Training modules/dashboard/slides/12208-public-communications

Public communications

A poster for a 2017 editathon in Mexico, which can be used for both online and offline advertising of the event.

Public communications can vary greatly by audience and goals of the program. Consider using the following:

• Creating a public and off-wiki signup page using a Facebook Event, Meetup.org event, or similar event registration site. These pages help with the following:
  • New contributors to Wikimedia projects may have difficulty registering their interest on-wiki. Moreover, communicating with new contributors might be challenging if the only contact information you have is a Wikipedia User name (not all new contributors see messages on their talk pages).
  • If there is a limit on the number of participants you can support at the event (whether because of venue size or number of experienced participants), you can become aware of too much interest during the sign up process and plan accordingly. Note that on public event pages, it is often observed that significantly more people will sign up than actually attend.
• Doing announcement in venues appropriate to your audience:
  • Email outreach, such as newsletters of partner institution volunteers or patrons
  • Social media outreach, including targeted outreach on major platforms (Facebook, Twitter, etc) to influencers for your audience
  • Targeted flyers in the correct venues for your audience (see examples, in the Wikimedia Edit-a-thon Poster category on Commons).
• Asking institutional partners to personally invite people who they think will be interested in the program. Many members of the public don’t understand what editing Wikimedia projects means: trusted staff at institutions can often encourage folks to participate, that might not take part in an edit-a-thon otherwise.