Last week I reviewed Groundswell and highlighted some of its analytical tools for social media. However, much of it was geared to Fortune 500 companies with six-figure marketing budgets. That’s why it was nice to read it back-to-back with another book, We Are Smarter than Me: How to Unleash the Power of Crowds in your Business, by Barry Libert and Jon Spector [and thousands of contributors], which is helpful to the small business owner both in idea generation and execution. Its examples span large and small companies.
One thing I liked about the book is that it literally walks the talk, or maybe I should say “jogs the blogs.” It’s unique in that they take the “we” part seriously–the book was sourced from a crowd. People were openly invited to submit their ideas, which were vetted and incorporated into the book. The authors also created an interactive website to expand upon the ideas in the book.
Before I get into substance, the only bone I have to pick is that I’m a traditionalist when it comes to book layouts. For example, I’m not into Kindle: It’s just not the same as holding a book in your hands. Of course, I also said that about newspapers, and I now read those online. But the reason I bring this up is that I’m always wary of books with funky fonts and numerous “call outs” (sidebars scattered sporadically throughout the main text). They distract me, I end up jumping from section to section, and it’s a bit of an ADD experience for me. On the other hand, the pleasant surprise was that while the book was written by a “crowd,” the authors are to be commended, as the tone and voice are consistent throughout.
Now back to “crowdsourcing” or the proverbial “we” and a few of the highlights from We Are Smarter than Me:
Let your customers do the talking. We Are Smarter looks to Amazon and its product reviews as one of the beginnings of crowdsourcing. Who doesn’t read and rely on these? In fact, before we buy a toy, I have my son read them, and now he wants to write them, too. But think of what a shocking concept this was back in 2004–let the public review the products we sell? What if people slam them? Fast-forward four years, and I’m wary of buying from a site that doesn’t have product reviews. This might be why one of my all-time favorite websites is makeupalley.com.
I liked the example of Maki Kaji, who created Sudoku. He ran a puzzle magazine to which people submitted their ideas, and the editors chose among them. Sudoku first ran in 1984. Readers offered their modifications and corrections until it was perfected. However, as that was pre-internet, it didn’t become popular until 20 years later when it hit the London Times. Unfortunately, Kaji did not trademark Sudoku internationally. But in true social media fashion he says “We’re prolific because we do it for the love the games, not the money.”
Clearly, what’s the guy going to say … “oops?” But, I highlight that comment because it underscores a point that I think many people forget in their rush into social media: the need for passion.
Let your customers be your customer service team. This is something I hadn’t read elsewhere – not only “why” you should let your customers create a forum to discuss your products/services, but how to manage it and use it to your best advantage. Sure it saves you money. But, according to We Are Smarter, many customers like to be considered experts in their field and will feel more invested in your products. (It’s that passion thing again.) The book also give tips as to how to make sure your customers are giving sound advice, how to organize your forums, archive information, and so forth. Having your customers bond is not a bad thing. Doing it online for cheap is even better. If you ever doubt the importance of customer loyalty, see the H.O.G’s (Harley Owner’s Group) as a great pre-internet example.
Crowdsourcing still needs management. Chapter 7 was called “Make Everyone a C-We-O” but focuses on examples where social media projects found that they still needed to have a management structure in place. While We Are Smarter is optimistic that the crowd can replace most management functions, I’m still a skeptic. People are people and crowdsourcing is by the people and for the people, yet throughout history we have always had leaders – some were appointed (either by themselves or others), others were officially elected or they might have evolved naturally.
This brings me to the final chapter – “Lead from the Rear” which includes guidelines for running a business that involves crowdsourcing and really provides a good overview of how you need to change your company’s thinking to embrace the power of We.
- Lead from the rear. “The company’s role is to provide direction and then stand back…. The company is not the star of the show, but the producer, working from behind the scenes to make it easy for all community members to get involved and stay involved.” Time to forget about command and control.
- Know when to step in. They should probably have continued the producer metaphor here. Sometimes the director/actors, etc. get carried away, fight or go in the wrong direction. That’s when a producer needs to step in. Same with an online community.
- Form a club, a real community of like-minded people. Start with your satisfied customers who already have a vested interest, then try to bring in bright people likely to add value to the conversation.
- You can’t hide, so don’t even try. In today’s society, “companies need to erase the word confidential from their mental hard drives.” In other words if you screw up, fess up. Company fixers (i.e., George Clooney a/k/a Michael Clayton) don’t stand a chance against the internet.
- Forget about perfection. When crowdsourcing, it’s more real when things are not “polished” to perfection – leave the photoshopping/wordsmithing to one-way dialogues like magazines.
- Stir things up. Online crowdsourcing is like an open debate – that’s what elicits involvement and passion.
- Say thank you. Reward member participation by recognition and incentives. Remember, they don’t have to do this for you!
- This is not a one-night stand. Communities take time to develop. The benefit is that gives you time to tweak things.
Top Shelf Bottom Line: We Are Smarter Than Me is a good addition to the recent spate of books about social media. I especially recommend it for anyone looking to involve their customers in their business, rather than just target them. It’s chock full of big ideas that can even be implemented on a small business budget.
4 Responses to “We Are Smarter Than Me”
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June 25th, 2008 at 8:59 am
This sounds like an excellent book. I’m in the process of researching the effects of blogs and social media on business. Here are a few other books that I’m looking at,
1) Naked Conversations
2) The new influences
I think businesses are under-estimating the value of online community building. Businesses should be creating new departments and hiring new staff just to get ahead of this trend and create online communities. I can see a day, when every business will have 5-10% of its office staff dedicated to online social networking, just as the IT department has grown with the computer age.
June 30th, 2008 at 4:21 am
Over the years, I have seen countless number of businesses who got nowhere because they didnt let their customers do the talking. Its amazing when all that is required is ASK.
Should be a great book for everyone who wants to delight their customers.
July 1st, 2008 at 10:52 am
As a business owner whose marketing plan relies heavily on social networking, I am so excited to learn that there is a book that can help me navigate the new world that we live in!
July 2nd, 2008 at 1:54 pm
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