osdf-devteam team mailing list archive

[BrainKwiz <780488@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

@kage I agree, from a marketing perspective there are basic elements
that need to be addressed, moving forward:

1. There is no point to any material being presenting without a Call to
Action. (e.g. Click here to Donate, Click here to join, etc.) While
having video on the front page is a techinical achievement, even the
mock-up should present, in effect, a TL:DR caption that combines a
talking point and a call to action. (Watch this and learn why you should
donate today.)

2. Who are we? IMHO, the current logo needs Open Source Democracy Foundation, in text, in each use. We aren't IBM. In fact, a simple statement of who we are philosophically, easily digestable, would allow for better adoption by those interested in the concept (e.g. Joining together for fair fast internet, Concerned aware supporters of a free and open internet).
A consistant image and branding statement will go far in giving people a hook. (i.e. Give Blood, Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires, etc)

3. Lifestyle photography, marketing depends on allowing people to
visualize themselves as "better", Pretty people organizing makes people
want to be a part of the action. Something that portrays our cause as
full of good healthy concerned people who are social and part of the in-
crowd. While this may seems manipulative, it is only required because it
work. This should also be a diversity picture, to show that all walks of
life share our concerns. The recent Reddit meetup pic of 70+ Redditors
is the image I'd want to emulate.

4. An Audit of Simlar organization's sites. Talent borrows and genius
steals. Other organizations have struggled with this and we don't need
to recreate the wheel. If you started with the top six aspects of the
other sites and accomplished them, you'd be better than 80% of the other
sites competing for supporters. Blog, Donations, Volunteer Sign Up,
Events, Forum, Downloads (e.g. talking points, pdf signage, etc.) and
Social Links will most likely be in all?

5. FAB selling, Feature Advantage Benefit, basically you need to state
the Feature, Advantage and Benefit in any marketing effort. You can't
assume others will make the connections you do. (i.e. Feature: We lobby
for internet legislation that benefits the average user. Advantage: You
can support us with donations and involvement and get your message to
politicians without physically talking to them or traveling to them.
Benefit: You save time and money while making your political voice
heard.) If you formulate your talking points and content this way, you
will lead each listener towards agreeing to help the cause. The benefit
statement usually breaks down into, saves time, saves money, more
reliable, more versatile, upgradeable. I would be happy to make a first
draft as a google spreadsheet or a forum entry or a bug report.

If you do a good job on the FAB statements, visualization, illustration
and video support will find it's place and seem less cluttered. If these
talking points exist, here or with another organization, point me to
them and I'd be happy to do a few mock ups for ideas.

6. Magnify the headache. What about a simulated, side by side comparison
of the possible degraded download speed that may result from suggested
anti-net neutrality proposals? Political cartoons do this all the time.
Bring it down to where it hurts the majority. (i.e. No one likes longer
lines, at the gas pump, at the grocery store, on their download progress
bars... associate the headache with other headaches.)

Anyway, I'm still lurking, If this would be better posted at the forum,
so be it, but the action seems to be here now :) If you want simple,
make it easy for a person to donate or volunteer from the front page.
Those should be your main objectives, the news/blog stuff is really only
on target if it causes a donation or a volunteer. One may be interested
and following current events, but many will simply not opt for us as a
news outlet, so where is the arguement to give that element front page
focus? One can be sold on the idea of becoming a volunteer or to donate,
without needing to read an arguement on the web page.  Make a page that
I can send someone to that I persuade to participate, and don't confuse
them once they get there. Make it easy to identify our good cause,
donate, participate, follow and comment. Blog/news has much less Return
on Investment, than a real person sending someone to the site to donate
or participate.

Keep fighting the good fight.

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of OSDF Dev
Team, which is subscribed to Open Source Democracy Foundation.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/780488

Title:
  widgets should be moved from front page to blog index

Status in Open Source Democracy Foundation:
  Opinion

Bug description:
  The reddit and contact congress widgets should be moved off the
  homepage as it makes the page very busy. We may need to register a
  blueprint for the creation of the blog index.