(How) Can we attract non-technology PMs to use the site?

Question

Assuming that the site is not just aimed at IT / technology project managers, I guess we should aim to attract other PMs from other disciplines to use the site more widely. Looking at the top contributors, it seems that almost all are active in technology domains, but there are loads of projects being run out there around engineering, construction, business change, HR, etc etc. People involved in such projects will have their own perspectives that everyone could gain from. Any ideas on how to attract them?

Answer 1

We should use Jeff's advises to promote PMSE to PM experts.

See the post Helping The Experts Get Answers and Robert's post A Recipe to Promote your Site

So the question should be:

• How can we contact non-technology PM?
• Somebody know any non-technology PMs?

And mainly:

• Can we (the PMSE community) help them?

From Jeff's post:

If you want to attract notable experts to your site, don’t ask what they can do for you — ask what you can do for them:

1. Ask great questions on their behalf. If they write a blog entry or mention something (on their blog, twitter, or facebook) that contains a question — actual or implied — post it as a question! Do what you can to promote it, then wait and see what kind of response it gets. Edit the answers, as I did, to make them exemplary. Then bring it to their attention. “I thought you brought up a great question, and it got some interesting answers here {question link}.”

2. Invite them to weigh in on ‘best of’ interesting questions. Pick a really interesting question, perhaps from the ‘week’ or ‘month’ tab, and appeal to their authority for a definitive expert answer. “We’re not sure how to answer {question link}, do you have any advice for us?”

Let's answer their questions! So they will be attracted to this great site!

If you want someone to go out of their way to help you, go out of your way to help them first.

Answer 2

I think we should also create new TAGS that invite users to ask questions and tag them accordingly.

I have just opened a question related to Operational projects within Marketing environment and I couldn't find the adequate tags to clarify what the question was about. I would suggest some tags like;

• Operations
• Marketing
• Change Management
• Business Process,

or something similar.

The site and the majority of the answers are IT related which may give the impression to other users that non-IT answers would not be accepted.

Answer 3

When spreading the word about the site, find questions on PMSE that would be of interest to non-technical project managers. Next, search for recent topics using Google's "last 24 hours" and "past week" search tools, related to that question, that are on other sites outside the Stack Exchange network.

If your post would be on-topic, then you could participate in the conversation and include a link to the question in your response.

This link-building activity not only builds SEO, directs the non-technical project managers to our site, and also helps you earn the Announcer, Booster, and Publicist Badges.

There are questions here that can apply to other fields. Spreading links to those questions may contribute to the effect you are looking for.