Joomla is an amazing piece of software. It’s extremely powerful, super flexible and very reliable. With Joomla, you can create any kind of website. I know that. You probably know that. But the rest of the world? Not so much, which translates in Joomla’s market share dropping. The good news is: I can do something about that, and so can you.

I’m Dutch, and in our country, we have a saying that translates as “you can’t love what you don’t know”. Not enough people know Joomla, and if they have heard of it, they often don’t know the full power of it. So one of our most important tasks is to push Joomla forward as the ideal solution when it comes to building websites. And if you think that is too big a task to do on your own, please keep reading.

In a previous life, I used to be a street musician. One of the songs I liked to sing was actually a protest song from the civil rights movement. The lyrics say: “One man’s hands can’t tear a prison down, two men’s hands can’t tear a prison down, but if two and two and fifty make a million, we’ll see that day come ’round.” I think we should realise that if I am loud and proud about Joomla, and you are, and everybody we know is, our community will grow, the number of websites using Joomla will grow, and with it, Joomla’s market share will grow.

Do you have to be a member of Joomla’s marketing team to make this happen? You can, and I’m sure the marketing team would welcome you with open arms, but it is not a must. There are many things you can do right now, all by yourself. Let’s see what your options are.

Blog about Joomla

Find ways to write about Joomla: blog about Joomla’s possibilities, extensions, the perks of Joomla or whatever you think makes Joomla the right solution for you, your business or your projects. Blog on your own website, contribute to JCM (we’d love to hear from you), re-purpose your articles to other sites like medium.com, contribute to hackernoon.com or dev.to (be sure to link back to the original article so the backlink ideally helps).

Make Infographics

Not a writer? How about creating infographics for your website? Infographics are a great way to show all the good stuff. Make a listing of everything you like about Joomla, or the numbers, or something else you’d like to show, and use an online tool to create a stunning infographic that you can share on your website and social media. 

Make a video

Okay, so you have written the blog and made the infographic, and you want to do something else. Or you’re not into infographics and you don’t really like writing. Have you ever considered making a video about why you use Joomla? If you make websites professionally, you could make a short video explaining what it is and/or showcasing sites you have made. You could also think about making tutorial style videos about using Joomla or Joomla extensions.

Use social media

Once you have created your blog, JCM article, infographic or video, it’s time to let the world know it’s there. Come on, don’t be shy, this is something you can be proud of so don’t hesitate: share, share, share! Tag Joomla’s channels in each and every one of your posts, and make sure you use hashtags. 

Of course, this is something you can do just as well with other people’s writings, articles, images, and videos. If you see something on Joomla somewhere that you like, share it on LinkedIn and/or your LinkedIn company page. Put it on Facebook, tell people why you like it, see if you can raise curiosity and if you can get people to respond (or even reshare). Tweet and retweet. Become a Joomfluencer!

Talk about Joomla

Most Joomlers I know are generally pretty modest. More often than not, in conversations about CMS we tend to make ourselves smaller than we really are, standing in the shadow of this giant elephant called… well, you know what it’s called. People, this is so unnecessary. We have so much going for us. Acknowledge that. Say you use the best CMS available for the job, and be confident about it. Increase this confidence by knowing everything you can about Joomla… and the other ones (yes, you read it right: it really won’t hurt to familiarize yourself with the other systems available). Then, when you have a conversation about building websites, you can point out the differences and similarities from an expert point of view. 

If, by any chance, you are one of few the not-so-modest Joomlers and you are not scared of taking the stage, all the better. Climb on your soapbox and spread the word. Give a talk about Joomla at your local business club, your child’s school, the library, or whatever place you can find. Or, if you like your “own” Joomla crowd better: start giving presentations at Joomla User Groups or other Joomla events. 

Educate

Are you any good at sharing knowledge? Fantastic! You can help create a whole new group of Joomla fans. How? By educating them. Maybe you can teach kids at your neighbourhood school or the community center, local computer groups, coding-for-kids groups, coding-for-women-groups, whatever is available in your community. Or give a crash course or a summer course at a high school or university. If you have ideas about educating Joomla, but don’t know where to start, you could consider reaching out to Joomla’s Education Outreach Working Group: https://volunteers.joomla.org/teams/education-outreach-working-group.

Wear the T-shirt

Did you know Joomla has a shop with fabulous merchandise? We sell T-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, even mugs to spread your Joomla love with. Personally, I’m a huge fan of the “We rule the web, do more with Joomla” goodies. Make a statement, wear the T-shirt (in public, that is, not as a nightie of course) and encourage others to do so as well. Not only does this give you an easy way to show how proud you are, but you also financially support Joomla: the revenue on the sales goes directly to the project.

Showcase

Even if all of the above is not really your cup of tea (oh come on, at least wear the T-shirt!), there are still things you can do. One of them is to have your work speak for you. Are you happy with the projects you’ve done? Submit your websites to the Joomla Showcase Directory, so people can see what Joomla has in store. And of course, make a portfolio on your own website as well.

If you have an agency, and a little time on your hands, you could create demo sites showing all the cool things you can do with Joomla. Make them look stunning and desirable. And put “powered by Joomla” on each and every one of them. 

Help other people

What does helping people have to do with increasing market share, you might wonder. Well, it’s all about community and confidence. Take forum posts, for example. If you set yourself a goal of answering a few forum posts about Joomla each week, you not only help the person asking the question, you also contribute to the visibility of Joomla, and you show how friendly and open the community can be. So that’s three good things in one! You might even broaden your horizon by answering questions on Joomla on stackexchange.com or Quora. The more good things about Joomla, the more trust. And the more trust, the more likely people will be to explore Joomla themselves.

Get involved

So those were a few tips on what you can do by yourself. But maybe you don’t want to do it alone. I get that. Joomla means “all together”, so why do it alone? If you like to be part of a team (and let’s face it, from time to time we all want to feel we’re part of something bigger) or do something together with others, there are lots of things you can help out with.

You might like to join your local Joomla User Group (or if it’s not there yet: take the initiative to set one up) https://community.joomla.org/user-groups.html. A user group is a great place to meet other Joomlers, share knowledge and help each other.

You can also participate in Pizza Bugs & Fun www.pizza-bugs-fun.com. You’ll help testing patches that resolve bugs, and most of the time knowing your way around Joomla’s backend is enough to help out. During Covid-19 we started Bugs & Fun @ Home events that take place every Saturday:  https://docs.joomla.org/Bugs_%26_Fun_@Home. 

If you’re more of a language person, you can help translate Joomla in your own language: https://crowdin.com/profile/Joomla or help write Documentation https://docs.joomla.org/. 

And if you are the opposite of a language person and the only thing you like to write is code, your help would be very much appreciated. Join the Bug Squad and/or contribute code for the next Joomla version. 

Attending or even organising Joomla events and conferences (I’m sure they’ll be back once the Covid-19 pandemic is finally over) is also a good way to meet people, learn an awful lot, and share the Joomla love. 

Do you know other ways?

So these are a few things you can do yourself to increase Joomla’s popularity and, with that, its market share. 

Do you know other ways to promote Joomla? Please share them with us! Write an article about it, or contact us with your tips. Do not think your ideas are too small or insignificant: two and two and fifty eventually will make a million. Together, we can do it!

Translations

German: Wie steigert man Joomla!s Marktanteil?

Spanish: Cómo aumentar la cuota de mercado de Joomla

Dutch: Wat jij kunt doen om Joomla groter te maken