this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2026

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Where are the marketing volunteers? (ani.social)

submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) by Endmaker@ani.social to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.world

32 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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, such that the barrier of entry to volunteer marketing work is set too high for individuals?

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.

all 37 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] kubok@fedia.io 4 points 16 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.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 8 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

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?

[–] Hackworth@piefed.ca 25 points 1 day ago (4 children)

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.

[–] thelivefive@startrek.website 3 points 17 hours ago

I wholeheartedly agree with this. But what about nontraditional marketing? Should be some ways to market to the desired audience?

[–] Steve@communick.news 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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.

[–] hitmyspot@aussie.zone 9 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

I don’t know anyone that uses isp based email that isn’t over 60. Tying your on,ine identity to a service provider that is location based makes no sense.

[–] swelter_spark@reddthat.com 2 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

I do, and then use redirects for everything, so I receive mail at that address but never give it out. I use my ISP to get online anyway, so they're already tied to me.

[–] hitmyspot@aussie.zone 2 points 17 hours ago

If your redirects are all through a central point, then that works, but if it's done manually, that is a pain to change. So, if your provider changes or you move, it's a pain. I've moved recently, but loved at my last house for 14 years. I still changed providers multiple times, from dsl to fibre-to-node, to fibre to home.

If my email had to change each time I might not have been so nimble. Unfortunately it's a Gmail address and I am in the process of degoogling, so online mail has pros as well as cons!

[–] Steve@communick.news 3 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (1 children)

All true. But...
Don't make your online accounts your identity.
They aren't you. They aren't real.

[–] hitmyspot@aussie.zone 2 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Neither is your social security number nor your passport or dericing licence. Your email serves the same purpose online. Losing/changing it is extremely annoying as it's tied to so many other services.

[–] Steve@communick.news 1 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

You're missing my point.
Not sure if it's intentional or not.

[–] hitmyspot@aussie.zone 1 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

If your point is more than everything online is virtual anyway, then you're missing the point.

Your email being tied to your online identity doesn't mean it's part of your sense of self or personality. It means it's ties to multiple online services that identify you partly by using it. If you change or lose your email, you lose those log-ins or, at least, it's a pain to change them all.

Many places now use a phone number as an identifier instead of an email or as an alternative. Again, because it's unique to you and unlikely to change. However, that makes you easier to track and susceptible to losing it being a loss of things beyond your phone number. This may include access to things like bank accounts or personal photos or friends contact details.

[–] Steve@communick.news 1 points 6 hours ago

I wasn't confused

[–] Endmaker@ani.social 6 points 1 day ago

Why not? Would it enshittify the platform or something?

[–] slazer2au@lemmy.world 22 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Marketing volunteers is pretty much social media in general.

[–] Endmaker@ani.social 3 points 1 day ago

Social media is only one marketing channel, no? How does that tie in to marketeers volunteering their time?

[–] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 17 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I mean, half the people who work for charities are technically doing some sort of Marketing.

[–] Endmaker@ani.social 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

That makes sense, but I guess most of them are doing grunt work?

[–] hypnicjerk@lemmy.world 6 points 23 hours ago

even volunteer marketing costs money, not just time and labor.

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Have you met marketing people? I mean, they’re nice enough, but it’s not exactly a passionate calling.

[–] Endmaker@ani.social 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I know a couple; they are very smart.

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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.

[–] adespoton@lemmy.ca 6 points 23 hours ago

All the non-profits I know have a marketing person or department. Some outsource.

Donating to this would be very beneficial for all involved.

[–] notsosure@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I coach (social) businesses all over the world and help them with marketing as well.

[–] Endmaker@ani.social 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Off-topic, but is there any advice you would give to Lemmy and / or Fediverse?

[–] notsosure@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

In what sense? What coaching do you seek; marketing, how to get more users or what ?

[–] Endmaker@ani.social 1 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (2 children)

~~What is the best way for Lemmy to get more users in its current state? What needs to change?~~

What is the main reason that Lemmy is not gaining users?

[–] notsosure@sh.itjust.works 6 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

The easy answer: create a community “how to get to 1,000,000 Lemmy users” and let the swarm come up with and implement ideas. In real life, this means that the mission and vision of Lemmy must be defined, based on that a positioning and messaging document must be prepared, which also describes the user profile(s). You would need to define the Unique Selling Point USP of Lemmy, and an elevator pitch. All these assets build on each other. Then you could start to create campaigns targeted at non-users, eg on other platforms, mastodon, X(!), Reddit (!), etc… draw them in with the assets and statements described above. I have done this with dozens of companies. All quite exciting, imagine a couple of tweets on X “looking for more freedom? Join Lemmy today!” Works well, takes effort, doesn’t need to cost €€€.

[–] Endmaker@ani.social 2 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

mission and vision of Lemmy must be defined

Do you think each niche Lemmy instances should have their own mission and vision, and market themselves accordingly? I'd imagine lemmy.world can represent Lemmy as whole, but something like ani.social speaks more to weebs IMO.

[–] notsosure@sh.itjust.works 3 points 23 hours ago

I would first try an overarching mission and vision, it gets too complex very quickly.

[–] Today@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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?

[–] Endmaker@ani.social 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

When we write reviews or share things.

My understanding is that marketeers would have thought through their company's acquisition / retention / etc problems, then decide on the best approach to deal with said problems.

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.