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DoESLiverpool / somebody-should

A place to document practices on the wiki and collect issues/suggestions/to-do items for the physical space at DoES Liverpool
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Promoting DoES #930

Open DoESsean opened 5 years ago

DoESsean commented 5 years ago

I've been tasked with getting DoES' name out into the wider world and driving more people through the doors.

I've come up with some ideas below, although they are currently quite basic and will be fleshed out further (possibly being broken out into separate issues as and when necessary).

I'm going to need quite a lot of help, particularly, in the first instance, with design for any promotional materials - posters and flyers especially. We've been quite text heavy in the past, and making them more visual, I think, could be a good way to go this time around.

If anyone has any ideas, comments or observations, please feel free to chime in. This is going to be a big job, but it's probably the most important thing we can do right now. Especially if we want carpets.

Create poster and flyer which can be distributed around town

Investigate possibility of running promotional offers

Organise and run new events

Look into online advertising, whether it is worth the money

How can we improve our visibility?

Create links with other businesses in the city

DoESsean commented 5 years ago

This might sound nuts, so bear with me, but I'm currently looking into Liverpool's biggest Instagram influencers. If it's eyes on what we do we're interested in, then they could be super helpful.

@jackie1050, is it mad to think about inviting some of the design type ones along to see wearables events?

Vaguely sensible people to think about:

Lost Soles Independent Liverpool Beckoration Oh Bella (blog) Unlock Liverpool (blog) The Lilac Scrapbook (blog) Dorkface (blog)

Anyone else you guys know of? Or other influenc-y type things I should be looking at?

MatthewCroughan commented 5 years ago

One suggestion from me:

Livestreaming events often, making it part of our operation. Take every event on the digital events calendar and consider whether it would be possible to live stream it. I don't think DoES has much of an online media presence, outside of text on twitter/facebook/instagram. I think this would be improved by creating frequent content like this.

Consider stumbling upon a live stream or video series via Youtube/Twitch, seeing all the cool things we get up to, and then being told "Oh, by the way, you can come down and do this any time". By convincing people on their native platform, the thing they spend the most time on, that they can simply walk into DoES and do what we do, in a one-on-one live manner (live chat), I think we can build a much more comforting and influential rapport with whoever it is that has a glancing eye on us. It is easy to glance over a facebook/twitter post, but it is not so easy when you have @ajlennon's voice, or whoever happens to be on stream/video telling you to come down to DoES some day to make something.

I'm not convinced that people spend their time on twitter or facebook reading advertisements for a makerspace. But if we can make our presence known on Youtube, something frequent on Twitch, we're likely to have a greater impact. We need something authentic, I think the instagram is a good example of something that comes across as authentic. Frequent videos where people can get to know us, continue watching of their own interest and ultimately come down physically could be pretty powerful.

I myself stumbled upon the Linux User Group after Bryan Lunduke (some linux dude on youtube) suggested I find a local linux user group, only then did I find DoES by talking to Adrian on my first visit. The only thing that made me take my first step in arriving at the front door was by getting comfortable with a youtube creator and taking the advice given by the person I spent 40 minutes a day watching seriously. It takes some deeper influence to get regular people arriving, I would say.

TL;DR Make online video platform presence a priority, more valuable and complimentary to everything else we have. Once it exists, it always exists; who knows who might see it and walk through the door next as a result. Also, we could probably generate some small income stream from this if the content we create is quality enough.

ajlennon commented 5 years ago

From watching my boy doing what he does best (Youtube) I'm pretty sure that in addition to live streaming, having a portfolio of interesting videos on YouTube, Twitch, etc. would do a lot to attract a younger demographic into DoES. Something I recall we discussed as being valuable.

Also I believe that with a way to live stream we can reach out to other Makerspaces and look at showing live streams from DoES elsewhere and live streams elsewhere at DoES. Kind of like the model where you can go to FACT and watch live ballet in London. I believe this would do a lot to market DoES and to foster links between Makerspaces.

DoESsean commented 5 years ago

That's awesome.

I know you guys are already doing a lot towards making this kind of thing possible, so thank you for that.It's a world in which I am totally lost at sea - I don't really 'get' YouTube other than as a place for videos of cats/people getting injured, but absolutely acknowledge that it, and other services like it, are pretty much the future of entertainment. Twitch I have absolutely no idea about at all, other than having a vague idea that it's for streaming computer games, and reading something about another world I don't understand, where people give literally thousands of dollars to women (and I assume me too) who do nothing but sit and talk to a camera all day.

I fully acknowledge that I am sounding older and older with every word I write :D

It does mean that, if we are going to do this kind of thing - and I think it's a great idea although, as @ajlennon has suggested in #938, we need to be very careful about how, what and who we stream - you guys are going to have to spearhead it. If that's something you're happy to do, and we can fall down on a set of guidelines that everyone is happy with, then this should definitely be part of our ecosystem in the future.

ajlennon commented 5 years ago

@DoESsean

I don't really 'get' YouTube other than as a place for videos of cats/people getting injured, but absolutely acknowledge that it, and other services like it, are pretty much the future of entertainment.

I'm exactly the same. I don't get it. I turn to my boy for advice mostly. @MatthewCroughan seems to know all the ins and outs of this too so perhaps he's our in-house expert on how to reach out to a younger demographic?

You reminded me of this:

https://www.ted.com/talks/james_bridle_the_nightmare_videos_of_childrens_youtube_and_what_s_wrong_with_the_internet_today

ajlennon commented 5 years ago

If that's something you're happy to do, and we can fall down on a set of guidelines that everyone is happy with, then this should definitely be part of our ecosystem in the future.

Yeah happy to be at the tip of the spear on this 🎥

JackiePease commented 5 years ago

@DoESSean re. Wearable tech stuff - I'm not sure usual meetings would be the best time really, as people tend to get on on with their own stuff - agreed we've got some interesting things to show people though.

Maybe we can think about running a special session and getting people to make something themselves - @tactile-electronics and I have done workshops with electronic bracelets that could be good for this

cheapjack commented 5 years ago

Maybe specific Bio-Material workshop stuff could be worth streaming so it doubles as a how-to and a form of documentation. That way you can be explicit about what you are streaming and when; I think that's best until we get a big red streaming pause button :)

Having it ready to roll at a hit of a button is awesome though!

All sorts of humans get given literally thousands of dollars for showing things on the internet as we know like we did on our crowdfunder but we also know that the 'get given' bit is a bit harder than it looks ;) I also have to get my kids to explain who these people are of course. I sort of hate doing video but some people clearly don't but I never regret video documenting things I do. Although people have given me literally no money for doing so because literally nobody watches them :)

ajlennon commented 5 years ago

@cheapjack

Totally - for me though I'm looking for lower hanging fruit. My "go to" story is that people pop into DoES randomly and you show them around a bit and Every. Single. Time. they say two things.

My simplistic thinking is if we

ajlennon commented 5 years ago

Also I'm still cogitating how we hit the students. There's got to be a way of motivating them to come along and say hello. They're only just up the road! I've heard from people it is hard to connect with the students but I believe we owe it to ourselves to try to do this. New blood and new ideas are good for starters - it's been great to have @MatthewCroughan in the space and you see his #DoESDiscovery story above is not one any of us would have anticipated...

ajlennon commented 5 years ago

In fact maybe we should have some blog posts or video posts about #DoESDiscovery? Building on the kind of ideas @jackie1050 organised with the #DoESTakeover? @DoESsean is that an interesting idea?

ajlennon commented 5 years ago

Maybe a similar kind of thing to what was done with the video for Epic Magazine, but targetted at students and focussed on interviews with people about how they came across DoES and "which part of the elephant" they love?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h97Nzks-eDc

JackiePease commented 5 years ago

On live streaming -it's great for long distance, but if we're trying to attract real life visitors then we need to make sure people don't just sit at home and watch it there!

I think having a regular time slot where we stream people making fairly easy things might encourage people to come down and have a go e.g. simple circuit, Xmas bauble - maybe we could do time lapse video for Insta too.

This might be a good place for "discovery" interviews too.

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From: Alex Lennon notifications@github.com Sent: Wednesday, October 3, 2018 1:13:26 PM To: DoESLiverpool/somebody-should Cc: Jackie Pease; Mention Subject: Re: [DoESLiverpool/somebody-should] Promoting DoES (#930)

@cheapjackhttps://github.com/cheapjack

Totally - for me though I'm looking for lower hanging fruit. My "go to" story is that people pop into DoES randomly and you show them around a bit and Every. Single. Time. they say two things.

My simplistic thinking is if we

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ajlennon commented 5 years ago

On live streaming -it's great for long distance, but if we're trying to attract real life visitors then we need to make sure people don't just sit at home and watch it there!

Fair comment. For me if I have the option of watching a stream or coming along for cake and beer and chats I would come along. Maybe it's more of a "gateway drug" ? :)

I think having a regular time slot where we stream people making fairly easy things might encourage people to come down and have a go e.g. simple circuit, Xmas bauble - maybe we could do time lapse video for Insta too.

That sounds awesome! We could maybe link it in with #MakersHour on twitter and the #GuildOfMakers which would expose us to a national audience

This might be a good place for "discovery" interviews too.

Cool :)

ajlennon commented 5 years ago

On live streaming -it's great for long distance, but if we're trying to attract real life visitors then we need to make sure people don't just sit at home and watch it there!

Also in some ways "live streaming" is only a part of the solution. The other aspect is that we'll have the videos of the live stream which people who couldn't make the event will be able to watch at their leisure?

johnmckerrell commented 5 years ago

Tangentially related to this stuff, having heard that the "UK's first hot sewing centre" has opened (i.e. hot desk for sewing, something we've certainly had here for a few years) it occurred to me that we should do something focussing on each of the services we offer. I was thinking a blog post but (if one had the time to do it/either) supplementing it with a video would also be great.

On 3 Oct 2018, at 13:36, Alex Lennon notifications@github.com wrote:

On live streaming -it's great for long distance, but if we're trying to attract real life visitors then we need to make sure people don't just sit at home and watch it there!

Also in some ways "live streaming" is only a part of the solution. The other aspect is that we'll have the videos of the live stream which people who couldn't make the event will be able to watch at their leisure?

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ajlennon commented 5 years ago

This rings a bell @johnmckerrell - I think Gary Millar was talking about "hot sewing" the other day at the Sing Along A Ding Dong downstairs. If I remember rightly this is downstairs in the Fabric Hub?

johnmckerrell commented 5 years ago

I feel you're focussing on the wrong part of my message but yes that's the one ;-) I'm just thinking that if we write some blog posts or do videos focussing on the various things we offer people will be less surprised, and less able to claim they're the first at things we've done for years!

On 3 Oct 2018, at 13:52, Alex Lennon notifications@github.com wrote:

This rings a bell @johnmckerrell https://github.com/johnmckerrell - I think Gary Millar was talking about it the other day at the Sing Along A Ding Dong downstairs. If I remember rightly this is downstairs in the Fabric Hub?

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ajlennon commented 5 years ago

DoES is truly a hidden gem

cheapjack commented 5 years ago

Wrt students it's an idea to post flyers up round LJMU, Liverpool uni, hope etc. Unions and social stress

Back in the day when we first bought Gerald in STATIC we put posters up offering services around all the art design engineering etc unis and would get plenty of traffic. I think with each new cohort of students they tend to not know where anything is in the city while lectures tend to forget.

Maybe flypost with stream addresses

Come for the lasers stay for the community...

DoESsean commented 5 years ago

So it looks like streaming events is starting - the LIVLUG meet up was recorded and put on YouTube, so that's a thing. If we can do this with more events, then even better.

We will need to have signs up to say that the event is being recorded though, so people can choose whether or not they are happy to be seen or heard on video. There are a lot of very valid reasons why this isn't possible for everyone.

On top of this, I've put out a call, related to @johnmckerrell' s comment about equipment blogs, for Equipment Experts to film short intro videos to each piece of kit in the space, showing how they are used, the sort of things that can be made with each, and how you go about getting to use them yourself. The thinking is that these would go on YouTube, but we could also do condensed versions that would be suitable for Instagram/Twitter, and cut together a short video which we could use as a presentation thing at events. These would then be accompanied on our site by the blogs that John mentioned.

Personally, I really love the DoES Takeover stuff, and think the discovery videos are a great idea, but we need to figure out how we get those to an audience slightly wider than people that are already following us. We may have to up our hashtag game.

@zarino has agreed to help with designing flyers and posters. I'm aiming for something that will stand out a bit more than our usual black-and-white-logo-with-lots-of-text template, but it is also dependant on us having an idea for what we want, and Zarino having time to put them together. Once we've got them, I'll get a good size order produced, and we can spread them far and wide across the city. I think we lean heavily on the LASERS!!!!! aspect, as that's likely to grab attention.

ajlennon commented 5 years ago

@DoESsean this is something basic I put on the door for the LivLug event

Feedback as to how this need to evolve appreciated, also wrt #938

Also I was wondering if we have a laminator about so we can laminate stuff like this to put up more easily?

image

ajlennon commented 5 years ago

@DoESsean is student jelly run by the same people as jelly? Maybe they'd like to come visit with us too?

DoESsean commented 5 years ago

@MatthewCroughan that looks fine to me. It will probably be worth putting something in any prior advertising so that people know, and I'd also suggest adding something about letting an event organiser know if you don't wish to be filmed.

DoESsean commented 5 years ago

@ajlennon Neil says that student Jelly is kind of run by Sensor City, in that they just decided to do a student event and attached the Jelly name. We could absolutely do the same.

He's also suggested that we see if HiPy might be interested in using DoES. Is that a group we have any type of links with @amcewen? I certainly recognise the name.

ajlennon commented 5 years ago

We could absolutely do the same.

Woo hoo !!! What about if we ask somebody to do some Student Jelly posters to put around?

amcewen commented 5 years ago

This article about branding is good (really!). The diagram in it shows why "do epic shit" works better than "you can rent a desk or a laser-cutter" (and also why, whenever I tell people that the mission is to restore Liverpool to its rightful place at the top of the pecking order, it's with a smile and a wink as we know that puts us up in the twatosphere :-)

ajlennon commented 5 years ago

Not just a desk... An ideation space where muses whisper gently into your ear all day long #BeEpic

Not just a 3D Printer... Turn your design ideas into physical objects that change the world #BeEpic

MatthewCroughan commented 4 years ago

https://youtu.be/MVrDw_IjXAs

image

This video I've made with @ajlennon demonstrates the kind of content I'd like too see made in DoES. In order to do this more effectively we just need a one or two phones (Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite, £200) as they have very good sony imx sensors in them that are capable of decent low light performance. I also used an electronic 3 axis gimbal, one of any kind is sufficient as long as it stabilises the footage properly. Additionally we need a set of lav mics, I offer to do editing for such videos, but also offer to teach people how to do this kind of editing.

For the time being, I have all the kit to do this, (except for the microphones), hence why this video was produced.

DoESsean commented 2 years ago

All of this. All of it.

Is it still going on? I know I occasionally see @ajlennon doing videos around the place, but I'm not sure.

We seem to be doing something right of late, but more right things would be good.

ajlennon commented 2 years ago

Couple of things

I had this thought about a large poster out the front where all the students pass by

https://github.com/DoESLiverpool/somebody-should/issues/1690

Then Danny and co. at the Melodic Bar downstairs are attracting lots of students so we could talk to him about directing them up the back staircase to come visit with us?

And after attending #PintOfScience I was thinking of how we could do outreach with the academic community and perhaps recreate #SciBar