Create an Ubuntu LoCo Team and grow Ubuntu adoption in your local area

Building Buzz

With your team up and running, resources in place, and projects to work on, now is the time to build some buzz and excitement about the group and encourage people to join you.

Thanks to the work you have already done in putting together your website and communications channels, you have plenty of interesting and fun things to point to that can help show off your group. Now is the time to make some noise, my friends.

Fortunately, many options are open to you for spreading the word about your community and what you are working on. First, however, you need to create the messages and content that you will spread. This content divides into two broad areas:

• Physical – If you are a local community (e.g., HVLT), your target audience is based locally, and it makes sense to produce physical content such as fliers and posters that can be put up in coffee houses, university buildings, shops, libraries, and more. These posters and fliers should be bright, eye-catching, and preferably use a noticeable symbol that immediately grabs the eye of a Linux user, such as a big Tux penguin or distribution logo.
• Online – All technical communities can spread a huge amount of buzz online. This kind of content can include banner ads and images, written content (e.g., a few paragraphs about what HVLT does and how to get involved), and web pages on your website that you can point people towards when announcing specific projects and initiatives.

Decide what kind of content is most appropriate for your group and work together as a team to produce it. As each piece of content is completed, make sure it's available to the full group so everyone can use it to spread the word. A great place to do this is to put it on your community's website.

Now it is time to get out there and spread this content. You can build buzz online and offline in a variety of ways. I'll start with some online ideas:

• Social Networking – Twitter, Facebook, Google+ – These are all great places to spread awareness of your team. For example, create a Facebook fan page and ask all of your Facebook friends to become fans. Microblogging sites, such as Twitter, are fantastic places to mention your website's address and the work the group is doing, and many people will retweet your messages to their friends. Another interesting approach with social networking sites is to come up with a fun, witty, or slightly unusual concept and aim for some viral marketing as people spread your message far and wide.
• Blogging – Many of your community members are likely to have blogs and can use them to encourage people to join the group. Ask everyone to write a blog entry to spread the word and ask different people to blog about different things so you get plenty of diversity in the message. If you don't have a blog and would like to get one to write about the group and other things, a variety of providers (e.g., WordPress and Blogger [8]) have free blogging tools. If you are an existing blogger who has been syndicated on a planet (a website that provides a rolling list of blogs about the same subject), you should use your blog as a primary method of building buzz. Planets often have a wide readership and are a great way to spread the word.
• Banners 'n' Buttons – Many people have their own websites and many would be happy to put a button or banner on there linking to your community website. These kinds of images are fairly simple to create in a tool such as GIMP or Inkscape. You may also want to provide a page on your website with a variety of buttons that people can choose from to fit in with their website's design. You should also provide the HTML that they can paste into their site to link back to yours.
• Forums/Mailing Lists – Another great way to spread the word is to mention your community in various forums and mailing lists, but make sure your message is relevant and on topic. If you post to random or irrelevant mailing lists and forums about your group, you will likely be blocked as a spammer, which is not good for anyone.
• Podcast Bumpers – Many Open Source and Linux podcasts are available out there, and you may want to record a 20-second advertisement about your group that you can send to a podcast to see if they can add it to the show.

Although the online world is a breeding ground for technical community members, there are also some great offline ways to build buzz:

• Posters/Fliers – As I mentioned earlier, posters and fliers are a great way to spread the word, particularly for a locally oriented group such as a LUG.
• Magazines – Magazines such as Linux Format , Ubuntu User , or Linux Magazine may be interested in publishing news about your group. Send magazines some short, snappy text about the group and include a high-resolution photo of the team. You never know, it might just get published!
• Local Radio – If your group is doing great work and is of general interest (e.g., an advocacy group), why not call your local radio station and see if they will mention your group or maybe even do an interview?

Not all of these approaches will generate new members, and not all will be successful, but the more places you try to raise awareness of the team, the greater the potential for people joining you.

Wrapping Up

In this article, I explored many elements of how to get a productive and fun community group up and running, but I have merely scratched the surface. Communities are large and complex beasts involving many different skills, and I have just covered some of the core elements here.

If you want to learn more, I wrote a book about how to build a community called The Art of Community published by O'Reilly. It is available in all good bookshops and also as a free PDF online [9]. I recommend you take a look.

Good luck with your community adventures and remember to let us know how you get on! l