**** Update Dec 23 ****
Please bring your attention to this thread:
If you aren’t able to post and want to contribute, please drop me a PM.
[b]
[/b]
I was talking with Sunny on here and agreed to help put together some ideas around a ppc/xpm marketing strategy. Although I’m a network engineer/vCIO by trade, I’ve had quite a bit of experience with large scale IT marketing initiatives at different companies since the 90s. I’m more than happy to offer suggestions, if you find something useful, by all means run with it.
In the crypto community, I was fortunate enough to meet up with a few members from Feathercoin and helped put together a strong grassroots type community. Feather has some amazing people that really spent time making it work, I feel honored that I was invited to the party. I put my side Cisco training business on hold to work on Feather for 4 months. As soon as someone was willing to take my spot, I was more than happy to go back to my business. ChrisJ over at Feather is doing a wonderful job expanding what we started back in April.
Now with things settling down in my business again, I’m ready to jump back in with PPC/XPM. I’m here to assist as you need me.
*** Marketing Plan ***
This forum has done such a tremendous job with ppc/xpm awareness, kudos to you all! Throughout the day I’ll update this post as time permits.
1. Surveys – Gathering Support from Ppcointalk Forum
Full explanation here:
http://www.ppcointalk.org/index.php?topic=278.msg4722#msg4722
MeBeingAwesome is assuming responsibility for this task:
http://www.ppcointalk.org/index.php?topic=278.msg4738#msg4738
Notes:
(1) Surveys from members not only identifies the areas of interests from the ppcointalk members, but also outlines the days/hours they can spend on projects.
(2) There are so many areas outside of development that would be useful to pushing PPC/XPM forward
(3) Once the survey outline is complete, let’s get the word out (other forums, email ALL existing forum members, troll/chatboxes etc…)
(4) When a good sampling of surveys are complete, as a community, we can start figuring out what people want to work on to help push the initiatives forward.
(5) See Item 2
2. Categories
Once we identify who would like to participate, it’s now time to figure out what roles everyone wants to grab. As you can see below, you don’t have to be a developer to have a major impact on the community. There’s something for everyone that wants to participate.
[b]a. Swarm Leader[/b]
I have to admit, this was one of my favorite items that we implemented. Ever wonder why whenever news came up about Feathercoin, there were 30 of us commenting? :) Here's the idea of the swarm team:
(1) Anyone that wants to participate, simply leaves their username, email, IM (if available) and availability
(2) The swarm leader makes a google doc with all the participants
(3) When a major action item occurs (example: We need everyone to contact x exchange to add FTC), I would send out the swarm email.
(4) All participants would update the google doc once the task was complete
Here’s my original post on it:
"I’m sending out PMs to our most active members concerning the swarm teams. Essentially, when something major comes up, we’ll have a list of people ready to respond to it immediately.
Example: “JoeMerchant is considering adding Feathercoin. We ask our swarm to write them an email talking about the benefits of Feathercoin”
Little action items that we can coordinate fairly quickly on a moments notice. I’ve talked to Bush about the idea, he was on board. With time being limited, I want to help assist on making the most impact possible. Swarms is what got us noticed, swarms will help us hit another level.
If you receive the PM, please respond back either way. Thank you."
[b]b. Forum/Chatbox Associates[/b]
It's important we not only keep tabs on all the major forums/chatboxes for PPC/XPM misinformation, but also use the opportunity to pass on good news about the coins.
i. Bitcointalk associate
This team spent time in the alt currencies section of Bitcointalk daily. Correcting misinformation about the coin, posting positive news developments and also alerting other forum members when there was a problem. For example, if there was heavy trolling on PPC in a topic, this would be a great opportunity to issue a SWARM (2-A) request to assist.
ii. Altcoin Forums associate
This team handled all the smaller altcoin forums (same idea as the Bitcointalk associate)
iii. BTC-e trollbox associate
This team monitored trollbox. Wantrepenuer and Spekk do a great job keeping the PPC information flowing, it would be nice to see that team increase.
iv. Cryptsy/MCXNow associate
Same as above with the smaller exchanges.
[b]c. Art[/b]
Having an art team on hand is invaluable. Whether it’s a new graphic for a webpage, a flyer to promote the coin or helping another team member spruce up an app, the artists really help round out the positions. Crypto communities often have very talented creative types that would love to contribute but don’t know where to start since they’re not a developer.
[b]d. Video Production[/b]
(Note: I copied #5 to add further clarification to the video production role)
This team is critical to help reaching out to the masses:
Feathercoin created a great human interest piece around the coin:
Would love to see something similar for PPC/XPM
–
What is Feathercoin:
I was the one responsible for coordinating the talent for that video. A few friends and I developed the script and storyboard and then we hired some outside talent (under $100) to do the animation and voice-over.
–
I also created a few myth buster videos (low quality, good info) at:
http://feathercoinmyths.com/
[b] e. Music[/b]
The musicians will often work with the Art and Video production teams. When I was with Feather, I had a few fun jingles created to help spread the word.
f. Organizers
i. Consensus
ii. Projects
g. Developers
i. Web
ii. Wallet
iii. Apps
h. Writers
[b] i. Public Relations
i. Search Engine[/b]
This role would spend time googling 'Bitcoin', 'Bitcoin News', 'Litecoin'. Anywhere that Bitcoin/Litecoin appears, this person also requests PPC/XPM be added as well. If it's a news article on Bitcoin or Litecoin, this role would notify the swarm organizer and the PR department.
[b] ii. PR List[/b]
I already have a massive PR listed created. This role would continue to develop the list as well as send out news items supporting PPC/XPM.
iii. Writer Liaison
iv. Articles/Interviews
v. Myth Busters
[b]j. New Member Advocate[/b]
This person was responsible for welcoming new members to the forum. They let new members know they would be available to direct them to resources if they had any questions. If a forum member didn't log on for x amount of time, the new member advocate would drop them a quick email. If they were logging in and not posting, the new member advocate would ask they could be of any assistance. Fantastic role.
[b]k. Research[/b]
Every morning when I logged into the Feather forum, the research team had a summary of what was happening in the crypto world. This position basically scoured the crypto community looking for nuggets I needed to be aware of that affecting Feathercoin in some way. Here's a few examples:
-
Whenever Feathercoin was talked about in a negative light, I had the links ready for the swarm team
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When Litecoin was updating the client
-
New feature proposals from different coin communities
etc…l. Social Media
i. Twitter
ii. Facebookm. Miner/Exchange Support
n. Contests/Giveaways
o. Tutorials
p. Merchant Services
3. Website
http://www.ppcointalk.org/index.php?topic=553.msg4707#msg4707
4. Wiki
- Nox has already started this project
http://peercoin.net/
5. Video
Feathercoin created a great human interest piece around the coin:
Would love to see something similar for PPC/XPM
–
What is Feathercoin:
I was the one responsible for coordinating the talent for that video. A few friends and I developed the script and storyboard and then we hired some outside talent (under $100) to do the animation and voice-over. If you need those resources, let me know
–
PPC/XPM Video Progress:
http://www.ppcointalk.org/index.php?topic=544.0
6. AMA
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Sunny said he would be interested, however, would need 2-3 other enthusiasts to assist
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The forum recommended we do this after the new wiki and webpage was complete
http://www.ppcointalk.org/index.php?topic=565.0
7. Local PPC/XPM
This a project I was ** NOT ** involved with at Feather, however, it’s something we should seriously consider over here:
http://local.feathercoin.com/