If you follow Joomla on one of our social media channels, you’ve probably seen them in action: the people of the social media team. And maybe you sometimes wish you could be one of them. You may even have helped them spread the Joomla love by sharing Joomla’s posts on your own timeline (good! You’re already halfway there!). If you love social media and have what it takes to be(come) a genuine Joomfluencer, then read further, because now is your chance to take the stage and make Joomla shine.

Several members of the social media team wish to move to other areas of marketing due to personal workloads and family commitments. All have served a considerable time on the front line and they now want to rotate to other things in Joomla and let others take on the role.

Handover documents are being written and we have some time to find replacements as they gave the rest of the team fair notice. So this is a call for those that have a knowledge of social media to step up and take on a high profile role in Joomla.

Breathe in, breathe out

It's not all glory and fame, and I can illustrate why with a recollection of my own.

The day I released my first module I was so excited. Within a few hours, I saw someone had downloaded it. I was at the 2009 Joomla day UK and I was so happy at the thought of others using my hard work, the result being a free to use news module. The rave reviews, the commissions and growing order books, calls to write books explaining how it worked. I could see it all was just a few clicks away. 

An email popped in with the subject line from my form so I knew it was going to be the first of many positive reviews.

Unfortunately, reality has a habit of not being quite so helpful and I read in amazement the bile and angst that had been poured into the missive. How I was an idiot who should never code again. Apes tapping away at a keyboard would be ashamed of such rubbish. That if they had actually paid me for the product rather than just installing it for free they would have sued me. That I had just wasted several hours of his life along with the other rubbish products that he had installed, none of them had worked, they were all written by morons. And then he named the products, products I was happy to be listed alongside. Products that certainly did work.

After a few polite emails back from me and several simmering ones returned from him, it transpired he had not installed the products on his production site but done it all on his localhost and then moved it all online without changing the server paths, something you had to do in those days. After a pause in the hostile emails, one returned that said, yes, now the paths were corrected mine and all the other rubbish extensions did now seem to work. That mine didn't do what was wanted so had been removed. No thank you for debugging the issue, no sorry for getting off on the wrong foot and jumping to unfounded conclusions.

Deflated was not the only thing that came to mind. A bruising first encounter on the web with a product did take the shine off the day.

I recall this sorry tale as an example of how some people can be to others when tucked away behind a keyboard. They can let those they see online have it with both barrels and then try to whip up a mob. Lobbing in some sock puppets for supportive fire before leaving the fight to top up their drink and another round of unkindness.

OK, what does this have to do with Joomla’s Social Media team?

Imagine what it takes to be a member of the Joomla social media team, putting out the official announcements and sometimes delivering the news that there is a bug. Or find yourself on the other end of someone's site going down and as the official spokesperson, taking the flak for some coding issue that you have nothing to do with apart from you representing the product.

That’s why I admire our social media team. I get to sit in the room and ask them to make the announcements. Sometimes I'm called in for some specific information but always it’s first fielded by the rest of the team and dealt with by them calmly, fairly and professionally while they wait for the answers. 

Calm, helpful, patient

It is their personal skills and calm under fire that has turned the Joomla social media assets into a calmer and more helpful place. Only yesterday there was praise in the online JUGL group for the way they handle the enquiries, signpost the help, report back the information and make the channels a happier and pleasant place to be in.

It's a job that needs a certain temperament and a thoughtful answer, thick skin and the patience of a saint. You are representing one of the largest content management systems in the world. The public face of millions of volunteer hours of work. Thinking and acting in real-time for a multi-language multi-national product. 

We would like to welcome three new volunteers. What does it take, you might wonder? Helpful skills, good command of English, time availability (while many tasks can be scheduled some need to be done now like release day so some flexibility is required), some social media skills/awareness. You will be posting on our channels primarily via HootSuite. There is also post writing that will need to be done (post writing? Take a notice or release on the Joomla website to put together a 256 characters post that gives the title, a bit of info, relevant hashtags and the link. Oh, and we need to make it enticing, maybe fun but also professional. 

If you have what it takes then please join this professional and valuable team to help Joomla shine in the social media world.

You can email me directly This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. I look forward to welcoming you to the team.