Date: Sun, 10 May 1998 20:41:39 -0700 From: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@time.cdrom.com> To: Joey Garcia <bear@pacificnet.net> Cc: Amancio Hasty <hasty@rah.star-gate.com>, Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org>, Jason Nordwick <nordwick@scam.XCF.Berkeley.EDU>, The Classiest Man Alive <ksmm@threespace.com>, advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Linux as a Mozilla total reference platform Message-ID: <8951.894858099@time.cdrom.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sun, 10 May 1998 12:42:27 PDT." <Pine.LNX.3.96.980510122857.215A-100000@mustang>
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> I'd like to volunteer in the marketing thing. I think that we need > "Marketing Groups" headed by a "Core Marketying" person. This is a big I think that anyone seriously contemplating taking on a task like this, and I include Amancio, should simply sit down at this point and try the exercise of writing a single 8.5 x 11 sheet of text which describes what's good about FreeBSD and why your initial target audience (be they professors, businessmen, students, whatever) should give it a look. If you truly set out to do this and don't just blow the challenge off, you will immediately discover 2 important things: 1. Coming up with a full page of _good_ text is harder than it looks. 2. Increasing your skill at doing that effectively is what marketing is really all about. Whether you're giving away CDs at a student fair or making a pitch to some journalist, if you don't have a set of cogent arguments put together or can't express them clearly, you're going to come off looking like a fool and worse, probably do more _damage_ than actual good by making it seem like FreeBSD's advocates are lacking some important clues and are probably not worth dealing with. I've seen a lot of advocacy which goes something like "I use FreeBSD and I think you should be, like, talking about it more and not just that Linux crap" or even says reasonable things but in such bad english that it simply makes me CRINGE. If we're after a more professional image, and I think our already professional image is an advantage which we should leverage fully, then we simply have to do better than that. So, to repeat: If you're serious about getting involved in marketing FreeBSD, start writing. You don't even have to have a target for your initial efforts, just *write* as an exercise if nothing else and start refining the marketing skills which you are going to need very badly indeed the moment you decide to jump seriously into this task. And to those who'll now write back indignantly to say "But I'm a FINE writer, I write all the time! I write in my sleep!", I'll answer you in advance: If you're such a fine writer then, how come I'm not seeing your name at the top of more magazine articles or books? :-) I think most people here have the desire and the drive to market FreeBSD, they just need to start actually practicing the activity until they get it down pat. - Jordan To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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