Twitter Matters

I conducted a poll at the last meeting of the New Tech Meet Up of Central Pennsylvania. I asked: “Does Twitter mattter?” The majority (58%) said yes. This poll was conducted as part of a presentation and discussion at the last New Tech Meet Up at the MapQuest offices in Lancaster, PA on September 14.

How did Firefox Get 22% Browser Share?!

Firefox has 22.51% of the browser market last time I checked. And they built that share competing with Microsoft, Apple and Google. And not only that but they did it through grassroots marketing, not big budgets. So what gives? Garrick Schmitt covers this in Ad Age and offers some insights from his interview with Paul Kim, VP-Marketing at Mozilla.

It appears to me that Mozilla has been brilliant at turning Firefox into a cause that people want to get behind, talk about and promote. And that, as a cause, there’s a strong viral element that has resulted in awareness and adoption far beyond what many brands achieve even through heavy promotion spending. So how did they do this?

Schmitt says, “At the core of Firefox’s efforts is www.SpreadFirefox.com, a digital hub for the Firefox community and all of its related marketing activities. Next there’s http://labs.mozilla.com/ where users can “preview, play with and provide feedback on new features.” There’s also a store where users can buy and even make t-shirts http://communitystore.mozilla.org/ And there’s a program of Campus Reps, wa y of promoting to college students http://www.spreadfirefox.com/campusreps

To quote Guiness, “Brilliant!” The question that intrigues me is how for-profit brands can achieve a similar type of adoption. Can a brand become a cause? Please weigh in.