Lisa Junker, Samantha Whitehorne and Joe Rominiecki share a crowdsourcing experiment from a recent issue of Associations Now
"Crowdsourcing" was coined in a 2006 article in Wired Magazine: The act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call.
Why should associations care? In a word: engagement. Crowdsourcing allows you to connect with your readers and tap into those who are interested in social media tools and technology. And crowdsourcing lends itself to small chucks of work in a short period of time where volunteers are more apt to participate, rather than longer more intense assignments.
So, how do you do it? A three-step process to get passionate and proactive members involved is what the panel followed and recommended. Here are the steps they took:
For their project, they group from Associations Now focused first on the step, then decided on the platform for each step (including discussion boards and surveys).
There were surprises and challenges along the way.
You must cast a "broad net" Lisa pointed out. You must spread the word and spread it again. She also suggested that if you choose to use crowdsourcing, be prepared for repetitive ideas, technology hurdles and the need to turn concepts into real story ideas.
What happens with unused ideas? What if the crowd loves an idea that you hate? Lisa and the rest of the crowdsourcing panel suggest that you be prepared to answer these questions before you begin your journey.
"Crowdsourcing" was coined in a 2006 article in Wired Magazine: The act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call.Why should associations care? In a word: engagement. Crowdsourcing allows you to connect with your readers and tap into those who are interested in social media tools and technology. And crowdsourcing lends itself to small chucks of work in a short period of time where volunteers are more apt to participate, rather than longer more intense assignments.
So, how do you do it? A three-step process to get passionate and proactive members involved is what the panel followed and recommended. Here are the steps they took:
- Brainstorm. Call to members for article ideas.
- Vote. Readers then voted on the article ideas using a 1-5 scale.
- Recommend resources. After the voting, readers where then able to suggest angles, sources, etc.
For their project, they group from Associations Now focused first on the step, then decided on the platform for each step (including discussion boards and surveys).
There were surprises and challenges along the way.
You must cast a "broad net" Lisa pointed out. You must spread the word and spread it again. She also suggested that if you choose to use crowdsourcing, be prepared for repetitive ideas, technology hurdles and the need to turn concepts into real story ideas.
What happens with unused ideas? What if the crowd loves an idea that you hate? Lisa and the rest of the crowdsourcing panel suggest that you be prepared to answer these questions before you begin your journey.
[See photos from the pre-conference workshop on Flickr]
Leave a comment