openSUSE:Marketing liaison
What is a Marketing Liaison?
The success of the openSUSE Marketing Team depends on our ability to be aware of important initiatives that exist within the Project. Because there are many things going on, it would be a challenge for any one of us to stay on top of all major events. So we create marketing liaisons to engage with as many of these teams on a one-to-one embedded relationship.
The liaison, in effect, becomes the marketing lead and subject matter expert for that particular team This gives an opportunity to anyone to either learn and practice new marketing skills or build upon their existing skills.
How to be a Liaison
Pick Something!
If you want to be a liaison, simply look around the project and pick something you are interested in. Maybe you want to promote openSUSE's GNOME or KDE. Maybe you want to promote the work of the Build Team. You can also be a liaison for a short-term team, like the openSUSE planning committee.
You may also wish to check out our open jobs page for a list of liaisons we are seeking. Remember, it is okay if more than one liaison exists for the same team.
You do not have to be an expert in the particular area you wish to liaise with. Sometimes it can be exciting and a good challenge to choose an area you have never experienced before. But if you are new to that subject matter, be sure you have access to someone who can give you good communication about concepts and terminology within that project.
Let them know you're here
Once you have picked a team or project, let them know you're here. Introduce yourself to the team and tell them you are a marketing liaison and you are there to help promote their efforts.
You're a liaison! Now what?
- Observe! Find out how the team communicates. Join mailing lists, read team members' blogs, log into their IRC channel.
- Participate! Find out when the team has meetings. If you can't make it to their meetings, ask where meeting minutes are published so you can read after the meeting.
- Be Creative! Think of ways you can promote the team's activities and help the world to observe. Remember that not everyone is a born-marketer, and developers often are not marketers. But they'll appreciate that you are there to help do their marketing for them. Some ideas:
- Blog about the activities of the team
- Publish stories on news.opensuse.org
- Tweet (Twitter) or Dent (Identi.ca)
- Publish an update on forums such as openSUSE's Forums and Facebook.
- Draft press releases when major milestones have occurred.
- Create a plan of action for future of your efforts.
You are never alone
As a liaison, you become the marketing lead for that particular team or project. But you are never alone. The whole marketing team is there to support you. Communicate to the Marketing Team what you are doing. Ask for feedback on your plans. Options include:
- Post a message on the Marketing Team mailing list opensuse-marketing@opensuse.org
- Ask during a Marketing Team meeting (next meeting info)
- Ask for one-on-one advice from fellow Marketing liaisons or Marketing lead
List of Liaisons
| Assigned Liaisons | |
|---|---|
| Area | User Name (s) |
| OBS | Andreas Jaeger, Bryen Yunashko |
| Smeegol | R. Tyler Ballance |
| Open Positions | |
| Area | |
| GNOME | |
| KDE |