Help us spread Firefox around the globe!

The new spreadfirefox site has just launched. We hope it will become the collaboration hub for everyone interested in launching and participating in marketing projects for Firefox.

The goal of this post is to start thinking about how we can all work together on international initiatives. We would like to help support and promote your projects. You can use this group to post ideas and share what you’ve been up to with other in the global Mozilla community.

To get started, we put together a simple guide that outlines possible marketing activities for anyone interested in spreading Firefox around the globe. This guide is not intended to be a static document. It will be updated with your feedback and contributions. It should also not be taken as a set of mandatory guidelines for community marketing. Instead, you should pick and choose what makes sense in your region, or come up with your own projects. We hope you will provide us with feedback on what is and isn’t working to make this guide better. Thank you for your help!

1. Research

Researching the local market and publishing your insights is a great way to contribute to the Mozilla marketing effort. It helps everyone understand better what matters to Internet users in that specific market, and what aspects of Firefox and Mozilla should be emphasized for effective communication.

Here are some questions to guide your research:

Internet & Computing:

• Access: what percentage of the population is online, what is the penetration of broadband, where do people access the Internet from (home/work/cybercafés)? Who are the major Internet Service Providers in the area?
• Browsers: what is the market share of the different browsers? If it is significantly different from other regions, do you know why?
• Platforms: what are people using to access the Internet? How prominent is mobile access? For PC users, what operating systems/hardware platforms are they using? (ex: “everyone has the latest cutting edge PC” vs. “people are still using older computers and operating systems” vs. “PCs are a thing of the past, everyone is using mobile devices”)
• Web: what are the most popular sites? What are the top online activities? (ex: reading news, searching, gaming, doing research, hanging out on social networking sites)
• News: how do people get their news? (online, offline: TV, newspapers, radio) How do people find out about technology news? (offline, online: blogs, news aggregators, other) Who are the top influencers in the region for technology choices?
• Open source: do people know what it is? Is there public and governmental support for it? Is there a vibrant community? What projects are popular?

Mozilla & Firefox:

• Localization: is there a localized version of Firefox? If not, check out the l10n page to start one. If there is one: do people like it, are they using it? Do the defaults, such as the RSS feeds or search engines make sense? In general do people prefer the localized version of a piece of software or another one? (ex: the en-US for Firefox)
• Brand: do people know about Mozilla, Firefox, or both? If they know about them, what image do they have of the project and the software?
• User profiles: who uses Firefox vs. other browsers?
• Community: is there an active Mozilla community? What are they doing? (ex: localizers, campus reps, developers) Is the effort coordinated or is the community fragmented?
• Add-ons: are there locally developed and locally relevant add-ons?
• Messaging: what messaging do you think would resonate the most locally (ex: security, customization, open source, other? – see the messaging doc for examples)
• Overall: what are the strengths and weaknesses or Mozilla and Firefox in the region? Why are people using or not using Firefox?

2. Join and localize existing projects:

• Check out the list of current groups on spreadfirefox
• Participate in local events, check out the calendar
• If you are a student, join the campus reps program.
• Reach out to local cybercafes if they are not running Firefox.
• Check out the quick wins section.
• Tell your friends about Firefox.
• Localize the messaging documents for Firefox and Mozilla.
• Translate Mozilla press releases.

3. Spread the Word:

• Spreadfirefox.com: contribute to existing groups or create your own! Community members have already started many country-specific groups as well as projects focusing on specific initiatives, so join the party!
• Become a speaker: give presentations on Mozilla and Firefox. For example, Guillermo Movia and Felipe Lerena did a fantastic job at Cafeconf in Argentina. Ask us for materials or come up with your own!
• Create specific marketing materials for your region: see the materials section of spreadfirefox.com for logos and more.
• Get local testimonials: why are people using Firefox?
• Add-ons: create and promote local extensions and themes. Check out the personas project from Mozilla labs!
• Organize community meet-ups.
• Help people get their hands on Firefox: distribute CDs.
• Hold install fests to help new users get started.
• Put together small tutorial sessions to teach others how to use Firefox, and why their browser choice matters. We are planning to formalize this concept more in the coming months, so we would love to get your help with developing materials and even with finding a good name for the project! Contact Mary if you are interested.
• Share your experience as a Mozilla community member with others.
• Generate buzz: this one is up to you but we’d love to hear about it!

4. Keep the global Mozilla community in the loop:

• Post updates to the International Marketing group: even if you have created your own group, please contribute to the international group as well to help everyone keep track of what’s new with different projects.
• Point out cool projects that you think should be promoted and that more people should participate in.
• Highlight local press and blog coverage.
• Publish results of your research of the local market.
• Post materials you create (designs, flyers, presentations) to spreadfirefox.com to share with others in the community.
• Let everyone know what has and has not been working in your area.

5. Help us help you:

• Tell us how Mozilla can help you.
• Submit events to the Mozilla events director
• Refer specific press requests, for example regarding Mozilla’s strategy and products, to press@mozilla.com.
• Suggest marketing materials that would help you spread Firefox.
• Post questions and suggestions to the International Marketing group on spreadfirefox.com or send a private message to alixf.
• Join us on irc: the marketing community is using #spreadfirefox (see the complete instructions)

6. Other ways to participate: These are not marketing projects, but they are great ways to contribute to Mozilla:

• Localize: if Firefox is not yet available in your language consider getting a group together to start a new localization project.
• Join the Quality Assurance community, participate in test days
• Contribute to the Mozilla code
• Develop add-ons
• Join the support community