Marketing & Communications support at W3C

Coralie Mercier, Head of W3C Marketing & Communications

February 2023 update

W3C MarComm support

Coralie Mercier, Head of W3C Marketing & Communications

February 2023 update

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© John Carey

Table of contents

Some links in this presentation may not available to the public.

Meet the W3C MarComm Team

W3C MarComm Team

The team counts 2.75 FTE across 5 individuals (as of November 2021):

Members of the comm team and bio See the W3C Marketing & Communications team directory

The role of W3C MarComm

Objectives

  1. Communicate positively who we are and what we do for the Web overall.
  2. Build W3C's influence & improve W3C's reputation
  3. Support W3C Business Development recruiting efforts
  4. Support W3C Working/Interest Groups operations
    (i.e., Communications execution of the Process Document)
  5. Support W3C Members

Meta messaging: virtuous circle

W3C Audiences

In order to achieve its objectives, W3C needs to reach out and tell our great story to the following stake-holders:

W3C's unique strengths

Unique strengths:

Unique strengths [cont.]

W3C MarComm Means

Traditional Communications means

Infrequent Communications Means

Other means we use less frequently or have not yet experimented with:

Traditional Marketing Means

  • Slide decks
  • Flyers
  • Road-maps/Dashboards
  • Banners/Posters
  • Graphics
  • Advertising (Twitter Ads)
  • Goodies
  • Stickers
  • End of year holiday card

Infrequent Marketing means

Other means we use less frequently or have not yet experimented with:

Landing pages

W3C MarComm made it a priority to make incremental improvements to the W3C Website.

Events Support

W3C at external events

Busdev and MarComm sometimes establish Media Sponsoring with external events. We very rarely pay sponsorship money. Our criteria are:

Do not commit MarComm activities without discussing with MarComm first.

Partnership: W3C typically offers

(*) This should be rare and should not be offered lightly.

Partnership: W3C typically gets

W3C Members support

Press Releases

W3C members are encouraged to issue press releases about their use of W3C standards in products or services.

We ask that your comm teams send draft press releases about W3C work to w3t-pr@w3.org so that we may correct any factual errors, and coordinate.

To preserve vendor neutrality W3C staff do not supply quotes in Member press releases.

W3C staff may not endorse an organization’s specific products/services.

Media Relations

Press and analyst interviews: we encourage W3C Members to mention relevant W3C activities in their interviews with media and analysts.

With sufficient notice, W3C experts may also be available to be interviewed.

Social Media

To further promotion, W3C is active on social media:

We encourage W3C Members to use those and tag us in social media posts. With sufficient notice, social media romotion can be coordinated.

W3C Member Testimonials

The W3C Homepage testimonial program gives our Members the ability to advertise their support of W3C and its ongoing work. It also gives outsiders a view into the broad range of organizations which have chosen to take a leadership role in the development of Web Standards.

Speaking Engagements

W3C Member representatives often give talks and presentations about their activity at industry events and conferences. This is a great way to tell the world about your support for standards, and we encourage your organization to submit talks that appear in the W3C talks database as well as on the W3C website.

A presentations template is available: .potx format, .pptx format, .pdf format

Sponsorships

W3C has a comprehensive sponsorship program so that organizations that benefit greatly from the Web can help support W3C operations and programs.

Advisory Committee Meeting (1/2)

Advisory Committee Meetings are Members-only meetings that focus on strategic issues and future directions. They happen twice a year.

W3C Buddy program:
The "W3C Buddy" program allows new Advisory Committee Representatives (AC Rep) to be paired with a W3C Team member before and during the first W3C Advisory Committee Meeting the the AC Rep attends. The W3C buddy helps you connect with others and answers any questions you have.

Advisory Committee Meeting (2/2)

Advisory Committee Meetings are Members-only meetings that focus on strategic issues and future directions. They happen twice a year.

Introduction to W3C:
In advance of to the Spring Advisory Committee Meeting, the W3C Team convenes an optional meeting with the new Advisory Committee Representatives to introduce W3C, the teams and the work.

Ongoing work and TODO are available in our wiki (team-only)

Thank you!

Contact us:
w3t-comm@w3.org (for W3C Team)
w3t-pr@w3.org (for everyone else)

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© John Carey