=== Measuring Community ===

 * [[BuildingCommunity/MeasuringCommunity|Measuring Community]] -
 * [[BuildingCommunity/FoundationsOfFeedback|Foundations of Feedback]] -
 * [[BuildingCommunity/HooksAndData|Hooks and Data]] -
 * [[BuildingCommunity/AnonymityAndPrivacy| Anonymity & Privacy]] -

=== Disputes and Conflict ===

 * [[BuildingCommunity/DealingWithConflict|Dealing With Conflict]] - how to deal with conflict in your team
 * [[BuildingCommunity/CoCAndDisputes|The role of the Code Of Conduct in Disputes]] - some notes about where the Code Of Conduct plays a part in dispute and conflict resolution
 * [[BuildingCommunity/TakingConflictToTheCommunityCouncil|Taking Conflict To The Community Council]] - a guide to what to do when taking conflict issues to the community council
 * [[BuildingCommunity/Conflict/NatureofBeast]] - The nature of conflict
 * [[BuildingCommunity/Conflict/CalmBeforeStorm]] - Signs of impending conflict, what to look out for
 * [[BuildingCommunity/Conflict/Resolution]] - How to resolve issues of conflict

=== Governance ===

 * [[BuildingCommunity/TheCaseForGovernance]] - When, why and how your community needs formalized governance
 * [[BuildingCommunity/LearningFromTheLeaders]] - Learn from existing successful governance structures
 * [[BuildingCommunity/SettingUpACommunityCouncil]] - How to bootstrap your community governance structure
 * [[BuildingCommunity/ExpandingGovernance]] - When and how to expand your governance structure
 * [[BuildingCommunity/UbuntuGovernanceLinks]] - Links to further reading on how Ubuntu is governed

=== Burnout ===

 * [[BuildingCommunity/Burnout]] - How to avoid and handle burnout

== Articles, Blog Entries and Multimedia ==

Blog entries and articles:

 * [[http://www.jonobacon.org/?p=868|Misinformation: The Enemy Of Community]] by Jono Bacon
 * [[http://www.jonobacon.org/?p=751|Transparency in process]] by Jono Bacon
 * [[http://www.oreillynet.com/onlamp/blog/2006/04/the_increasing_importance_of_c.html|The Increasing Importance of Community]] by Jono Bacon
 * [[http://www.oreillynet.com/onlamp/blog/2005/09/hindsight_is_always_2020.html|Hindsight is Always 20/20]] by Jono Bacon
 * [[http://www.oreillynet.com/onlamp/blog/2004/04/advocating_honesty.html|Advocating honesty]] by Jono Bacon
 * [[http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2006/12/how_to_build_a_.html|How To Build a Community: Part 1]] by Kathy Sierra

Multimedia:

 * [[http://www.jonobacon.org/?p=878|How To Herd Cats And Influence People]] by Jono Bacon

-- [[LaunchpadHome:itnet7]] <<DateTime(2017-09-18T23:15:55-0400)>>
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 "Originally there were probably about 30 of us in this private intranet, but maybe only 10 of us participated in any regular capacity. For me, this kind of work was all new to me—both open source and this kind of semi-anonymous Internet collaboration. It’s not like I’d met anyone on the project personally—in fact, I only happened to find out about it because Steven Garrity had blogged that Mozilla was looking for volunteer designers."

----

After hearing about the project, Chris joined and applied his passion for Firefox to the campaign. At the heart of buzz is the ability to think outside the box to spread the work, and Chris remembers the approaches they used intimately:

----

 "I think there were a number of important elements of this, and that was that we made it fun to get involved. There was both a spirit of camaraderie and of shared purpose (fighting Microsoft), and with that in mind, people came up with some pretty clever ideas in the forums, contributing concepts, strategies, designs... telling the story of how Firefox made a difference to them. We worked hard to promote these efforts through things like the leaderboard (which measured the week-to-week growth in downloads from different affiliate links) and had, I believe, weekly contests or initiatives. Probably the most effective tool was the cumulative download counter... every time we hit a new milestone I would design new artwork to commemorate our success with each design getting more and more insane."

----

The efforts of the Spread Firefox team were exceptional: Firefox 3 was downloaded over 28 million times in 24 hours when it was released. The project has gone on to secure a global user base and a reputation for quality, and a thriving and active community that surrounds it.

== Preparation ==

You should fully research which media you want to spread your buzz to. Your aim here is to identify the kind of personality that will be interested in joining your community, and to target the media that they read.

'''Buildup'''

I would not recommend any buildup to this target. You want to get straight out there and grab contributors.

'''Announcement'''

The announcement should take place in a variety of media. Your aim here is to share and inspire people in the achievements and accessibility of your community. Sell them on the evidence: show them third-party statements and material that firmly demonstrates that
your community is a fun and rewarding place to be.

'''Review'''

Naturally, one measure of success is how many new people sign up or start helping out on committees. You can also try to see how many existing members helped the buzz with their personal statements, and why they were or were not comfortable doing so.		 [[CategoryBuildingCommunity]]

Community Knowledge Base

Welcome to the community knowledge base!

This page is here to provide an index of documents and articles that can help you build strong, vibrant communities. It is encouraged that the community create new articles to help expand and grow our existing documentation to help create even better teams. If we all work together to expand this documentation, we can create a pretty compelling resource.

If you want to add a document to the Knowledge Base, see this page.

Guides / HOWTOs

This section contains guides and HOWTOs for doing things effectively in the Ubuntu community, from setting up resources to resolving issues and being productive.

Team Processes

Things that all teams should be doing.

  • Team reporting - reporting to the wider project what your team is working on

Team Resources

General Information

General information and details about the LoCo project.

Joining a Team

Details about joining teams.

Running a Team

Help and resources for running a team.

LoCo Resources and Facilities

Guides and documentation about setting up the various resources and facilities your LoCo team may want to use.

  • LoCoCreatingWebsite - how to create a website, a map of your area in which users can add themselves, a planet blog aggregator, and details about free hosting options.

  • LoCoCreatingForum - how do you set up a forum for your team?

  • LoCoDocsDay - how to get involved in our regular documentation days.

  • LoCoBot - details about using our IRC bots for logging and other facilities.

  • LoCoTeamDocsToDo - Things for us to complete

  • LoCoTemplates - templates for your LoCo sites.

LoCo Activities

Guides about different types of work your team can do.

Mailing Lists

IRC Channels

  • #ubuntu-locoteams - the main IRC channel for the LoCo project.

Events

Supporting Workflow with Tools

Building Buzz

Measuring Community

Disputes and Conflict

Governance

Burnout

Articles, Blog Entries and Multimedia

Blog entries and articles:

Multimedia:

-- itnet7 2017-09-19 03:15:55

CategoryBuildingCommunity

itnet7/SandBox (last edited 2017-09-19 03:15:55 by itnet7)