"I’d like to talk about creating a framework which allows people to take action on behalf of ClassicPress without needing our input. If we try to oversee everything nothing will get done and we’ll miss opportunities to raise awareness.
We need our community to be our advocates, and we should embrace and support them at every turn, but we need some clear guidelines as to what we support and don’t support in terms of approach.
For example, we don’t support deception (creating fake accounts/personas) or spammy practices (bots), but we do support active outreach to potential partners.
If we then have enthusiastic people such as those involved this thread, we can direct them to a best practices page which could include helpful resources such as copy/pastable explanations of ClassicPress, graphics, social media posts and so on."
Let’s start to put together a framework of best practices and marketing collateral which supports community advocacy.
To kick things off: We could include ideas of the activities that we need most (e.g. Outreach to journalists) to give volunteers focus.
Picking up from the other thread here, let’s remember to keep it positive, no matter what message we put out there. I know that internally we’re all experiencing a lot of angst as we watch WP steam forward against everyone’s best interest, but rather than focus on what we are NOT, let’s talk about what we ARE. Yes, in the short term, our wins are going to be those that are disenchanted with WP – but let’s keep the long game in mind. Negativity gets you only so far, and when the rage runs out, we need to have a well-rounded brand firmly established.
BLUF on that, though, is that if CP does something BETTER than WP (or any other CMS, for that matter), one would have to include that (I believe) in any articles about CP… I definitely DO agree that the “spin” needs to be in a positive direction, but if there are things that CP does better than others, I think that needs to be a major focus!
I see no harm in putting up some FB ads and posting those in WP forums just letting WP users know.
How do you feel about reaching out to primary WP plugin developer, such as Yoast, and just asking if they would consider creating a fork for ClassicPress and mentioning CP in support forums such as Gravity Forms, WooCommerce, and so on.?
ClassicPress itself won’t be reaching out to plugin authors in an official capacity right now - instead we encourage users of the plugins to let plugin authors know they want ClassicPress compatability.
Customer outreach will be a lot more powerful than anything we can do (at the moment), and it also allows authors to get an idea of demand.
I agree. IMO, reaching agencies that will be most adversely affected by the changes will gain us the greatest uptake at the beginning because they manage dozens or hundreds of sites and this is a nightmare for them on so many levels. Second group is individual businesses who don’t have the time or want the headaches involved in going Gutenberg. We need numbers to take to the plugin developers to show them that it’s worthwhile to take us on and support our platform in addition to (or in lieu of) WP.
Having some cut/paste copy available to start to try to guide our message is a great idea, as well as having our most up-to-date logo design, some shareable graphics, etc.
We want to be part of the conversation, but we also want others to advocate for us. We don’t have enough numbers to do it all ourselves (and most of us also have bills to pay so time is also a concern). By crafting some language and making it easy for others to take the conversation to a wider audience, we can be more effective.
I don’t disagree about a Facebook group or about Facebook advertising in the near future, but with only 24 likes on our FB page, we’re not quite there yet. I would wait to deploy that when we have more manpower to manage that properly and when we have more people to participate — otherwise we’re talking to an empty room.
I’d hold off on any Facebook advertising for another reason. I have attended a couple of presentations recently where it was clear that the return on FB advertising is currently way down on what it used to be. The theory is that this is because many people have deleted their FB accounts or are shunning them because of the stream of revelations about what FB has been doing. So it would probably be money down the drain even if the room to which @BlueSkyPhoenix was referring were full.
In my mind, the best outreach we can do is the sort that puts into practice the very values that ClassicPress embraces. That means, above all, a community-based, bottom-up approach rather than a top-down “try to speak to everyone at once” approach.
What that means in practice is that we should talk to local journalists and TV and radio stations, and to local community projects. They will probably be more receptive anyway, and will devote more time and column inches. If they think they have a good story, they will pitch it nationally anyway; we don’t have to, and the national press often sources its stories from local outlets.
This approach also has two other benefits. It’s much less intimidating if the person doing this outreach has never done something like it before, and it also allows people in different areas, countries, and regions to do the outreach in ways that makes them feel most comfortable.
I don’t dislike the idea of reaching out to media, but as someone who has worked for several magazines and newspapers, I know very few journalists even know what WordPress is or would consider what’s happening something their readers or watchers would even know about. I like the approach and idea, but I personally would reach out to WPTavern, wish to be interviewed (not me of course) on popular WP podcasts like WP Watercooler (Mr. Bowler would be a great guest on WP Watercooler, WP Elevation, Agency Innovator, Digital Agency Podcast, just to name a few). I’d definitely reach out to Brent Weaver (for podcast interviews, blog posts, guest speaking at events), and so on with each podcast. It costs nothing, and reaches WP users.
I don’t disagree at all. But we’ve had some experiences where, shall we say, pressure seems to have been brought to bear from other quarters. So they aren’t necessarily going to be as receptive as you might hope. Still worth a try, though.
I don’t see any harm (does anyone?) in Mr. Bowler or someone he would ask to do it for him being on WP podcasts such as WP Elevation, WP Watercooler, Divi Chat, Agency Trailblazer, Digital Agency, WP Builds, and so on down the list. It gets exposure to users and developers who have a greater chance at being involved with WP on a daily basis. I listen to WP podcasts all the time whilst stuck in traffic, as do many others who use WP, and it costs nothing and probably gets quick exposure.
It’s not that I see harm in it; it’s that I’m not sure there’s a lot of value in it. I perceive those outlets’ audiences as being inherently biased against, possibly even surly toward, ClassicPress. I could be wrong.
But why not think bigger…
How about approaching major news networks and breaking outside of the WordPress echo-chamber? For example, try any of the following queries in Google to reveal a host of articles written on the major networks about WordPress, Matt, security, must-have plugins, etc, etc. It could amount to a great deal of publicity to land a story on a major network.
I think it’s a fine idea, and do not disagree with your sentiments. I just think the podcast route would reach more people, sooner, who know what WP is and use it. I worked as journalist for several news outlets, as a copywriter, freelance writer and editor; (and yes, that was a long time ago and my writing has since declined), and even from for Fox Reality for a while and never met one journalist or reporter or media person who knew what WP was or cared beyond “oh, yeah, I think our site uses that.” I’d go where the greatest volume of users go. If that’s wrong, that’s okay. Just trying to help with ideas as best I can. If I had CP I’d want to be on every WP podcast possible to reach WP users “in the trenches.” I’d also contact HARO and offer to be a WP “expert” and Gutenberg (Help A Reporter Out openly solicits experts in specific categories and offers them potential press for free).
I get the idea of reaching out to media, and HARO is a free, easy way to offer to be there if reporters want to talk about Gutenberg from a different perspective.I just think - I discovered CP from searching online for quite some time for a fork or alternative solution to just downloading Classic Editor and crossing my fingers - that if CP were out there on all the WP podcasts invariably it would have to by default attract more users. Just my humble opinion on that topic. I can be very “gung ho” when it comes to marketing as my training was “full frontal assault” when I worked for agencies.
I think (whoever’s read my marketing posts so far) knows what I’d do, and I’ve learned from experience to try to be quiet after a point and let things settle a bit. I’d put together a marketing plan with multiple tiers and approaches (philosophies), and then assess available resources and volunteer support and then prioritize approaches accordingly. I used to do that for agencies I worked at, and then go to team leads and “crack the whip” asking for KPIs to report back to the boss. That was about 20 years ago, and I’m more frazzled, but I’d do something like that over the course of several days and going through input on priorities and preferred approaches. The main thing (to me) is getting word out to those who use WP and feel lost in the shuffle, and in so doing, you reach others. I would be polite and respectful of others of course and not badmouth anyone (there’s no reason to do so anyway), but wouldn’t worry so much about ticking off WP/Automattic at this point, as I suspect they’re already miffed. I would just want to reach WP masses. One easy way to do that is to more broadly promote the upcoming RC date on WP forums.
