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The Social Production Field Guide V1.0

Shaun Abrahamson — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 16:22:01 +0000

Social Production Field Guide V1

View more presentations from Shaun Abrahamson

How Crowdsourcing Can Change The World

Shaun Abrahamson — Tue, 24 May 2011 16:05:40 +0000

On May 23, 2011, we were fortunate to share the Mutopo perspective on Crowdsourcing and Social Production at ESPM, Brazil’s leading marketing and advertising school.

ESPM Social Production & Crowdsourcing Session

Collaboration with the Competition

Justin — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 16:01:33 +0000

It’s tempting to think of the world as a zero-sum game. The typical RFP process doesn’t lead you to believe otherwise: battle your competition over a client until there’s one man standing. Any projects your opponents get is one less piece of the pie for you.

This is total fiction.

In Enchantment, Guy Kawasaki talks about eaters and bakers. Eaters see a pie and want to get as big a piece as possible, but bakers help make more, bigger, increasingly delicious pies. And the best way to start thinking like a baker is to re-examine your relationships with your competitors.

Making the Lists

Think about what kind of projects you really don’t want to do. Projects that are too big, or too small, or have too many lawyers. Clients that have good concepts and secure funding but are in an industry you don’t like to work in. Figure out what kind of work you’re passionate about and want to be doing.

Come up with this list and stick to it. Having a clear idea of your core competencies and niche is a much more compelling story than being mercenaries who work on any project with a big enough budget.

Doing unto others

So what happens to leftover projects? Say a great lead comes across your desk, but it’s in an industry you don’t really like and you’re super busy with four other clients right now. Think of this as a re-gifting opportunity. Call up one of your competitors and give them the referral.

This may sound crazy. It is a little crazy. People will question your motivations. Maybe your sanity. But there are two good reasons to pass work along to your competition.

1. Clients talk.

If a client has a good experience with, say, a collaboration consulting company, they’ll talk about it. They may talk about the specific partner they used, but a good experience with anyone in the industry is good for everyone else in the industry. And the reverse is true, of course: one project gone sour will taint that client’s view of the industry as a whole. As clients share more and more positive anecdotes, more projects will start to crop up.

And by passing along leads for projects you couldn’t (or didn’t want to) do the project in the first place to someone better geared to take the work on, you’re creating better experiences for the client and giving them more positive stories to tell. The company logos may be different, but you and your competition are really working towards the same goal: delivering client value.

2. You get what you give.

I’m not advocating helping others solely to get help in return: that’s disingenuous, and ultimately transparent. Think of it more as a by-product, whether or not you use Guy Kawasaki’s ‘I’m sure you’d do the same for me’ line. When you send work you can’t do well to others, you’ll start to find yourself pulled into their projects as well.

So get out there and make some pies.

Nobody vs. Somebody

elise — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 15:06:37 +0000

In his new book Enchantment, Guy Kawasaki makes the assertion that Nobody is the new Somebody. Not too long ago the internet was a playground ruled by somebodies, some argue that it still is. The internet’s power structure has shifted against the Sombodies of the web – influence peddlers like the New York Times, Forbes, CNN. In its place, the collective Nobody has risen to assume a greater voice online. These paramount content providers allow less contingency for nobodies to spread information and promote outside interests. The somebodies deem information ‘news worthy’ then utilize their social status to spread the information quickly.

The nobodies have created a community of user generated content. People who want to tweet about where the KimChi food truck is, post memes about cats, blog about street art and things of that manner.

What we’re really talking about here is influence. These nobodies are gaining klout. Influence is sometimes misunderstood by marketers as a person or brand who has a high number of followers on Twitter, RSS feed subscribers and Facebook page likes, but influence comes from brand experience and trust. Having one hundred strangers re-tweet a brand name or an article they’ll never read doesn’t create the same kind of influence or produce tangible outcomes.

The nobodies have community leaders who have a greater chance of creating an impact on individuals because the content is relevant. Take the example of a new mom, she might be more likely to trust content on a ‘mommy blog’ rather than the Pampers website because she knows she can trust information created by someone who is like her. Marketers can gain a lot more than influence by courting the small groups where trust is implicit.

Essentially the nobodies are acting like the old somebodies but on a smaller scale. If mainstream media finds a way to compete with user-generated content that creates tangibility could they could transform the power of the nobodies?

We know that the nobodies can create buzz, communities and promote, but we also know that nobodies are unpredictable.

Misunderestimating Communities

Shaun Abrahamson — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 06:50:33 +0000

Design > sell > fund VS Fund > design > sell

Shaun Abrahamson — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 10:16:41 +0000

Almost a year ago we tried to get the betacup started on Kickstarter, with mixed success. We came up with a pitch to sell people on something we were going to design. In other words, we
wanted to pitch an idea to raise funds to create a design.

Fund -> Design -> Sell

Turned out it was not the best idea approach for Kickstarter, but Kickstarter is very useful for another approach.

Design something, then sell it, to raise funds, or simply:

Design -> Sell -> Fund

Kickstarter has suddenly made it possible to pitch new designs (or other creative work) for sale and fundraising. The process works so well that we found some of our favorite products on Kickstarter this year (they’re also mutopo holiday gifts this year).

Planningness Social Production Machine Prezi

Shaun Abrahamson — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 16:24:35 +0000

Causing Social Production on Prezi

Forrester on the betacup and Social Co-Creation

Shaun Abrahamson — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 03:22:53 +0000

Forrester just released a case study discussing our work on the betacup. They offer great insights for organizations looking for innovative ways to solve complex problems.

When Starbucks decided to tackle a specific, more complex problem — reducing waste generated by disposable coffee cups — it recognized that it needed a new audience, a new strategy, and a new technology. We analyzed Starbucks’ participation in the betacup project and found a prime example of product strategists taking a different approach to social co-creation in order to address a significant company problem.

We’re really proud of this work and hope to do more projects like this. Thanks again to Starbucks and all our collaborators who made this possible.

Get the full report.

Next big challenge: traffic congestion

Shaun Abrahamson — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 21:56:30 +0000

Thanks to IBM and Social Media Week, I had the opportunity to discuss a rapidly growing challenge – traffic congestion. The recent IBM Commuter Pain Study paints a grim picture of metropolitan-area commuters in many cities struggling to get to and from work each day, often with negative consequences.

I talked with Naveen Lamba, Global Industry Lead for Intelligent Transportation, IBM, Sarah Goodyear, Cities Editor of Grist and Richard MacManus, founder of ReadWriteWeb. Appropriately this was a virtual panel, so we didn’t add to the commuter pain – take a look at the session below.

Watch live streaming video from newintelligence at livestream.com

As planned

Shaun Abrahamson — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 12:26:38 +0000

Bio for Shaun Abrahamson

Accused of living in the future. Guilty on a few counts. Amateur investor. Social production engineer at mutopo.com. Papai to Max & Oli. Married to @anhuch.

As planned

“Can I play video games for a little?” my 4 year old asks, in Portuguese. My answer I expect will throw him off, “Not the Wii. The Iphone”. The fact that I understand Portuguese still surprises me.

Weather today is muggy, as forecast.

In the office, Pete asks “Coffee?”. Like clockwork, I pretend to think about it and nod. The fog of sleep will not lift, unaided.

“I’m going to see Sylvie tonight, ok?”, Andrea reminds/asks me. “You don’t need to ask”, I remind her (she is still not convinced after 7 years of marriage).

A public tweet claims our late Friday conversation was very pleasant for a late Friday conversation. I nod. Not what I was expecting at all.

It catches my eye – Hunch.com has 10 billion connections in their taste graph? Amazing. I wonder how well they will do, telling my tastes. Apparently very well, but I have to stop when one recommended topic is – “should I be looking for a job”.

I’m nervous about one of our new projects – so I’m using a business plan pitch format. Somehow business plan structures feel more thought out and better able to divine what might happen versus more creative formats. (all this despite routinely asking other people if they feel they want to share a plan when they won’t bet on how their life will be in 5 years).

Surprise – at least one thumb up. I know we’ll make this a massive success.

Huge downpour. Bike stays at work, but luckily find an umbrella that I had forgotten at the office, weeks ago.

For some reason Oli won’t sleep. He points, I guess. We agree that he needs to hold a car and lie next to me on the bed. Max joins after multi-party bi-laterial negotiations regarding sleeping arrangements.

“Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition”, I can almost hear John Cleese storm into the room.

I wonder what time Andrea will be home?

From: the3six5@gmail.com
Date: August 16, 2010
Re: saw the bat signal

Actually you’re on. Go for it.

[NOTE: This post was written as a backup post for the 3six5 project. ]