CASE STUDY
Maker Media Unites Makers with TINT
Industry
About Maker Media
Maker Media is an organization whose mission is to empower makers around the world. With the launch of Make: magazine in 2005, followed by Maker Faire in 2006, the organization jump started a worldwide Maker Movement. Today, the movement continues to transform innovation and celebrate everyday makers who enjoy creating technically complex projects from everyday materials. In addition to publications and public events, Maker Media hosts an online project sharing platform called Maker Share and a youth camp called Maker Camp.
The Challenge
As an organization that is built on the creations that their audience is making, it’s no surprise that user generated content is top of mind for the marketing team behind the operation: Mara Lincoln, Director of Media Operations, and Gillian Mutti, Marketing Manager. With so much content being created everyday in the DIY community, their challenge is to find new ways to grow their community by engaging an audience that is moving from print to digital.
The Solution
To harness the power of their user generated content, Maker Media turned to TINT.
The first area that they focused on was using TINT for Maker Faire. With 367 global Faires around the world, it was important for Mara to not only aggregate the content being produced, but also take advantage of the “ripple effect” of encouraging their audience to contribute on social.
By using both local hashtags like #mfba18 and the global hashtag #makerfaire, their team has been able to aggregate 13,604 posts from events around the world over the past 3 years. The amount of content being generated is impressive, but it also led to a better understanding of the audience:
Because we have so many different Maker Faires all over the world, it’s useful to see the global perspective from all the user generated content.
Staying top of mind for an audience in an increasingly digital world has been a big challenge. Luckily the Maker movement has over 135 million makers focused on producing creative and engaging projects. Combined with a social aggregation tool like TINT, Maker Media’s team harnesses what’s going on in the real-world to create a real impact:
We’re really trying to target the 18 to 28 age range right now. They’re obviously going to be on social media and much more digital, so as we pull away from print advertising, it’s really key that use user generated content. The more we can get them engaged in social, the more powerful our message is.
Maker Camp
Another area of focus for Mara has been Maker Camp. Maker Camp is a free youth summer camp for those who love DIY, creating, crafting, hacking, tinkering, and learning. Makers have free range on the kind of projects they pursue, from sewing electronics into fashion accessories to creating new musical instruments from everyday materials. Globally there are more than 280 affiliates hosting camps in community centers, schools, and libraries.
It takes considerable resources to host so many events. Mara looks to sponsors for support in hosting Maker Camp. To attract and retain valuable sponsors, Mara uses TINT to show the impact that a sponsorship campaign has on social. Together, they spur the next generation of Makers to develop their skills and safely participate in the maker movement.
For both Maker Camp and Maker Faire, one of the primary reasons for using TINT is sponsorship. We look to our sponsors to help support the event and help support the makers. Our main goal is getting them exposure and then actually quantifying that exposure. With TINT’s great analytics, we’re able to do that.
Knowing who to reach out to during a social campaign is important too, and Mara is able to use TINT analytics to find outspoken and influential contributors quickly and easily.
Capturing the Movement
Maker Media has spent over a decade growing an audience, and today sits at the helm of the Maker Movement. With an increasingly digital younger audience, TINT has provided the ability to harness the power of user generated content to showcase the creativity of makers all over the world.
367
Maker Faires around the world
13,604
posts aggregated
4.81M
social impressions a week
