written by DamianSkinner

In the second part of my series “Crowd Surfing to CrowdSourcing – Better Business Through Collaboration” we will cover

IDEA SOURCING

Idea Sourcing is simply the process of allowing anyone in an identified group, party, or network to make suggestions to help solve problems, come up with ideas, and create initiatives.

In other words, instead of sitting up all night worrying about how to best position your company for a specific client you are pitching, you allow people from varying backgrounds and areas of expertise to make suggestions.

It’s as if you’re using multiple computers networked together to solve a problem instead of just the one you are sitting at.

In this case, your brain is the computer.

If you have ever enjoyed an animated series from Pixar, you should know they did not animate, shade, and render those films such as Toy Story or Finding Nemo on one computer! As obvious as that sounds, why do we take that very approach? Most great masterpieces require involvement, engagement, and collaboration.

If you’re not familiar with the term, I want to introduce you to an extremely important concept called:

Social Capital

Wikipedia defines Social Capital as:

… a sociological concept used in business, economics, organizational behaviour, political science, public health and the social sciences in general to refer to connections within and between social networks. Though there are a variety of related definitions, which have been described as “something of a cure-all”^[1] for the problems of modern society, they tend to share the core idea “that social networks have value. Just as a screwdriver (physical capital) or a college education (human capital) can increase productivity (both individual and collective), so do social contacts affect the productivity of individuals and groups”.

Your friends, families, co-workers, employees, neighbors, you name it, all have different “values” than you.

We can discuss the reasons why some friends are closer than others, or why you avoid that one co-worker all day long, and yet we rarely ever think about the business value our relationships carry.

While this is a favorite topic of mine, I will keep this on topic by simply saying that in my experience there is no reason not to tap into the Social Capital in my life other than ignorance of the abilities possessed by the people in my life or my own pride and fear!

So with this working definition of Social Capital, let’s look a little further at the process of Idea Sourcing.

Probably the easiest way to do this is online where people feel the most comfortable to engage.

While you can offer opportunities where a profile of the user is not available (so they feel more comfortable),  you might want to be careful with that option because you are inherently throwing out a great deal of “data” about their suggestion.

It is important to note here that the greatest results to date with Idea Sourcing have come from offering a wide array of people with varying ideologies, educations, and life experience the ability to engage… not just who you think would have good ideas.

Always remember: the laws of “small worlds” or “social networks” cannot be predetermined. You will always be amazed at what someone knows or has experienced beyond what you could ever have imagined!

Let’s look at one of my favorite examples I have been talking about for almost 2 years now:

CASE STUDY: Threadless.com

Before Threadless.com came on the scene, we had all been to apparel websites and perhaps even visited a few T-shirt websites.

I want you to think about the process of creating and selling t-shirts online.  There’s the costs of design, manufacturing, advertising, processing, shipping, customer service and returns.

Image via CrunchBase

But the biggest problem is that the consumer has to shop and shop to find anything unique and honestly most t-shirt sites at the time were all selling the same fare.

Enter threadless.com

The concept is so simple, it passes us all by.

Create an online environment that allows anyone to upload a design for a t-shirt.

Then once a month have a vote for the best artwork of that month.

The person selected then has their artwork put into limited T-shirt runs (ensuring demand) and… voila!

You have your super cool T-shirt business.

But here’s the part most of us miss: they have outsourced the most expensive and risky parts of their business.

They are not paying for design work AND they know that the t-shirts will sell because of the number of people who voted for it!

SO they mitigated risk (they don’t have boxes and boxes of t-shirts in storage somewhere because they couldn’t sell them…like I did once)

One more vital component here… think about the mind and basic nature of an artist who would upload their designs.

What do you think the possibilities are that artists will do their best to make sure everyone they know sees their art work and buys a T-shirt?

Pretty good, right?

This process creates a new, natural, organic, viral campaign EVERY MONTH for Threadless!

Just because they are an online business doesn’t mean there aren’t great applications of this model for your brick and mortar business.

Just remember: when a consumer BELIEVES they have a say in the decision or outcome of a business they immediately feel a sense of loyalty.

And it’s that loyalty you build upon.

Let’s look at just a few methods and tools you can use in your own business.

TOOLS

There are many great tools available to you ranging from Social Media to surveys and polls.

Social Media - there are so many great social media tools for this I could dedicate an entire blog to this subject, so I will just cover a few for now.

LinkedIn

This is probably my favorite!

No matter how many times I give this tip when I speak, I am always amazed at how many people have not heard of it.

In LinkedIn there is a brilliant feature titled “Answers”.

It’s a bit misleading because it isn’t just answers, but questions as well.

You can post a question about any topic and direct it to specific markets.

For example, if you are a small business owner and you just had a serious problem with your CPA or bookkeeper you can log in to LinkedIn and create a question such as “what should I look for in a great CPA?”

You can then select who in what market (because in LinkedIn you have to select a preselected field of work when you create a profile) you want to submit this to.

Now I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking the answers you receive will be shameless self-promotion such as:

Answer: Yeah, I do. Hire me!

That does occur from time to time, but you will be amazed at the overall quality of answers, referrals and long term contacts you will receive.

Remember, people behave on LinkedIn because it’s for business and their peers are always watching:)

Twitter

I hear all the time how frustrated people get with Twitter because they don’t know what to talk about and they can’t seem to get people to engage them. Yet these same people are facing decisions, comparisons, and challenges all day every day!

Sounds like a great match to me!

Just a few of the Twellow Catagories

Ask questions on Twitter and you will get answers. If you need to ask questions to a specific market, and you don’t have many of these users following you, then head over to sites like Twellow.com

and search by interest. When you find the market you are looking for, follow the people listed. When they follow back , as most do, you’ll have your free market research waiting for you!

Grow your networks by solving problems whether they be your own or someone else’s.

Surveys and Poll

LinkedIn

sample LinkedIn poll

Again, LinkedIn weighs in at the top of my list because they offer you a polling feature cleverly titled… “Poll“!

LinkedIn says it best “Add the Polls application and leverage the wisdom of millions of business professionals on LinkedIn.”

There is even a paid option so you can submit your poll to users you are not connected to if you need to access their brains!

Of course Facebook has a slew of applications that allow you to survey your friends. Check out their options here: Facebook survey applications.

I have not used this myself but have been told several times that http://twtpoll.com is awesome for polling your Twitter community.

Now if you’re looking for options you can email or place on your blog or website then I suggest any of these:

FREE:

surveymonkey.com

polldaddy.com

PAID:

Constant Contact

While many people use Constant Contact for their Ezines and email lists, few realize they offer an amazing survey tool at an additional cost.

I have found that instead of setting up separate polls for every site, you can simply create one, place it on your blog or website, and then, if your Social Media funnel is set up correctly (like we teach you),  you can direct folks from your Twitter, FB or LinkedIn accounts to the poll on your blog or site.

Regardless of your business model and challenges, I encourage you to experiment with Idea Sourcing.  If you have even half the results we have, and our clients have, you will make it a primary part of your business.

So what do you think? Let me hear from you and please post your thoughts and questions below.

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written by DamianSkinner

I get this question ALL THE TIME…

“Damian, how do you pick which companies you work with especially in the Web 2.0 world?”

I usually get that question when speaking or on a panel somewhere and inevitably it is from someone wanting to hire me to develop their Web 2.0 concept into a viable business.

One of the answers I always give is that I look for an idea that would be second, third or even fourth to the market. Not first!

I believe this is crucial because you are mitigating risk by looking at existing models and perfecting that model. I know it’s not as exciting as being a trail blazer but I can tell you raising venture capital is much easier!

The second element I look for is what’s commonly called “CrowdSourcing“.

by Sami Viitamäk

The working definition found in Wikipedia (which is a site based on crowdsourcing by the way) for crowdsourcing is the act of taking tasks traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, and outsourcing it to a group (crowd) of people or community in the form of an open call. The term crowdsourcing has become shorthand for the trend of leveraging the mass collaboration enabled by Web 2.0 technologies to achieve business goals.

We are seeing this every where. New York Times now makes all their content available for free, Flickr allows you to upload and tag your photos so others can use them in most cases. And don’t forget about amazing companies such as Threadless,  Goldcorp Inc. not to mention our very own goverment and the new methods emerging everyday for crowdsourcing security measures. I’ll get to them in later posts.

There are many terms already associated with this trend such as:

• Wisdom of Crowds
• Open Innovation
• Social Collaboration
• Human Computation
• Citizen Science
• Collective Intelligence to name a few.

This is a massive area of study but for our purposes today lets just say this.

If 2 heads are better than 2 then 50 heads are AWESOME! LOL

Image of New York Times lead articles mapped on the NYT API from blprnt_van

Here’s the point.

We are in the information age NOT the industrial age

UUUH no shoes in the office Jim? Really?

Is your business still working like a factory?

Let’s walk through an example.

OLD MODEL: Crowd Surfing

not to mention the awkward gropping...

In the previous model (industrial age) of problem solving was approached by going to someone or a small group of someones that have a specific related skill to solve your problem. So let’s say you are the proud owner of Jarvison & Minx CPA firm, (totally made that up) if you had a problem with say high employee turn over in your company you would talk to your friends and associates at the office and then finally when it cost you enough pain you would try several ideas and if that didn’t work you would look for an expert in HR.

And that expert would bring their experience into the mix and undoubtedly over time help you solve your problem. And the solutions would fall in typical areas such as improved working conditions, better atmosphere or even greater incentives.

Now in order to solve this problem you need to sit back and asses the costs to the company. The lose of revenue by loosing trained employees and always hiring and training new employees, the cost of the meetings to figure out the problem which basically results many times in lose of productivity and of course the cost to the HR expert.

I call this Crowdsurfing because of the image it conjures up. We have all seen someone crowdsurfing at a concert right?

Whether your the average board and disapointed youth at a modern day concert (major soap box of mine)

or just another psyched out Obama fan we have all seen the results:

I know it was never you but still you know what I’m talking about.

Here’s what has always amazed me about that idea of transportation… I have NEVER EVER seen someone crowdsurf and get what they want!

They always want to travel closer to the front by the stage and yet if they manage to get there all that happens is some massive security guard grabs and throws them all the way to the back so that they are actually worse off than when they started! Sound familar?

But this is my favorite part of crowdsurfing… plane and simple. 90% of the time they are dropped!

Haha I know I shouldn’t laugh and all that and of course I would never want them to actually get hurt.

But why is it so common to see a crowdsurfer get dropped?

Well I believe its because NO ONE LIKE TO BE STEPPED ON!

Well usually no one likes getting stepped on...

Oh sure you might be game for a while but after enough butt and boots hit you in the face you tend to no longer have the strength to hold them up! LOL

Here’s my point. The old method for solving so many of our problems are a lot like this. We rely on people to get us where we are trying to go but they get tired of it because of one main reason…

They are doing ALL the work and you are having ALL the fun!

NEW MODEL: CrowdSourcing

In today’s methods (information age) information is king! We have all heard that content is king but all content is really is presorted and organized information that we want. So now a savy owner of Jarvison and Minx CPA firm has options.

What we now have the ability to do is to poll everyone’s mind equally to see where we find consitent areas of frustration. Not just the manager’s or the sales team.

Think about it for a second. What we have basically learned to do in business is apply a cast system that none of us would ever agree to or submit ourselves to. As if it’s impossible that George in your accounting department has NO clue what makes a compelling sales pitch.

That’s insane.

Do you have any idea how many sales pitches he sees on an average day? Any idea how many of them work on him or don’t. We as humans carry impressions from birth!

These are accesible to anyone at any time if you are willing to look past a degree on a wall.

At it’s most basic principal it is the same concept as a suggestion box. You don’t create a suggestion box for every department!

So in todays arena a frustrated business owner can access the problem and solve the problem all the while reinforcing that his/her employees matter.

Why do they feel that they matter?

Because you are turning to them for a solution and now they are engaged at a personal level!

So back to our business owners delima. What can he do to crowdsource this issue.

Well for starters they can create a survey in any number of ways with tools like: SurveyMonkey.com, SurveyGizmo.com or even Constant Contact.com.

If you want to really get in depth responses then you can simply create a basic form using Google Forms! Literally in seconds you can ask any question and send it out. The best part is that when the employees in this case respond Google Forms arranges and exports the information into a spread sheet!

Oh and don’t forget that at the base operating level of all social media is crowdsourcing. Asking opinions, giving opinions and of course there are apps in Facebook as well as LinkedIn for polls and surveys.

So now our business owner is getting information that he is probably unaware of in the first place to better asses the problem.

Think about it. What is one of the first steps a operations or HR consultant takes when they are hired?

Start interviewing the staff!

Why? Because they need the same info you do… you must remember that what has traditionally made someone an expert is their focus in a field. Well isn’t it possible that the very focus you are paying for is blind to other solutions because they do not even consider it or even know it exists?

Now I want to leave this example because we can get into a lot of minutia here but I want to draw your attention to this basic concept.

Imagine what you can do with your existing clients, prospect clients or even disgruntled clients with crowdsourcing.

It doesn’t have to just be a survey either. There are many great tools available for your own crowdsourcing project.

Over the next few weeks I will take one of these methods and break it down so we can all begin to work smarter and not harder and brand ourselves as those savvy business’ that consumers love to discover!

In the mean time write and an let me know what you have done with crowdsourcing or peer production models or even what you would like to do and I will address it in the upcoming blog posts.

If you want more in depth study on this subject here are just a few excellent blogs:

Wikinomics by Dan Tapscott and Anthony Williams

http://bit.ly/4nCj0I

Crowdsourcing by Jeff Howe

http://bit.ly/1m1hW

Flirting with Crowds by Sami Viitamäki

http://bit.ly/3CrBKY

Tags: Business, Collective intelligence, Company, Crowdsourcing, Human resources, New York Times, Venture capital, Web 2.0, Wikipedia
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written by DamianSkinner

Imagine a world where your voice is heard the same as Apple’s, Paramount pictures or even Target.

I’m here to tell you that day is coming and it’s closer than you think.

Many times I have been asked why I am drawn to topics like social media, viral marketing and connectivity.

My answer is always the same.

I LOVE LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD!!!

And that is exactly what technology does best especially in this information age.

Take the iPhone for example.

It has set new standards in mobile devices and has clearly marked what consumers want. It’s open source development and functionality has been unparalleled… well till lately.

These new trends have lured the Web Gods at Google to develop their own phone, the Android set to be officially revealed this month.

The greatest factor about technology is that it is always getting cheaper, faster and smaller.

It’s what many professionals actually refer to as the “democratization”.

In other words the process of moving from more of an authoritarian structure to a democratic structure.

Social Media and Viral Marketing are two of the most effective means to “leveling the playing field” in growing not only your business brand but bottom line revenue.

Imagine… playing in the big leagues with the big boys if you will.

What do I mean?

Well we all love seeing those commercials from Apple… you know the ones.

“There’s an app for that”

How many times have you actually thought just for a second… how cool would it be to have an iPhone App for my business?

You just sit back and imagine the possibilities.

You can automate so many of those little tedious tasks like taking orders, processing orders, publishing content, building a email list.

But before you even begin to look into it you stop yourself because we all know that any form of mobile media like an iPhone App cost a small fortune. Right?

Well I am happy to tell you that this is no longer the case. That’s right.

iPhone Apps for everyone!!!

Before an iPhone App even at it’s most basic features would easily cost over $15,000 and that App wasn’t that impressive and really did not deliver much functionality.

But as all good technology does it has evolved and evolved for the masses.

Today.

Right now you can go to companies such as swebapps.com and in minutes have your own iPhone App.

The cost?

Between $250 to $850 based on how many options you want in your App.

The company offers four-, six- and eight-button packages, which all include a one-time set-up fee of $50 per button.

Then there is a $25 monthly hosting fee applied to every application going forward.

Now for you skeptics out there let me assure you that these are not some flimsy little apps with no real functionality.

On the contrary. You can take reservations, create your own mobile video channel or even process orders via PayPal.

In other words a mobile store front!

The possibilities are truly endless. Regardless of your market or business you have information that potential customers not only want but are actively looking for.

Now you can put that information, offers, deals, training and even products right in the palm of their hands!

While it is still very early in the game for this level of accessibility to your own iPhone App the consumer response has been over overwhelmingly positive.

Especially in regards to stability and functionality of such Apps.

Now as with any form of technological advantage in marketing you have to remember two key elements.

1. By the very nature of using technology in media you are no longer just completing a task or tasks. No in fact you are branding your company and increasing exposure all while stream lining some of your more basic day to day tasks. If a consumer decides to download your App it is for a reason. They want to stay connected and feel as if they are on the inside track. In order to keep them using your app you must create and incentive for them to do so. NO ONE continues to give their time to any form of business unless they are receiving something in return. So don’t fall for the “we are so cool because we have an App” trick. Give discounts, invite only events or even free monthly drawings to name some of the more obvious. What ever you do find a way to ENGAGE them through your App.

Here’s a hint: The most effective form of engagement is the one that makes customers believe they have a say in the outcome of anything!

2. As hinted above technology is as good as the strategy behind it. You can have all the bells and whistles but if you are not clear on your message and direction you are trying to send your customers it simply becomes embarrassing. Every time I speak in a convention, company or panel I always give this warning.

“If your not going to be consistent with these tools then you are far better off not even begging to use them. Nothing says unprofessional like blogs, apps or social media networks that have not been updated or comments not responded to.“

By the way if anyone is interested I was able to get a special promo code to offer to my readers.

If your going to use the Sweb option I listed above then use this code and you get 5% off of the development fee.

Here’s the promo code and please let me know when you get your app so I can review it here on my blog!

PROMO Code

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written by DamianSkinner

I had to share this!

Morgan, my daughter and I went through this massive process of finding just the right pumpkin so we could make our first Jack-o-Lantern.

We searched and searched…

AAAAAAnnnnnnnddddd searched…

Very Serious Business

After hours of searching we finally settled on this one glorious perfectly shaped pumpkin.

But when it came time to carve the pumpkin we had run out of time so I promised we would do it the next day.

So I am walking to a meeting the next day and I happen to pass a magic store in Plano, TX called “Queen of Hearts”. This place has been in this same location since I moved to Texas in 1986!

Anyway, I just happen to look in the window and I see this very cool Jack-o-LAntern.

I ran to my meeting and as soon as the meeting was over I went in and sure enough they actually sold these kits.

So I purchased one.

That night Morgan and I sit down to make this Jack-o-Lantern and I bust out all the parts and she dies laughing… why?

Cause all I had purchased was a Mr. Potatoe head without the potatoe.

Well and it’s a she and is technically an angel.

So here it is the BEST Jack-o-Lantern I have ever made.

our Jack-o-Lantern

The best part…

Morgan named it Buford the Pumpkin Angel

Morgan and Buford the Pumpkin Angel

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written by DamianSkinner

So I do realize that I haven’t posted to my blog in a while and this is a odd one to post.

I am in the process of writing a multi-part series to catch all my readers up but in the mean time I wanted to share something.

I heard this the other day as a joke but then started thinking about how true it is.

I was having an extremely rough day and this seemed to just grab my attention.

I have heard this before but it I just never took the time to think it through.

“No matter how bad it gets remember all of us have been winners at least once in our life!”

The Great Race!

Meaning that even at the most basic level we are originated from sperm fertilizing an egg when our parents were making babies!

Now I know this is “joke” isn’t entirely biologically correct but I did start thinking about it.

It is pretty amazing to think that at one point we all started by winning the race to the egg!

How amazing is that LOL!

Not only did we win but we beat thousands of other swimmers…

Michael Phelps… HA! We have all done it. It’s not that difficult! Hahahaha

Show Off:)

Truth be told it is truly amazing to remember that at one point the beginning of our lives started by a few basic universal principals.

1. Life is a process and many times it’s being prepared for when you are in the right place at the right time!

2. Life isn’t a sprint but a marathon. Just cause you get to one goal doesn’t mean you stop growing!

3. It is a part of our most basic intuition to keep swimming no matter how far you have to go… KEEP SWIMMING!

Now I want you to think even meditate for just one minute that’s just 60 seconds of your life, on how many moments in your development of just your body have you NATURAL won. Without even realizing it! There are unspeakable amounts of mutations that can occur at every stage of development even now as an adult and yet you continue to make the right decisions without even being aware that there is a decision to make!

And so with that awfully awkward and disturbing reminder of life I leave you today with this.

The very fact that you are breathing on this Monday tells the world that you are a winner! Not just a one time fluke but a consistent winner!

And the winner is!!! YOU!

Hahahahaha… I hope you can forgive me for the analogy.

D

Tags: sperm
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