Status and microblogging SOP

This page is a draft only
It is still under construction and content may change. Do not rely on the information on this page.

Overview

Fedora maintains a primary Twitter account and a primary Identi.ca account for disseminating information to non-contributing users, potential users, and potential contributors with a goal to expand the community and keep said community informed. These Fedora microblogging accounts are not intended as a communications medium for contributors in the project.

Why should we use microblogging?

Effective at reaching large audiences
Empowers Fedora to give brief, consistent and simultaneous updates to followers with links to more detailed information
Allows Fedora to reach an untapped, and perhaps even less-technically interested group of users and potential users

Target audience

While this is not necessarily the target audience for the distribution, it is important to fit our messages to our perceived audience for the medium of microblogging. Thus for Twitter, as an example, we make the following assumptions:

audience member may or may not be a Fedora user
audience member is within User base
audience member is interested in learning more about Fedora and what is happening.
audience member is NOT a Fedora contributor that receives contributor-relevant information through other mediums

These assumptions may or may not be the same for other microblogging sites.

Other audience information
It might be appropriate to list audience assumptions here for other microblogging sites. Notices are intended to be shared throughout the primary feeds on multiple services, so the assumptions should probably be summed to the greatest audience as opposed to a more restrictive one. --pfrields 19:01, 28 June 2010 (UTC)

Messages

It is important that the messaging from a Fedora microblog account be consistent with both the principles of the Fedora Project, the standards of good community participation within the F/LOSS community, and the message from the Fedora Marketing project. When possible, it is good practice to have a call to action in any post not addressed to an individual user.

Forbidden Items

The following items shall generally be forbidden topics for the Fedora microblog accounts:

propietary software (regardless of reference)
individuals outside of the Fedora community (i.e. Bill Gates and Richard Stallman should not be a part of our message)
other distributions
- The exception to this is if the distribution is a downstream distribution (i.e. talking about the benefits accrued from OLPC using Fedora might be appropriate)
anything denigrating another free software project

Suggested Items

While not an exhaustive list, the following examples show the type of information that should be sent from a Fedora microblog account:

Favorable news articles or publications about Fedora
Releases of Beta and GA of Fedora.
Features and details about features contained within upcoming releases of Fedora
Announcements of upcoming Fedora events such as FUDCons and FADs.
News items that hit the fedora-announce list.
Test day information
Re-posts from users who say something successful or positive regarding Fedora.
Replies to users with questions that can be reasonably answered within the character limit.
Information on how users can promote Fedora (i.e. Countdown banner )

Case studies of microblog success

NAKEDPizza The company, started in New Orleans, is attempting to make healthy pizza in an effort to battle obesity in the United States. When they were getting started in 2006, they decided that sending out the typical newsletters that other franchises send would be too costly, almost $3000 a year. They decided to use Twitter as a free alternative to the print advertising, Twitter has since become one of the biggest parts of the business, and is even used in their store allowing customers to sign up and begin following the company when they pick up pizza.

Etsy This online market place where users can sell handmade goods as grown immensely since its birth in 2005. They set up a Twitter account early in their existence however, it was underutilized. That all changed when the company began to watch what their followers were saying on their Twitter accounts, and how they were promoting the use of Etsy. The people at Etsy believed, "Our community always comes up with great ideas." This got their community more involved with the company, and thus led directly to their expansion.

Applications of the Case Studies

Like NAKEDPizza, Fedora is trying to provide change in a market already dominated by larger companies with different ideals. Using Twitter would allow Fedora to save money in marketing, while still getting their name out there and gaining more followers to the Fedora community. Etsy also directly applies to how Twitter can help Fedora. The Fedora community is always involved in the technical side of things but, what if there was a different type of follower on that could help with the less technical applications of Fedora. That is what Twitter can bring to Fedora. Like the Etsy community, the Fedora community can come up with great ideas that can help improve and advertise world wide.

Ways to Use Microblogs

Get Feedback: Microblogs can be used to find alternative ideas for the project, our website assets, advertising, and products in general from from our followers. This connects Fedora more with our followers and can also help us work more effectively. Followers are able to respond back to posts with questions, requests for clarification or constructive criticism.

Direct Traffic: Microblogs can also be used to direct people to the Fedora Project website. A Fedora follower on a microblog/status service who is unfamiliar with Fedora can be pointed to the website to find more information.

News: Fedora can link news stories that are interesting to the Project and to Fedora followers on a microblog/status service. This can raise awareness to how popular Fedora is becoming, and how it is being talked about in the public eye.

Events: Finally, microblogs can be used to update followers on special events in the Fedora community. New product launch? Post about it so people can get excited. Any special day or moment for the Fedora Project can instantly be shared with all of the people interested, and make the event even bigger, and more special. Getting people excited about special Fedora events can increase popularity of the product, because the follower will feel involved.

Content

This section defines through example the type of content that is expected on our microblogging feeds.

Short URLs
Use a FOSS service for shortening URLs. http://ur1.ca is one such service, operated by StatusNet, makers of identi.ca. TightURL is another such service.

General news and events: #Fedora 41 is out! Get it at URL; #FUDCon is coming this weekend -- check out the schedule at URL; #Fedora is adding FooBlah feature in the next release.; Interview with #Fedora developer J. Q. Public, creator of FooBlah: URL

Interesting stories: Software patents in the USA have been invalidated! #SCOTUS decision at URL; #NYTimes reports #Fedora is the world's best and most stable #Linux distribution: URL; add other examples...

Reply to community members: @_______ Thanks, we're glad you love #Fedora too!; @_______ You can find some helpful information here: URL; Do not feed trolls or encourage argument; one reply per customer please.

Access

Currently the Fedora project uses HootSuite to manage shared access its Twitter account, and OpenID is planned to manage shared access to the Identi.ca account. Both Twitter and Hootsuite are non-free software. Options are being evaluated to find a free alternative. No currently available solution exists that will effectively manage shared access to Twitter and Identi.ca at a single point.

Individuals with current HootSuite access to @fedora

Priority
This is really the most relevant list, because through this shared account our other official feeds (Identi.ca, Twitter) are updated.

Individuals with current HootSuite access to Twitter @fedora_linux

Individuals with current twitterfeed access to Twitter @planetfedora

Susmit (owner)
María Leandro

Individuals with current credentials to Twitter @planetfedora

Individuals with current access to Identi.ca @fedora

This access is through a Ping.fm account hooked to identi.ca.

How to gain access to post to Fedora's microblog accounts

Request access on the marketing list. A user with access should invite you. These feeds are not unrestricted access, and not all requests will be automatically granted.

Access Control

To be added

Feedback

Direct notices or other feedback from these services needs to go to a group of responsible people. We've set up a FAS group, fedora-socialmedia, which can be used to set up receipt of these messages. (Mail goes to "fedora-socialmedia-members@fp.o".)

Members of this group should be active members of the Marketing group.

Mechanics

New status

Add the actual physical procedure here for sending a status update

Recycling

Add the actual physical procedure here for recycling (RD/RT) a status update

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