One of the biggest challenges small businesses face is finding the time and resources to do it all. As entrepreneurs we all wear different hats, juggle ever expanding responsibilities and this can be a huge challenge. Crowdsourcing is one way to alleviate your burden by having other people assume some of those responsibilities or tasks.
What Is Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing according to Wikipedia is ‘the act of outsourcing tasks, traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, to an undefined, large group of people or community (a “crowd”), through an open call.’ Interestingly, Wikipedia itself is a great example of crowdsourcing online- all of the content is input and administered by people like you and me across the globe who have insights and knowledge they want to share. But, I digress.
The proliferation of the Internet and social media brings the ability to tap into the collective knowledge more easily, and this has been the catalyst that has really amped crowdsourcing’s viability from a small business perspective over the last five years.
Two Approaches to Crowdsourcing
There are two approaches to online crowdsourcing for business.
1. Formal Crowdsourcing – this is organised, structured crowdsourcing where service providers are connected with potential projects and opportunities through a facilitator like Vancouver’s Hire the World. Similar to outsourcing, crowdsourcing takes the activity of farming out specific tasks or requirements and taps into the online population for both the fulfillment and, in more and more cases, the feedback on decision making.
E-Lance has long been in the business of facilitating the outsourcing of work online. If you need a logo for example and have limited resources it is a great place to start to find the right design for you. Over the years however, online outsourcing has evolved to encompass the crowd as participators throughout the fulfillment process.
2. Informal Crowdsourcing – this is something that you might have done without even realising or thinking much about it. Have you ever asked a question on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn and received answers? More than likely you have. Congratulations, you just crowdsourced.
Let me give you an example of informal crowdsourcing. Our website recently had some issues. We found out about it as a result of a post on our Facebook page from a follower who had been trying to access one of our blog posts but, try as he might, he couldn’t get the post to load. We tried to recreate the issue internally but couldn’t so we put the word out on Facebook and immediately our “crowd” went into action. Within about 10 minutes, thanks to feedback from followers, we were able to isolate the problem to MAC users (one follower on Twitter even suggested that there was an issue with some specific code on our site) and to quickly and easily rectify the issue at no cost and with little effort. We were able to fix the problem in a matter of minutes and get the website up and running again, all thanks to crowdsourcing and the Out-Smarts crowd
Which crowdsourcing approach you take will depend on the challenges you are facing and the task at hand. Crowdsourcing can be used for everything, from something as simple as getting directions to the best Italian coffee house in Gastown for an important meeting, to researching your market, getting feedback from clients, learning about new technologies, getting design, admin or other work done, to asking your clients for feedback on your products and services. The only limitation might be your imagination.
The Risks of Crowdsourcing
With crowdsourcing, the possibilities are endless but, as with every approach, there are risks that should be taken into account. In order to identify these, I crowdsourced by asking a question on Quora and LinkedIn (you can click to read the responses). Luca Hammer on Quora (thanks Luca!) pointed out that you shouldn’t use crowdsourcing for sensitive tasks, should be able to define the task appropriately so that response meets your expectations and that you don’t always know who you are working with and whether they are trust worthy. To this I would add that you should always verify for yourself any information and feedback that you get when using crowdsourcing as a research tool and always do some due diligence to protect yourself from the risks when tapping into the collective.
The Internet connects billions of people worldwide, each individual has skills or knowledge but in isolation their knowledge can only impact their direct circles. With enhanced communication capabilities and social hubs that connect people, being able to source the collective to get work done, to make decisions and to be more productive becomes possible through crowdsourcing.
You’ve probably noticed Twitter’s new image galleries popping up on people’s profiles. This feature, which made its debut in June, shows the 100 most recent images you’ve tweeted – back dated until January 1, 2010. It archives all images you’ve uploaded either directly to Twitter or through a 3rd party application such as yFrog, TwitPic or Instagram.
On your profile, you will see a few highlighted recent images and if you click the ‘view all’ button you will see the 100 most recent pictures you have uploaded to Twitter, along with the corresponding text you originally tweeted.
To upload an image direct to Twitter use the following steps:
Step 1:
Login to Twitter and click the ‘new tweet’ button, in the ‘what’s happening’ box, click on the camera button to add an image from your saved files.
Step 2:
Add a tweet to your image after you’ve uploaded it and click ‘Tweet’ to both send it to your Twitter stream and to your gallery.
Your image will be archived in your Twitter gallery as long as it’s one of your 100 most recent tweets. After that, it will be replaced by your most recent image uploads.
Want to know more? Here’s Twitter’s official introduction to their new image galleries:
Time and again, when discussing Facebook pages with people, we realize that there are many misconceptions about how these pages work. Below, we discuss a few common mistakes so that you don’t repeat them with your business page.
Mistake #1: Thinking fans frequently visit your business page
Most people only ever visit your fan page once, and after that they interact with your page via their newsfeed. Some highly interactive and engaging business pages see frequent repeat visitors, but the majority of fans interact with your page by liking and commenting on postings that appear in their newsfeeds. In order to drive more traffic to your fan page it is important to recognize this fact and post in such a way that entices fans to return to your page. For example, “we’ve posted new photos albums to our page”, or “we post daily tips every weekday, scroll down our page for lots of great advice”.
Mistake #2: Believing fans see every post published to your business page’s wall
Many pages owners think that every fan of their page is seeing everything they post. This is far from true. The easiest way to think about how fans see your postings is to think about how you see content on your personal Facebook profile. What appears in your newsfeed is only a fraction of your friend’s activity, it is the information that Facebook has deemed important enough for you to see based, in part, on who you interact with most on Facebook. It is possible to change your newsfeed settings so that you see everything that has recently been posted, but fewer than 10-20% of Facebook users modify these settings.
How can you change how many fans see your postings? Engage your audience! Each time a fan comments on one of your postings it shows up on their Facebook page and in their friend’s newsfeeds. Also, the more a fan likes, comments and interacts with your page, the more often your postings show up in their newsfeed.
Mistake #3: Ignoring fan comments
A successful business page involves conversations between you and your fans. If you never respond to fan comments, they won’t continue commenting for long. No one wants to talk to a brick wall (pun intended!). The more you respond to fans, the more they will comment and interact with your page. On a similar note, respond to negative comments instead of deleting them from your wall. Social media is about being transparent, and deleting negative comments is the opposite of the image you want to portray. Instead, respond promptly to negative comments and address the person’s concerns in a timely, friendly manner. Often times, even negative comments can be an opportunity for you to shine by showing you care about your customers and their opinions, and that you respond to comments and concerns quickly.
Mistake #4: Posting content all about you, and way too often
You don’t want to hog your fan’s newsfeeds with 4 or 5 posts all in row, this is a surefire way to get them to unlike your page. Instead, aim to post content 1-2 times a day, and spread your posts out a bit throughout the day. We highly recommend the 80/20 rule – 80% of the time, post interesting content from your industry and 20% of the time, post promotional content about your brand or company. The goal is to draw fans to your page and position yourself as the go-to-resource for the newest and greatest information in your industry. If you do this correctly, fans will naturally be interested in finding out more about your company – without your having to be overly promotional or salesy.
Mistake #5: Not taking advantage of the many features available to business pages
There are many customization features available to Facebook pages, why wouldn’t you take advantage of them? Start by claiming your vanity url if you have over 25 fans. This will make it easier for fans to find your page, and increase your visibility in search results. Next, create custom tabs on your Facebook page, including a custom welcome page, and set your welcome tab as the default landing tab for non-fans. Finally, link your various social media accountsto your Facebook page, including your blog, YouTube, and autoposting your Facebook updates to your Twitter account.
Mistake #6: Not budgeting for Facebook Ads
Facebook Ads are a great way to gain fans and awareness of your page – these ads are highly targeted and their precision is virtually unrivaled. Best of all, you set the budget! Spend as little as $1 a day or as much as you’re comfortable with, and you only pay when people click on your ad. Facebook Ads can send people either to your Facebook page or to your external website and are an integral part of building awareness of your business.
Mistake #7: Running illegal Facebook competitions and contests
Most Facebook page admins are unaware of Facebook’s rules and regulations surrounding contests and promotions, but it’s important to know the details before you inadvertently get your Facebook page deleted for running an illegal contest. In our blog post on Facebook contests, we cut through the legalese and explain the rules and regulations ina straightforward way so you know exactly how to run a contest that follows Facebook’s guidelines.
If you avoid making these 7 mistakes with your Facebook page you will be well on your way to creating an engaging and popular business page. If you need assistance with your business page, contact us and we’d be happy to help.
The following is a blog post written by Christine Rondeau of Bluelime Media. With her permission, we’ve reprinted it on our blog. If you’d like to see the original, click here.
Almost every week, I’m asked questions on the merit of social media. People are curious about why one would need to use facebook or twitter. My usual response is that social media works, but it only works if you make it work for you.
Of course it takes time and effort and you will need to moderate your social media accounts. Could you hire someone to do that for you? Sure, but you could also hire someone to look after your kids and raise them. Is that what you want?
In order to clearly explain what I mean by “making it work for you” I thought I would share what my process is and how I make it work for me.
Fortunately, I started early. I’ve been blogging since 2004, so blogging is part of my social media strategy. This strategy is no more than a word though. I don’t have a blogging schedule and I’m not very discipline. I write blog posts when I have something to say but I always write on topic.
If you choose to start a blog, think about what you want to blog about. Check out other blogs and see what they are doing. Would you be simply repeating what others are already saying? Do you feel like you have something important to add? Will you be gaining clients or positioning yourself as a market leader if you do?
More importantly think about your love or writing. If you dislike writing, blogging may not be for you.
I think I joined LinkedIn as early as 2002. LinkedIn was quiet for a long time but recently gained a lot of traction and criticism. I was happy enough with LinkedIn, I never paid attention to it and connected with people I knew when requested, but about 8 months ago, I started receiving many more requests from total strangers. For some reason LinkedIn became more about how many connections one has than who your connections are. I examined my LinkedIn profile and decided that it really wasn’t serving, so simply killed it. Since then, no more requests to connect with strangers.
Since then created I’ve created an about.me profile and posted my resume on Zerply. Why? They were both free and fun to put together. If either one of them follows in LinkedIn’s footsteps and becomes a nuisance, I’ll just delete them.
I joined Facebook 3 years ago (I think). You can look for me if you want but I won’t friend you, sorry. I only use facebook for family and yoga. I use it as a tool to keep informed of upcoming yoga events and look at my sister’s picture. That’s it. I don’t have a fan page and I’ve never ‘Liked’ a page. I personally am not a fan of facebook, because I find it too cluttered and messy. Some folks love it and it works for them, great, but it’s just not for me.
I was a bit late to join twitter and took a while to get it, but twitter is by far my favourite social media tool. I like it because it works for me.
Again, like facebook, I’m very particular about who I follow. 99% of the people I follow are either WordPress developers or work in the web industry. I keep the number of people I follow to about 200 and unfollow anyone who posts too many drunken tweets, sexist ones or only talks about hockey.
Because most of the people I follow are WordPress devs, I tweet a lot about WordPress and use it when I have questions. Just yesterday, I had issues with github. I tweeted my dismay and sure enough, a few minutes later, I had answers to my problem. How brilliant is that?
Sure I could have done the same on facebook, Google + or LinkedIn, but twitter is the medium I prefer.
I don’t think that there’s a definite guide on how to use social media. We all have different needs, different likes and dislikes. If you are curious about social media, I would encourage you to just sign up and open account. Any of them will do. Just try it out. Accounts can always be closed if they are not for you.
There are many dos and don’t when it comes to social media. I won’t go into all of the details here as I am no social media expert. If you’re interested in reading more about Social Media and learning a few tips and tricks, I would recommend that you subscribe to Boxcar Marketing’s Newsletter: Underwire. It’s very well written always packed full of interesting tidbits.
