Open Source Marketing
Find out how to engage young people to market your cause online using Open Source technology.
Submitted
9/16/2009
By
actnow
Views
947
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0
Updated
12/2/2009
Photographer : Nealdstewart
Young people share, create and publish content on the internet that they feel passionate about, that aligns with their values and content that entertains them. This ability to take the tools of the web to promote and create different types of media to friends and online networks has been advanced by the Creative Commons Project. The creative commons project is used by various sites on the internet, such as Flickr, to provide access to material that users can adapt and use as long as they have given recognition to the original developer.
This combination of sharing and producing content and giving people access to content that was previously was copyrighted has led to the development of Open Source Marketing.
Open source marketing has put young people in the driver’s seat. It means giving them access to your content to co-create and modify your marketing material and it also means giving them permission to distribute what they create to others.
So how can use this phenomenon in your organisation?
When you combine young people who want to collaborate, build on, and share what your brand does with the world it’s time to throw your marketing in their direction and let them run with it.
Here are some tips on how to use Open Source Marketing to bring young people closer to your cause or service so they feel more connected to what you do and what you stand for:
1. Give young people access to edit, publish and build on your marketing material.
2. Setup some parameters around what young people can do with your branded material so they know what can be changed and what can’t. Don’t overdo it with the rules though!!
3. Bring your marketing material to the spaces that young people are in. By knowing what spaces young people are in you can get a good idea about the types of content they are sharing and also the kinds of conversations they are having. Think about how you can be part of that conversation.
4. Make it easy to spread around. Make your marketing material available in a range of formats so different people can adapt it and share it in different ways, such as videos for sharing and online banners for blogs.
5. Open Source does not need to be limited to online only. Open Source has moved into the real world too and you can give young people access to stickers, posters and pamphlets that they can print off and use and adapt to use with friends.
6. Make it fun. Think of ways to make the content and the campaign something that young people want to share, adapt and can actively take part in some way. The best campaigns are innovative, surprising, energetic and engaging.
An open source strategy can be lots of fun but it is also a strategy that can take some time. The first video you put together might not have a lasting effect but over time giving young people access to your marketing material and building trust in their spaces will have positive effects.
You might get some negative feedback from some people but young people who are passionate about what you do will defend your brand and deflect negative material. Also it gives you the opportunity to get feedback from young people and gives you new ideas and new directions to take your brand in.
Doing it the Earth Hour way…
Earth Hour, the WWF campaign, gathered young people together across the world to turn off their lights for one hour to show their support for climate change and used Open Source Marketing to raise awareness about what they were doing and to get young people acting.
WWF put young people in the driving seat and created a website where young people could download, share and adapt their campaign material – which included video ads, flyers, stickers and online banners - to send onto their own networks.
The result was that young people were able to adapt the material to drive the campaign forward. Check it out in the video below!!
