In addition to my engagement and events work on Mozilla Drumbeat, I have initiated a strategic communications planning process for Drumbeat’s launch through the rest of 2010?
What does that mean?
As we launch the Drumbeat initiative in general and help each of the supported projects progress to success, there are literally a billion people we could be talking to. How do we decide who we are going to talk to and when, what we want them to know and ask them to do, and which tools and communications channels to use? To answer these questions we create (you guessed it) a strategic communications plan.
This process is pretty involved, but I wanted to update the community on some highlights.
At the beginning, I decided that instead of trying to drive engagement for Drumbeat in general, we should focus our communications plan on the supported projects. First off, as a new initiative that absolutely requires a diverse range of engaged participants, we are best prepared to support engagement in our supported projects. A call for participation is also a promise – it’s a promise that someone will be answering questions, providing a roadmap and resources, and responding to feedback. In addition to our highly participatory events, supported projects are the place we can keep our promise.
Second, we will of course be doing a lot buzz-building to that vague entity known as “the general public,” and to the slightly less vague entity known as the 0pen community, or the tech community, or the internet community (ok, still a little vague). But I believe that buzz will be more meaningful if it is tied to projects that are clearly communicating their successes and their needs. Communicating the projects’ vision to the right people will answer the “So, what?” we’ll hear as we introduce Drumbeat in general. And communicating project successes will drive new audiences who are ready and pscyhed to move their own Drumbeat projects forward.
Status report:
Over the last couple of weeks, I have been talking to Mozilla staff, the Drumbeat community, and recently leads for each project to get us started on an strong communications plan.
