How to Promote Visual FoxPro, And What's In it For you...

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How to Promote Visual FoxPro, And What's In it For you...

Hugh Winters, June 1, 2003

An intimate knowledge of a dead language is of value only to archeologists -not application developers. In today's IT world where perception often equates with (or sometimes creates) reality, we Visual FoxPro developers and programmers are increasingly faced with nervous purchasing agents, IT m...

Although none of these negative arguments ever address the relative merits of the VFP development language compared to other more expensive options and/or its applicability to the task at hand. Rather, these concerns completely by-pass what should be core development language selection rationale and dwell on the vague fear of orphaning. Unfortunately this logic has lead to an increasingly self-fulfilling prophecy.

While the folks at Microsoft are fond of saying: "Shipping is a feature." What the Visual FoxPro community would like to add is: "So is marketing"!

The good news is that we folks that make up the VFP community are known for our creativity. When we need a feature or a method not available in the current release, most of us don't wait for Microsoft to implement it before developing an application requiring it; we almost invariably create it ourselves. This idea applied to the missing feature of marketing is the essence of what is being proposed in this article. Visual FoxPro developers and programmers need to recognize that we are at a career crossroads: The VFP community must either publish or perish.

You may remember last year's FoxPro's 10th year celebration with its online anniversary card and accompanying airplane banner buzzing the Microsoft campus. The small investment of time and money to create what has literally become an international promotional legend was a result far larger than was ever imagined. Of course, those of us who participated in the event could have waited for Microsoft to note that important anniversary - if we had, we still would be waiting - instead, it only took the creative efforts of a few of us willing to "think outside the box" and do something to make it happen.

Now, if two or three self-appointed Visual FoxPro evangelists could pull that off; just imagine what thousands of VFP developers could accomplish with a little regularly scheduled creativity and effort. After all, even the most novice VFP hacker knows far more about the benefits of VFP than the most seasoned Madison Avenue advertising hack.

But, as in all things, a little planning goes a long way so let's consider some principles and guidelines that define a good promotion...

A good promotion is positive - it is NOT about denigrating other languages and technologies; rather it should always be about what VFP can (and does) do instead of what others cannot.
A good promotion is global - it benefits the industry the client and, last, but not least, you.
A good promotion is visible - we are talking about media attention here and we need to recognize that there is competition for that attention and outshine that competition.
A good promotion is personal - most media are far less interested in stories about a technology than they are interested in how People use and benefit from using a technology.
A good promotion is scheduled - as in all other aspects of your professional life; if you want it to happen you must put it on your "to do" list. Set aside some time every month for promotional activity and treat it as the important part of your future that it is.

Now that you understand the need and the principles, here are some ideas that you can start with today to get you on the road to better promotion for yourself and Visual FoxPro:

First the basics:

1. Make sure you and all your co-workers and clients have upgraded to VFP 8.

How this will help Visual FoxPro: Big companies (like Microsoft) develop and market products that sell. You and your co-workers can make VFP a product line that sells by buying the new releases when they come out.

How this will help your client: Your clients always have the latest and best-supported applications. And, more importantly, they get a chance to add bells and whistles, during such changes with minimal budget justification. Plus, the greater the commitment in dollars your client has made in Visual FoxPro the greater their commitment in future development with it they will have. (No one goes out and buys a new screwdriver when they already have a whole drawer full of them. The same thing applies with software tools!)
How this will help you: Just as car dealers consider model year changes one of the key sales and profit events of the year - you should look upon the bi-yearly upgrades as an opportunity to reacquaint yourself with your customers needs and opportunities for new projects or enhancements to existing projects.

2. Study the features of the latest releases of VFP.

How this will help Visual FoxPro: Your increased knowledge of the many great features of Visual FoxPro will arm you with the ability to sell more clients and associates on the benefits of Visual FoxPro applications. This will directly translate to increased acceptance of the language, which will support increased sales. New exciting languages are the ones people talk about!
How this will help your client: You can do a better job for you clients - adding speed, capacity, and features increases client satisfaction and utility.
How this will help you: Staying current and active with the latest releases of Visual FoxPro makes you a more professional member of the VFP community with a greater capacity to service both existing and new clients.

3. Get yourself and the other members of your team MS VFP certified.

How this will help Visual FoxPro: Microsoft tracks how many developers are VFP certified. The more certified developers; the more resources the Fox Team is allotted to improve the language! Do you have company stationery? Make sure you add the words: "Microsoft Visual FoxPro Certified Developer". Add them to your eMail signature too!
How this will help your client: Certifications are more than mere "resume stuffers" they also improve your professional ability to service your clients more effectively. The better you are able to serve the client the better experience they will have with Visual FoxPro.
How this will help you: When you become a certified Microsoft Visual FoxPro developer you are making a statement that you respect the Visual FoxPro language enough to take the time to learn it well. Also, every resume or business proposal you send out becomes another advertisement for Visual FoxPro!

Now the fancy stuff:

4. Attend a VFP Developer's Conference this year (and every year).

How this will help Visual FoxPro: These events are newsworthy in themselves and a press release announcing your attendance should be forwarded to the local newspaper. Plus the status of the Visual FoxPro product and the vendor's commitment to that language will be weighted by conference attendance. And your paid admission also helps the vendors continue to put on the event, which further supports the product.
How this will help your client: The knowledge and ideas you will gain at these events will directly translate themselves into better client service.
How this will help you: The personal growth, contacts and knowledge you gain will at these events contribute to your professional expertise and insight. Visual FoxPro developers are so called "knowledge workers". Knowledge is key to our being. And don't forget to forward a press release to the local newspaper to keep them apprised of your commitment to attaining greater knowledge and skills.

5. Keep your clients names and your VFP projects mentioned in the local media.

How this will help Visual FoxPro: Newspaper articles mentioning how Visual FoxPro is used to solve the everyday problems of industry is the best thing that we can do as Visual FoxPro developers/evangelists to build a ground-swell of support for our product. Although, individually, we may not be able to afford to run magazine ads costing many thousands of dollars, we as individuals can take some time to write "human interest" articles about how lives are touched by applications written in Visual FoxPro as well as business articles about how local industry and government is solving its daily problems using Visual FoxPro. And, as any media pro will tell you, general interest articles read in local newspapers have greater credibility and impact than paid advertising to the average reader.
How this will help your client: By writing articles mentioning your client in a favorable light your client will also gain greater visibility in the marketplace. Oftentimes greater visibility translates into better opportunities for all.
How this will help you: Media mentions of your name enhances your professional credibility and the positive mention of your client's company cannot but help enhance your relationship with that client. Note: The local press loves to do stories about local companies and their activities. You can use that to the advantage of your company as well as to the advantage of Visual FoxPro. Write an article about how Manager X at Company Y is overseeing the upgrade of the company's manufacturing/sales reporting/whatever system. Don't forget to say how much money Manager X saved his company by choosing Visual FoxPro for the development language! Making Manager X look like a genius for choosing the right developer and database programming language will not only make Manager X happy but it will also make sure he/she's behind your efforts all the way.

6. Make some news!

If you don't have any news, make some! Do some free coding for the non-profit community and then make sure they trumpet your efforts to the media.

How this will help Visual FoxPro: Every new application that is written in Visual FoxPro is one more log on the fire and we need all we can get! Also, most charities have boards of directors composed of local captains of industry and their awareness of Visual FoxPro is a key strategic element!
How this will help your client: With a little creativity, you should be able to involve a client or two as "sponsors" and get them favorable press as well - and maybe some offsetting funding to boot!
How this will help you: In addition to the good press it is an opportunity to keep your tools sharp and since you are donating your time you will have a degree of project control and the opportunity to try things not often found in employee or contract jobs.

The above ideas are just tinder to get your promotional fire started. There are endless ways to promote and we can use them all to the benefit of ourselves and the Visual FoxPro product!

Should you have any questions regarding this article or have other ideas on how to promote Visual FoxPro that you would like to share with us. Or you would like to receive more information about how to promote Visual FoxPro, please eMail them to promotevfp@yahoo.com.

Hugh Winters, Worlddata Services, Inc
Hugh Winters is the lead programmer for WorldData, Inc. Napa, California, USA. He has been programming in FoxPro since 1989 and is a frequent presenter at his local Visual FoxPro SIG in San Jose, California.