Building Buzz

We launch "projects" in the Ubuntu community all the time and we've gotten pretty good at seeding the proper channels to ensure that the word gets out about anything we do. We're writing these down so other teams can take advantage of our communication network.

Pre-announcing

Sometimes you need to tell people ahead of time so they can prepare their teams to do something.

• Give people on top of the communication chain a heads up.
  • Ubuntu News Team
  • Ubuntu Local Team leaders

Where to Announce

• Blogs
  • Planet Ubuntu
  • Ping people who are syndicated on other planets of interest.
  • Ping related upstreams who can blog about it.
• Mailing Lists

  • ubuntu-locoteams@lists.ubuntu.com if LoCo related.

  • DeveloperCommunication if development-related

• Ubuntu Forums

  • The development release forum, packaging, and community cafe

• Microblogs
  • Identi.ca and twitter.
  • Use groups and hashtags so people can find it and easily retweet.
• Ubuntu News Sites

  • Ubuntu Weekly News

  • The Fridge (ubuntu-news-team@lists.ubuntu.com)

  • The podcasts, Ubuntu Podcast (Nick Ali), and Ubuntu-UK (popey, Tony Whitmore)
• Social Networks

  • Facebook - (We have over 100k followers, need to use this more)

  • Digg

• Normal News sites (If appropriate)

  • LWN (http://lwn.net/Calendar/new/)

  • Ars Technica - Ryan Paul (segphault at arstechnica.com)
• Magazines
  • Ubuntu User, Full Circle

How to Announce

• Prewrite the Blog entry and digg entry. Have the digg entry reference the blog entry. When announcing via the other channels link to both - having the digg link prepared will help get people digging it on the site, which leads to a snowball effect.

Useful Links

• List of press publications from Fedora. (Well maintained)