A Link-Tastic Article on Crowdsourcing for Business

I was inspired by this article in the New York Times about crowdsourcing. They mention Wikipedia and Linux, two semi-non-profit type organizations. I was curious how businesses owners can and have made it work for them.

First, to define: "Crowdsourcing is a distributed problem-solving and production model. Problems are broadcast to an unknown group of solvers in the form of an open call for solutions." Wikipedia

Seth Godin talks about a "tribe" or a group of people who are excited about your product and want to connect (not sure how to create a tribe? Start a blog, get on twitter, engage in person). Why not use that group of people already listening to you and see what they'd like to see.

Here are a few popular examples of for-profit businesses using the concept of crowdsourcing:

• Apple - Oh the iPhone. Any shmo can make an app. It's juried for quality, and apple uses the pure VOLUME of applications created as an incredible marketing campaign to basically say to the consumer "Our phone can do anything". Thank goodness these guys have a huge fantanic customer base because they are pimping those apps out without so much as a credit.
  
• Threadless - A retail T-shirt company that allows you to vote on T-shirts submitted by users just like you. At the end, the company has new product, and the user feels connected to the product. The trick here is that it's regulated by the company to reduce the overall "crap factor".
  
• iStockPhoto - A retail stock photo company, started by a collection of graphic designers desperate for affordable stock photography, users submit their photos to a Gallery that can be purchased by other users. There is a juried process to ensure quality, so once again the "crap factor" is reduced tremendously.
• YouTube - Free online videos...the content created by the users to be watched by the users. This unfortunately has little to no regulation which basically increases their overall volume of content but does nothing to assure quality outside of companies patrolling for copyright infringement or the occasional decency remove. High "crap factor".

So, what can we learn from these crowdsourcing examples?

1. You can make money crowdsourcing (also interesting).
   
2. You need to regulate the masses. There's a reason the government doesn't let us vote.
3. Some of your users are super-duper smart.
   
4. When you're marketing, or creating products, talk the people who are really going to buying your product. They know what they want.
   

4 Small Business questions to ask your Web Designer

Making a new website can be an exciting and scary proposition. There are a lot of people that do "web design" and very few who are actual professionals. I've taken the liberty to list a few common questions that I've heard before and a few that I should hear more often. Chime in, if you think I'm missing anything.

1. What role did you play in the sites you've shown me?
   Everyone posts sites they've "worked" on but often times they don't go into detail about what they actually did for each project. This is key to finding out if they were the project manager, the actual designer, or just someone who scheduled the client meetings
2. Are you a designer, a developer, or both?
   Be aware of your contractor's limitations. All to often a developer will "design" a site and low and behold, it'll look like an engineer puked all over your domain. And sometimes, when a designer acts as a "developer" you can be presented with an image that will impress and amaze, but the sub-par technical implementation will lead to future costs.
3. Are you (or is the developer you're working with) WC3 certified?
   Making sure your developer/designer is WC3 certified is like making sure your car will only need a paint job in the future instead of an engine overhaul. One will cost you a couple of hundred bucks and the other will cost you thousands. (A Key: in this example, your site is the car, the programming is the engine, and your design is the paint job).
4. Will I be able to edit the site myself?
   You'll want this (also known as a content management system). You're designer will want this too. Having your vendor charge you a quarter hour's worth of work so you can revise that sentence to have an apostrophe on it will get old really fast. Some designers work with a content management system, but if they don't, refer them to cushycms.com. It will cost a little extra to implement, but it'll be worth it in the long run.

TIP: Your website does not generally include a logo design. You logo design is also known as your corporate identity and should be considered independently from your website. Consult your designer on their pricing for your corporate identity.

Beginner's Social Media: An Interview with Jen Joyce at Hotel Max

When I started tweeting, it was primarily for job hunting purposes. When I was digging around for connections for the company RedFin.com, Jen Joyce from Hotel Max (@hotel_max) replied, ready and willing to put in the good word. Due to a charming misunderstanding (they have a restaurant called Red Fin), I've been following her ever since. Anyone willing to help out a job searcher was alright in my book.

I had the pleasure to meet Jen as the host of her very own tweetup at the funk-a-delic Hotel Max. The turnout was impressive, like, free sushi impressive. I wondered what went into creative a successful tweetup and how she ended up doing what she was doing. She was gracious enough to do a short interview with me and offered up some advice for those small businesses looking to get into the social media scene.

What do you do for Hotel Max?

I am the Sales Account Manager which in a nutshell means I book the Entertainment Market (bands that need hotel rooms), handle all group and corporate account details before they check in and while they are in house, and I also handle the Hotel Max's Social Media. So basically, I love my job!

Which social media outlets do you use and why?

We currently use Twitter, of course, Facebook and Flickr. We find these 3 outlets allow us to connect with our fans, potential guests and those that have never heard of us. Twitter is for real-time conversations; Facebook helps us aggregate all of our info (i.e. reviews, photos, etc.) and Flickr is a great way to show off our hotel through room/lobby photos!

What would you say are the most the most effective campaigns?

Twitter has been the most effective as it has allowed us to create relationships with our guests/fans. We've been able to create brand evangelists by staying connected to these folks and offering them special discounts, giveaways, great music and info about our great hotel and city.

How do you measure campaign success?

We measure success by a number of different metrics. The number of clicks on our Twitter links, traffic to our website, revenue, engagement (@replies and DMs).

How do you collaborate with the rest of the Hotel Max marketing staff?

I work with Dina from our corporate office, Provenance, on marketing initiatives, as well as the rest of the hotel staff to find interesting information (i.e. Red Fin, GM, front desk, etc).

How would you recommend small business get started in social media?

Start slow. Create a personal account to help understand the different technologies and think about how you could apply it to your business. You must also be active. You can't create an account and then forget about it; you must be social in order to get any results. The more you put into social media, generally the more you get out of it.