Where are the marketing volunteers?

Submitted ⁨⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨Endmaker@ani.social⁩ to ⁨nostupidquestions@lemmy.world⁩

We are all well-aware of programmers volunteering their time to open source projects. Another common example are lawyers who work on cases pro bono.

Which got me thinking, what about marketeers? I have never heard of marketeers volunteering their time and skill. Could it be that such marketeers work in small organisations that nobody has heard of? Could it be that marketing requires way more resources than building software or legal work, that the barrier to entry of volunteer marketing is set too high.

This question came to me while looking at

inspiration for question; off-topic

this post. This is clearly a marketing problem, and I thought it would be nice if there are some professional marketeers to lead the marketing effort or provide some advice to the community.

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Comments

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Hackworth@piefed.ca ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
As a practitioner of that dark art, I fear you know not what you summon. You don’t really want Lemmy to be popular, not in a way that traditional marketing is going to make it popular.

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- thelivefive@startrek.website ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I wholeheartedly agree with this. But what about nontraditional marketing? Should be some ways to market to the desired audience?
  
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- Steve@communick.news ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  The Fediverse should be as ubiquitous as email.
  Your ISP, company, government, etc. should all host their own social media, just like they do email.
  
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- Endmaker@ani.social ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Why not? Would it enshittify the platform or something?
  
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slazer2au@lemmy.world ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Marketing volunteers is pretty much social media in general.

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- Endmaker@ani.social ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Social media is only one marketing channel, no? How does that tie in to marketeers volunteering their time?
  
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BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I mean, half the people who work for charities are technically doing some sort of Marketing.

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- Endmaker@ani.social ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  That makes sense.
  
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grue@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Could it be that marketing is an inherently pro-capitalism line of work and its practitioners are unlikely to be altruistic enough to volunteer, especially for something like Free Software?

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kubok@fedia.io ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Here's a somewhat cynical take: marketeers do it for the money. Period. Back when I a student myself, I met many types of students. Marketing students could roughly be classified as 'in here for the money' and 'I do not know what to do otherwise'. There was no real sense of activism or any desire to make the world a better place (except for themselves that is).

Throughout my career I met with many marketeers. They were nice to work with, but I never met anybody in marketing who was inclined to use their skills for a good cause.

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homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Have you met marketing people? I mean, they’re nice enough, but it’s not exactly a passionate calling.

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- Endmaker@ani.social ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I know a couple; they are very smart.
  
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  - homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    No doubt. But marketing is by design a corporate exercise. Non-profits would need to be convinced to prioritize and pay for messaging over whatever function they were established to serve.
    
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hypnicjerk@lemmy.world ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
even volunteer marketing costs money, not just time and labor.

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notsosure@sh.itjust.works ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I coach (social) businesses all over the world and help them with marketing as well.

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- Endmaker@ani.social ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Off-topic, but is there any advice you would give to Lemmy and / or Fediverse?
  
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  - notsosure@sh.itjust.works ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    In what sense? What advice do you need?
    
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Today@lemmy.world ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
That’s us. When we write reviews or share things.

Off topic- I never understand why people in commercials are so awkward when they recommend things. I send things to my friends all the time…check out these yoga pants with pockets, Kroger has blackberries on sale, look at Kitty Lulu in the new dog bed, etc. Why is it so hard for fakers to appear genuine?

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- Endmaker@ani.social ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  
  When we write reviews or share things.
  
  My understanding is that marketeers would have thought their company’s acquisition / retention / etc problems through, then decide on the best approach to deal with the problem.
  
  In some cases, marketeers recognised that having reviews bring the most value to their organisations, and would then create means for end users to “write reviews or share things”.
  
  ^This problem-solving is the real marketing work, not us end users spreading the word.
  
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