Social Media Marketing

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c h a p t e r

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FIVE ESSENTIAL TIPS

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are evolving—in public and in view of competing designers—as the process occurs. You

pay after the fact.

What really makes Crowdspring work, however, is the participation of the buyer

in collaboration with the designers. Take a logo design as an example: Imagine that

you want a logo for your new business. First, you create an account and defi ne what

you want—color preferences, style choices, and maybe some examples of logos you

like. At this point the designers review the project, and those wishing to compete jump

in and start offering design ideas.

Now, if the buyer doesn’t participate beyond this point, the designers will offer

a range of styles and the buyer may pick one, but this isn’t the optimal path. One of the

Crowdspring rules is that buyers have to pick a winner based on what is offered: This

means it’s in the direct interest of the buyer to improve what’s offered. The best way

to do this is to participate alongside the designers, not as a designer but rather through

feedback on the designs being produced. As the buyer actively signals which of the sub-

mitted designs is favored, the designers will all start shifting in that direction.

The more the buyers participate, the more the designers participate. Disclosure:

I’ve used Crowdspring multiple times, and each time I have seen the number of par-

ticipating designers go up, directly in response to my participation. My good friend

Dr. Tom Hill aptly quotes Saturday Night Live’s “Hans and Franz” on this point,

“Hear me now, believe me later.” If you want people to participate—in any social

application—show them you are serious by participating yourself.

After ten days, buyers choose the design they like, and the logo (or what-

ever design work you requested) is delivered. It’s really quite amazing how well

Crowdspring works.

Crowdspring

You can check out Crowdspring and see how it works and what others have used it for here:

http://www.crowdspring.com

HARO: Knowledge Exchange

HARO—an acronym for Help a Reporter Out—is a knowledge exchange that was cre-

ated by Peter Shankman. The basic proposition of HARO is that for every person who

has a question, somewhere there is also a person with an answer. The trick is to put

them together, and this what HARO does.

The context for HARO is news reporting. Reporters are often in the predica-

ment of having to report on something they themselves don’t fully understand. This

is not a knock on reporters: It is simply the reality of a technically complex world.

Crowdspring

You can check out Crowdspring and see how it works and what others have used it for here:

http://www.crowdspring.com