How To Discuss Open Source Technology in Content Marketing

John Himes

May 17, 2023

What do IBM, Meta, and Google have in common?

These tech giants invest in developing and marketing open source technology. From Meta’s React and PyTorch frameworks to Google’s leading role in developing the Android mobile OS to IBM’s acquisition of Red Hat for $34B, top companies understand the value of building and promoting open source.

Open source tech is publicly accessible, so anyone can modify or share it. Building on the premise that heads are better when put together, open source creates value for the tech sector at large.

It’s good for:

Speeding up development
Providing more control than proprietary options
Stability and security
Building a community
And it’s free!

From a business perspective, it’s important for B2B tech firms to understand how open source fits into their strategy. Open source software, such as Linux, Apache, or ROS, may be just one part of your tech stack. Or, if you’re like Red Hat, Canonical, or these startups, it may be your bedrock product.

Figuring out how to monetize open source technology is crucial, but that’s not what this article is about.

We’re going to focus on how open source fits into B2B technology content marketing strategy, regardless of where open source fits into your business strategy.

Our content pieces will speak to one of two audiences:

The open source community
Decision-makers at customer organizations

Let’s start with the creators who share your project.

Aligning with the open source community

Take what makes open source great and then leverage that in your marketing.

Directly engaging with the community will get more eyeballs on your open source project and your product itself. That means more adoption, more contributors, and more publicity.

Aligning with an open source community is about giving back. Embrace the spirit of collaboration, avoid salesmanship, and remember that a rising tide lifts all boats.

For instance, publish technical content that addresses pain points that other developers who contribute to the project are having. Or write a feature article that interviews another top contributor to the project.

Whatever you do, be authentic in working together for the common good.

86% of people say authenticity is important when deciding what brands they like and support. That’s why regularly collaborating with the open source community on platforms like GitHub is foundational to building trust, especially among other technologists.

Your reward will be more than pull requests and bug fixes. You’ll get valuable insights. Remember, many of those engineers are also part of your target marketing audience.

“The community delivers not only product improvement but also tells you what they want,” explain Nathalie Risbakk and Lucas Galvanini. “They will give you daily feedback, provided you are delivering value back to them. As such, open source communities do not need to spend more time (or money) trying to figure out consumer needs and expectations… Once a strong community is built on top of a technology, the marketing team will receive data, insights, and new trends 24/7 at no further cost.”

“It is a marketer’s heaven,” they conclude.

Don’t forget that this isn’t about directly driving sales. Your audience here is other developers, and your goal is to help each other, so avoid advertorial language when creating content for this segment.

That’s how you build trust and conduct market research while also getting some backlinks.

Marketing open source technology to your customers

On the other side of the coin, you have paying customers, and many of them won’t be directly involved with the open source technology.

That doesn’t mean you can’t still talk about open source in your customer-facing marketing materials.

Some tech marketers fall into the fallacy of thinking that it’s all about selling their “secret sauce,” the proprietary technology that differentiates them from their competitors. While such differentiation can be important, especially for companies that build proprietary technology on top of open source tech, embracing open source is a good move.

It’s a sign of strength. Just look at Google’s open source project catalog:

Android
Kubernetes
Chromium
TensorFlow
Go
and more

In a Google Cloud blog post, for instance, Stephanie Wong writes “Kubernetes became central to cloud native computing because it was open sourced, and we must continue to invest in open source technologies.”

By promoting Kubernetes and highlighting its open source status, the company establishes its leadership and points customers towards an actual product: cloud computing services.

Open source technology provides marketers with a unique opportunity. Not only can you show customers your product and results, but you can share the underlying technology that makes it work. Especially for content pieces that target technical personas like CTOs or Directors of IT, this goes a long way towards establishing authority and building trust.

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Incorporating open source into brand identity

B2B tech companies should highlight the role that open source plays in their offerings. That’s equally true for companies that contribute to a project and ones that lead the development of new open source technology

Talking about open source is especially important for marketing to technical decision-makers. When they can dive in, read the code, and collaborate on development, they’ll gain confidence that can only come from transparency.

Companies that are truly dedicated to open source can take this one step further still. Tim Yeaton, Red Hat’s Chief Marketing Officer, describes open source marketing, a strategic decision to open source marketing assets themselves.

He concludes, “Part of being open is thinking about what you can share, rather than simply about what you can receive. And at a time when building trust with audiences is paramount, that’s precisely the attitude that brands will need to adopt.”

A brand is more than a logo. It’s a reflection of a company’s soul, a commitment to ideals or values that go beyond selling a product. By incorporating the open source ethos into their marketing, technology companies can build brands that emphasize authenticity, community, and collaboration.

That’s why you need a marketing agency who is on the same page.

Our enthusiasm for open source goes beyond this author’s Ubuntu desktop. We’re passionate about advocating for open source technology, and we love helping tech companies showcase open source development in their marketing.

Let’s build a trusted brand together. Get in touch today.