Bitcoin Forum

I was just watching Jeff Garzik's presentation at the Bitconf (really? Bitcon? was someone asleep?), and he mentioned the need for a PR effort to bring a higher level of bitcoin education to the general public.

As I happen to agree, and have a background in communication and journalism, it resonates with me.

So I thought we might start a discussion as to what this Bitcoin PR would look and feel like. Here are some ideas:

- A clearing house for expertise on the different aspects of bitcoin, that puts out regular press releases to media outlets, then guides the incoming queries through the appropriate channels.

- A repository of all previous coverage of bitcoin in the media.

- A proactive effort to contact levels of government, banking, trading, law enforcement, etc... towards showing that bitcoin, while truly revolutionary as a concept, isn't necessarily "dangerous" and can in fact be complementary to already existing policies, systems and paradigms.

- Perhaps some inroads into academia, to see if some bright students want to make bitcoin the object of their dissertation, or to channel the knowledgable people to give talks at universities and colleges.

Any other ideas? A name would be great... too bad Bitcoin Consultancy is already taken.

Or, this PR effort could be rolled into an existing entity, like Bitcoin Consultancy.

The key is that it has to be done professionally. So far, most attempts at bringing bitcoin to the public at large have had a certain whiff of amateurishness to them. We need to raise the bar a tad.

Cheers,

As you say professionaly ..... it will show up some financial problems ... theres no central Organisation interessted in Bitcoins future that could spend anything. Lobbying and PR usually costs money (or Bitcoin). Therefore an Organisation is needed to coordinate this. And this Organisation will depend on donations.

My first Step, if i were a guy with background in PR lile you, where to find some other guys with PR Knowledge and Expierience. Found an Organisation, a Website and get Donations. Then making tactical discussions on the net.

I like this Idea and i think interested Companies that are in Bitcoin allready would do some donations. But IMHO at first you need a Concept for this PR-Group itself. Maybe it will be something like a Companies driven Interest Group (B.I.C. Bitcoin Interrest Group!). Once you have Money, you have what you need to start tactical Campaigns.


I would welcome such a Group, but someone have to take this serious and on a professional manner like you said.

great minds think alike http://bitnavigator.info/?p=149

we got some plans in motion for the city of new york, stay tuned ;)

A couple guys and I are hard at work making a site for press releases and academic dissertations... It should be done within the week... PM me if you want to help out! :)

4 posts with 53 spelling errors. Yes, I counted them, but I'm no grammarian, let alone a Grammar Nazi.  http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6060107/grammar-nazis

I opted not to site any of the posts, but would like to bring one error to attention. I think this PR campaign should start with always capitalizing Bitcoin when used as a proper noun.

But that's not what I came here to post about, although it was heavy on my mind upon reading the four posts.

PR is very important in bettering Bitcoin's position. I applaud your efforts.

Now an important note: Although bitcoinconsultancy.com is already taken, bitcoinconsultancy.org is available, and would clearly be the domain of choice for your endeavor. I hope that this relative information helps with the much needed PR effort.

Two more: BitcoinRelations (.com or .org) & BitcoinSphere (.com or .org)


http://aigany.org/events/fall09/images/9BC10-lg.jpg


Bitcoin: An Idea Worth Spending

53 spelling errors? On my posts? Here, I must protest!

I agree fully with capitalising Bitcoin, I often don't out of sheer laziness, but will make more of an effort from now on.

Bitcoinworld.com/org and Bitcoininfo.org are not taken either.

Really? 53 spelling errors? Would you care to place a little wager on that?

Achtung!

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Dollar is not capitalised in normal use. Maybe it should be capitalised when used as a subject, but not as a currency unit. As in, "I just paid 1.7 bitcoins (or BTC) for a book about Bitcoin."

Great timing!

"The key is that it has to be done professionally. So far, most attempts at bringing bitcoin to the public at large have had a certain whiff of amateurishness to them. We need to raise the bar a tad." yes, Yes and YES!!

Bitcoin AU 2011 emerged from the IRC chanels and onto https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=38867.0 last night

Any and all help to publicise this event would be appreciated.

(Hoping AU PR type ppl are attracted by this thread title ) :)

You are absolutely correct! With that said, is this correct?



Bitcoin: An Idea Worth Spending

Here, here...  thumbs up...   +1   

and whatever phrase I can think of to show that I support this effort. 

 :)

Please forgive, Piper67. I pulled the 53 number out of my ass. I was not in reference to just your post, but to the first four, of which your post is included.

Your suggestion of PR is on point. It just hit me the wrong way, THEN, to see quite a few common spelling errors, especially on the subject of having a PR campaign. After reading the first four posts, but before commenting, this is how I visualized the PR site's homepage  would read:

Hello, all. My name is Bob, and I build this site to introduced you too bitcoin PR.

Basically, that's what I saw in my mind's eye, hence my post. It just irked me the wrong way.

With that said, let's get this damn PR thingy (like that word?) on track. I noticed Weaver and friends has something in the works. I look forward to seeing what he has, soon.

Once again, Piper67, please accept my apology. One more thing, when I made my dumb comment, I didn't look to see who started the thread or, if I did, I didn't retain that information when I posted. I guess I was to much into the PR state of mind. In fact, if I would of taken a second to see who started this thread, I would not have posted my remark. I hope that says something without me outright saying it.


(I apologize to my fans for not supplying an image to this post)



Bitcoin: An Idea Worth Spending

No apology necessary. In fact, I was chuckling the whole way with the 53 spelling errors.

The more I look at this, though, the morenit makes sense to start some form of PR for Bitcoin. In don't know the first thing about web design (I imagine a cool website would be a first step towards getting a PR campaign started).

I'll send a message to Weaver and see what those guys are up to, but it can't be stressed enough that this has to ooze professionalism.

Cheers,

We need a TED talk.

It would be amazing PR directed at the perfect demographic. Best of all: it would be free.

Anyone have any idea how to make this happen?

Phinnaeus Gage

WE NEED YOU :) !

We need a grammar freak just like you to perfect our press releases and make them Gosu. I am willing to give up my time for free to write these press releases, as long as Phinnaeus Gage
proof reads and edits them, and piper distributes them through his wired pr network.

Lets get to work gentlemen.

A TED talk would be fantastic... a TED talk by Bruce would be a nightmare.

No offence, Bruce, I love you and what you're trying to do for Bitcoin, but we need less of an evangelist and more of a charmer. Actually, I'm thinking Rick Falvinge would be ideal for TED.

Agreed! I thought he did a great job in this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBN9p1qemMA) interview.

I plan on doing social experiments on my up and comming amazon clone for bitcoins only website. I hope to teach customers how bitcoins work while they shop, they will learn by doing which I find is best to learn things that are complex. Any ideas on social experiments I can put to the test?

Good Work

Your comment flattered me, FlipPro, but the truth of the matter is I ain't no wordsmith. Like most here on this board, it only takes a second for an idea to pop into my head upon reading what someone else wrote, most of the time sparked by some keyword or key phrase. It takes me about a minute or two to pen a quick posts to share my thoughts with this community. But, it takes me no less than five minutes to edit what I wrote prior to posting. Upon posting, I then double check my spelling and grammar, still finding errors to correct. It's not that I want to come across as some brainiac (uncovered that word a few weeks ago via a Google search), but because I learned a couple decades ago from a fat man who smokes a cigar and drinks Snapple--Words Mean Things. That phrase always stuck with me upon hearing it the very first time. I now wish I paid more attention in school when it came to the English language. I had no problems in math, though. In fact, to this day I believe I have a simpler proof (not quite a proof yet, otherwise it would have been published) for Fermat's Last Theorem, if anyone is interested (no BS).

With that said (still hate dislike that phrase), I would love to proofread anything you, or anybody else, writes, to weed out the simple spelling and grammar errors, but by no means should my editing be the final edit. I also love doing research...AND IMAGES (lol).


http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1053/1409351331_ade37ae95a.jpg


Bitcoin: An Idea Worth Spending

Yooter InterActive can help SEO anything you guys come up with.....   we're bitcoin friendly.

You'll do the SEO... who can do a good website?

Someone please wipe this black makeup off my face?

Love her if she's blowing, hate her if she's sucking?

I agree that more positive PR needs to be done with bitcoin. I think although the bitcoin community is very strong, as of now it seems like most people that are involved are either techies or financial professionals. What we need is a stronger PR and marketing presence.

I'm currently working on a user friendly bitcoin merchant directory at btcmerchants.com which will (hopefully) promote businesses accepting bitcoin as a form of payment and I'd like to offer up any help needed in this PR campaign.

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/8256/btcpr.jpg
                                 Heigh-Ho, Everybody!

Think Rudy Vallée.


Bitcoin: An Idea Worth Spending

PM sent

Check your inbox someotherguy.

This one's essential to legitimising Bitcoin but it's also a bit tricky at the moment with so many Bitcoin associated services operating in legal grey areas.

Perhaps the issue of Bitcoin services - and especially the exchanges - moving towards compliance with local regulations could be put on the agenda for the Melbourne conference.    I think that at least 3 exchanges will be represented at that conference, so it would be a good opportunity to get an idea of whether they're willing to take the kind of steps which government, banking, law enforcement would view in a positive light or whether they wish to continue operating in grey areas which are likely to attract negative attention from those entities.

and libertarians.

Ask five different Bitcoiners why they are interested in the currency and you might get five different answers.  That's good having more than one core selling point but that's also bad because that means it gets harder to come up with a single message to deliver.

There are things that nearly all have in common -- a distaste for banks.  Using Bitcoin to marginalize banks to where they become an insignificant part of our lives is something we would all love to see happen.  I wouldn't know where to even start in trying to communicate that message though.

This is a relevant thread: http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=12842.0

Rick Falvinge has some great posts exploring the "why"s of Bitcoin.  His series starts here: http://falkvinge.net/2011/06/16/bitcoins-four-drivers-part-one-unlawful-trade 

Getting Bitcoin used as a payment method can happen after grass roots interest from consumers, but more likely it will get traction when merchants, game developers and ecommerce organizations start to see how bitcoin brings benefits over alternatives (no chargebacks, significantly lower transaction fees and nearly instantaneous "settlement").

Perhaps directing some more attention toward identifying the merchants that should be using bitcoin and convincing them to consider it is the most beneficial (to bitcoin) first step for this PR initiative?

Yep! Watch it again, everybody: http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html


Bitcoin: An Idea Worth Spending

I beg to differ on Rick Falvinge being ideal for a TED talk. He's brilliant on the facts but his delivery leaves a lot to be desired. The best TED talks tend to be insightful, informative and inspirational. Rick inspires me to want to go to sleep... and I'm a bitcoin enthusiast.

His image is a little sloppy too. If he's going to wear a business suit and tie, then he could stand to look a bit sharper; otherwise, he could try going for the sartorial style of Steve Jobs or Peter Thiel - different (in the normally staid business/commercial field) but not threatening - both men who know how to present new, innovative ideas, and ideas that went on to break new frontiers no less.

So, while Falvinge is a great resource, for a successful TED talk you need someone with a balance of oratory and presentation skills combined with knowledge. Sadly, Falvinge aint it.

Good thread. I think that each country needs to get initiatives like this going. Bitcoin enthusiasts in Germany/Sweden/Whatever have to get together to contact the German/Swedish/Whatever government. The media in each country should have somewhere to turn to for expertise etc.

Personally I'll try to get some sort of community/forum going on www.bitcoin.se soon. Hopefully some of the people visiting will be interested in PR work.

While I can understand where you're coming from, some of the interviews lately have been a bit monotonic, Rick actually does great presentations. He did one at Reboot11 about the Pirate Party that was very well received.

http://video.reboot.dk/video/510337/pirates-go-to-parliament-by (from 2009)

(Reboot is an unconference happening more than a carefully planned TED conference which shows though)

Great that you started this thread. Let's work together. I will sent back some feedback and ideas soon.

I'll post again in this thread when the resources site is up. We will be giving away all our content for free.

BTW what is the BTC best case scenerio? I think this needs to be worked out. Having just another form of currency doesn't do it for most people. It's simply reinventing the wheel.

Also decentralization is too abstract for most sheeple.

I think the best selling point is the fact the BTC is the electronic equivalent of cash. How that is great in a practical way needs to be built upon.

Always keep in mind Simon Sinek's Golden Circle.

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Bitcoin: An Idea Worth Spending

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Ah, I take it back! He does have some life in him after all.

In the first link possted in this thread where he is Max Keiser's guest he looks a little constipated and lacking in sparkle. This, on the other hand, shows him to have humour and a depth of character rather than just a robotic talking head. And yes, TED Talks would certainly make this same presentation look more appealing, so the fact that he still comes across OK here drives your point home all the more.

Ok, so let me try to advance this idea a little bit. Some of us are already starting to move forward and we could use help from people here.

If you have a background in PR, advertising, writing, media, website development or academia, and want to participate, feel free to send me a private message, let me know what your strong suit is (what you feel you might be able to contribute) and I'll try to keep you in the loop.

Cheers,

I can offer bitcoinmedia.com which includes a group blog at http://bitcoin.me (http://bitcoin.me) and a twitter account with over 3000 followers. http://twitter.com/#!/bitcoinmedia (http://twitter.com/#!/bitcoinmedia) .

Originally I posted about my ideas for bitcoinmedia in october 2010  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1355.0 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1355.0) with a few ideas to spread the bitcoin word.

The Bitcoin Speakers Beaureau https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=36685.0 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=36685.0) I posted about this because I have been contacted a lot by people wanting to get a bitcoin speaker to talk about the project. For example Agora IO https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=36679.0

Of course there is the time I donated 5000btc to get the weusecoins video over the line.

Basically I can offer a trusted bitcoin brand as the tip of the spear. It wont take much to point the domain and add people as contributors to the blog.

How about PR stunts to raise awareness? It's the easiest way. Why don't we try to come up with some ideas for this?

PR stunts are fame for 5 minutes..

take the PR stunt of redbull.. redbull stratos.. (skydive from space)

then look at redbulls growth of business since then..


without any PR at all bitcoins market cap moves more than 3% a week as it is.

First and foremost, it is imperative to delineate the difference between Public Relations and Branding...despite widespread misconceptions, the two are positively not one in the same.  I think what you (and many others, including Garzik, Antonopoulos, Armstrong et al) are really talking about here is a concerted Brand Strategy.  You bite off nearly every aspect of the communications spectrum with your initial ideas...see my comments in red next to each above.

Bitcoin needs it all.

Public Relations is at its core, outreach that builds symbiotic relationships between organizations and their stakeholders...but it has, as an industry, generally evolved (or devolved, depending on your perspective) into damage control.   

Brand is who and what you are and Branding is the process by which you communicate who and what you are...this requires a certain element of focus and, dare I say, centralization.  You use terms like "clearing house" and "repository"...and these are appropriate for effective Brand Strategy given the specific and controlled requirements needed for effective Branding. 

Prioritization is needed.  Before moving to actionable one-off steps, a more over-arching stratagem and understanding regarding precisely which of these aspects is being addressed should be determined, then it would be wonderful to be able to compile a wide-reaching "peer-to-peer" effort in the truest spirit of Bitcoin to address this significant void.  Companies however, spend seemingly countless amounts of time and money to create effective specific Brand Strategy...it is unarguably the most defining aspect of a business model, regardless of industry. 

Bitcoin, by its very nature, has no such concerted effort.  The Brand, Media Strategy, Marketing and Public Relations initiatives have been and will continue to be largely splintered at best, and as we've often seen, detrimental at worst.  My guess is that eventually one or perhaps a few Bitcoin focused companies will begin to dominate both the Bitcoin economy and public awareness...and these leaders will shape and shepherd the Bitcoin "Brand" as it were...much as Visa and American Express did for the credit card industry.  This is a chilling special-interest prospect indeed.  Anyone remember these early credit card industry efforts from the 1970's...?
  http://i1316.photobucket.com/albums/t618/ducatiracerusa/General%20Bitcoin%20Images/ThinkofitasMoneyCreditCardBillboard1970s_zpsc1628e0f.png

It DOES make a difference. Sales increase do not equal AWARENESS. Plus, we don't need sales for btc, we need awareness, I'm a PR expert, I know what I'm talking about, trust me. Would you consider skydiving from space in a bitcoin logo suit? I would chip in for that : )