Yesterday, we launched FriendsRoll and TopLinks, two WordPress plugins which we hope will give fresh life to the blogroll.

We are using exclusively social media to promote awareness, use and discussion of FriendsRoll and TopLinks. We have no advertising budget and are not using pay per click or other advertising.

So, I’ve decided to try to chronicle the launch as a case study of the use of social media to support a launch.

First, I’ll set the stage with what we are trying to achieve with FriendsRoll and TopLinks. Then, in future posts, I’ll talk about how things roll out.

Objectives

Our objectives for FriendsRoll and TopLinks are:

1. To offer something to the community which people use and value;
2. To be seen to be a contributing member of the social media community;
3. To highlight our programming and design skills; and
4. To “learn by doing”.

Who do we want to reach

• Social media practitioners and thought leaders;
• The WordPress developer community; and
• Our clients and companies/organizations interested in who is innovating in social media

Success Criteria

We will define success in the following ways

• Friendsroll and TopLinks are downloaded and used by bloggers (maps against objective 1);
• Others notice and comment on the applications and our development and offering of them. We will measure tone, not just quantity in judging success. (objectives 2 and 3);
• Our user community provides us with feedback on how we can improve the apps (objective 4); and
• We gain practical knowledge about what works and what doesn’t in social media (objective 4).

In my next post, I’ll write about our experience on Day 1 of the launch. I hope that you’ll follow along with me and also offer your comments and reactions. By doing this, we can learn together.

Read the story from the beginning: The Blogroll Reinvented: FriendsRoll and TopLinks