[Sugar-devel] Go Social via Social Media (Proposal/Motion)

[Dave Crossland]

[ Here is the full text of the doc, by Samson with editing assistance
by myself ]

Concerning SL vision 2016, I think that SL should add social media as
one of our main ways to get new members. With the big name we have, we
should use that as an advantage to get people into our community - but
we aren’t.

Let me use myself as an example, I am a very active user in the social
world (facebook, twitter, instagram, and YouTube) even though I don’t
have a smartphone or a laptop of my own to use regularly. I have over
560 followers on twitter. According to twitter official report, my
tweets receive more than 1.9k impressions per day. For the past 28
days I have gotten over 42.4k impressions. My lowest impression is
about 50 on a tweet. My highest tweet is about 4,800 on a tweet. Now
imagine if SL can get this number of impressions by activeness alone
on twitter. Same goes to facebook, also posting images on instagram.
We can get more than 400 impressions a day via twitter, Also facebook
and instagram. If we do the math correctly, SL can get over 600 people
a day from social media to sugarlabs.org. That’s valuable traffic for
our sites.


How do we get started with this new development?


It’s very simple; I propose the following motion:


Motion: create a “Social Media Manager,” role, similar to the
translation manager position, paid $1,000/month plus discretionary use
of an advertising budget of $100/month.


I believe that the role will not be taken seriously if it is volunteer
driven. I am in charge of the social accounts of my church,another
non-profit organization. Their social media marketing was also not
taken seriously until the church made a modestly paid role. The church
community and I both saw it as a responsibility when the role was
paid; and my work was effective, as now we have over 4,000 followers
on facebook.


Money should be spent in order to gain more. More social media
followers will lead to more active members which will lead to member
donations. I know it’s a non-profit organization but that does not
mean we shouldn’t grow.

To get my contract approved by SLOBs. I spent almost 100 USD (21,000
naira) in cyber cafes answering questions that were not related to my
project, so if anyone does not understand this proposal, I strongly
suggest they make research on the internet first before asking
questions, because I will not answer if the questions are not
relevant.


I believe in the growth of SL, but I think we can’t grow big if we are
not doing well on social media. Even if I am not experienced in
business, based on the fact that I am still young and not yet a
college graduate, this seems essential to any non-profit business. I
always thank God for Nigeria because even if the government is not
doing well, we Nigerians always find a way to thrive with any little
chance we find because of the way we think and live. Social media is
now essential for all organizations in all countries, including
Nigeria.


According to our last report on activities.sugarlabs.org our weekly
download is getting lower and lower, though over 11 million activities
have been downloaded in total.


What we need to do to get SL growing bigger:


1.   SL needs to get a official YouTube account and channel:

a.   We need a Gmail account to create the account.

b.   We need to monetize our videos using Google adsense to create
more funds for SL.

c.   We will verify our YouTube channel.

d.   We will show live workshops in the channel. E.g. turtle art day


2. Make our twitter page live again:

a. We will regain access to @sugarlabs and shut down @sugar_labs

b. We will verify @sugarlabs account

c. We will boost (paying fees)our important tweets, like recruitment
for GSOC and GCI, our stable releases, etc.

d. We will run hashtag campaigns


3 Make our Facebook account live again:

We already own a facebook account, with almost 700 followers but low
engagement from followers.

a. We need to verify our facebook page(in progress) with a verified page.

We will stream live video of workshops or related projects.

b. We will post 5 times a day

c. We will boost our important posts

d. We will request SL members on facebook to share our posts with their friends.


Facebook owns an app market that enable javascript projects to run on
facebook. For example, people play games on facebook while chatting:
Sometimes I play “Pool Live Pro” while I update my profile or chat
with friends. So we will port sugarizer to the platform.


4. Make use of instagram:

a. We will post minimum 5 pictures of SL projects a day

b. We will request SL members on instagram to refer SL page to their followers


5. Make use of linkedIn:


a. We will update the community page on LinkedIn

b. We will ask every member on LinkedIn to update their profile to
show their involvement in  Sugar Labs.


6. Make use of Google+

a. We will make use of Google+ by posting our upcoming meetings

b. We will also post videos of Sugar labs



7. Make use of Online Media


We will work with Digital Trends, BBC tech, CNN tech and other
tech-related sites to publish SL articles.


I have some strong connections with digital trend, almost every top
guys on digital trends plus the company follows me on twitter except
their ceo who is yet to follow me. So i can take care of digital
trends. Let use our resource to help SL grow socially.


Paying of ads is not expensive, about $1 - $20 goes a long way on platforms

like facebook/twitter, so I propose a monthly budget of $1,000 for the
role and $100 initial budget for ads, for a total cost to SL of
$1,100.


This is a suggestion I am making to SL members and SLOBs on how SL
project can grow. This is not my project (like Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa).
It's something that can benefit SL to the fullest. I won’t get annoyed
if this motion does not pass but i will be sad. SLOBs should think
about this project twice on how it can benefit SL before making any
decision.


Any suggestions are welcome! it’s an open discussion!


Samson Goddy, with editing assistance by Dave Crossland