[Info-vax] Update posted on VSI

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2020-07-06 20:06:11 +0000, IanD said:

> But this doesn't quite tell the same story. LinkedIn for VSI was set up 
> a long time back and YouTube not so.
> 
> Interesting to see that 1.2k people watched the YouTube rollout video 
> on YouTube, far more than anything LinkedIn has served up for VMS 
> announcements.
> Based on this, I'd be sticking with YouTube official VSI channel for 
> now (but I don't have faceidiot data since I am not in the platform)

A very long time ago, I'd suggested VSI record their presentations for 
replay. Their live presentations from back in the era when the US 
wasn't a pandemic pariah, as well as the VSI web-based presentations. 
This an incremental cost over the cost of the presentation itself, and 
for much greater reach with the content.

Some marketing folks might not be fond of recordings posted at Google 
YouTube or elsewhere, because the marketing folks don't get the contact 
info from those. But not everybody can spend an hour at a specific 
time, if they even know about the presentation. And there's no good way 
to pass around a link to a presentation, without a recording.

Among the other suggestions made to VSI were to actually use the VSI 
website, prominently featuring the most important announcements VSI has 
made.  V9.0 presently being the most important announcement VSI has 
ever made, and it's seemingly little better than a footnote on the VSI 
website. Which is both hilarious and sad.  I mean, really, was the 
release of OpenVMS V9.0 that much of an embarrassment, VSI? Yes, V9.0B 
will be the next big, etc., then V9.1 next year, then V9.2. Content and 
collateral and purchasing information all preferably readily available 
on announcement day, too.

And a suggestion to use and upgrade the existing VSI opt-in email lists 
for marketing to the installed base, and to potential new users.  Mail 
gets passed around. What I see locally mailed from VSI is largely about 
web presentation announcements once every month or two, and which is a 
fraction of what VSI has going on. The VSI patch notifications that we 
receive rather more often can be and are valuable marketing content 
too, but those announcements inexplicably don't get posted around the 
'net.

VSI is using Facebook, Twitter, and some other services, but that 
probably best being used as a means to draw users onto VSI terrain; 
onto the VSI website, and into the VSI opt-in mailing lists. Being 
firms built to sell advertising, I'd not expect Facebook or Google or 
Microsoft LinkedIn or similar to be good places to distribute non-paid 
advertising content. But... Until and unless VSI sorts out their own 
email marketing and particularly sorts out the VSI website as something 
other than a static monument to the past, the rest of the discussion 
seems a stretch. (Briefly ponders running an OpenVMS app debugging 
session as a twitch stream.)

Presently, some of VSI's most effective and low-budget marketing is run 
from within the VSI development team, from what any of us out here can 
tell of it. Though that does seem to be slowly (too slowly) changing. 
The VSI website would be the next target, along with increasing the 
opt-in VSI email activities and coverage. This all aimed directly at 
increasing VSI revenues, too. Why you want OpenVMS, why you want to 
upgrade OpenVMS, why you want patches, new VSI features, where to get 
more information, etc. All leading to the purchase of VSI licenses and 
support.





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