7 Ways to Keep Your Crowd Grinning
It's important to have a skillful and dedicated crowd, and it's just as important to keep them happy. A happy crowd strives to produce a higher quality and quantity of work for you and your clients. Chances are if they've chosen to work in a crowd, they already like what they do; make sure they love where they're working.
Article by Jessica Kornfeind, Marketing Coordinator at MycroBurst
When I joined my company, a crowdsourcing platform, I was new to how crowdsourcing works. But I jumped right in and learned a lot in a short amount of time about how to best work with our crowd of over 30,000 graphic designers.
Here are a few key points that I've learned about keeping a crowd happy:
Find a way to connect. Where is your crowd most active? For us, it's Facebook. We've created a special group for our designers that gives them an area where they can chat about design or our website. Since our crowd is international, this is a great way to bridge the gap over time zones and cultures.
Encourage. Our designers have created their own country-specific support and networking subgroups for themselves, and we support them by promoting their subgroups on social-media.
Listen. Our crowd tells me when something's going wrong, and they also like to share their ideas. We've been able to develop great improvements on our website thanks to their dedication.
Respond. Be sure to listen before you respond. If they have a great idea, tell them you appreciate it. If there's an issue, find the best way to solve it. Let the people in your crowd know that they really do matter to your company and they're not just a number. We take this a step further and send thank you gifts to members of our crowd who have gone the extra mile with feedback and participation.
Never hide anything. I see a lot of companies delete comments posted by their crowd members on their social-media pages. This is a big mistake, and one of my biggest pet peeves. Never delete comments your crowd members have posted, unless they are dangerous and/or threatening. Removing a post immediately makes everyone think that you're hiding something.
Be yourself. Who wants to talk to a robot? I have become virtual friends with many of our designers. I'm now able to speak with them on a common ground, and I'm successfully building a rapport with them. I know that if there's an issue with a crowd member, I can go to them directly and they'll respond well to what I have to say, because I've earned their trust. They know that I have their best interest in mind.
Put yourself in their shoes. This is the biggest key to a successful crowd. Here's an example: Whenever one of our projects is overdue, the crowd members who participated get frustrated. For some participants, working in a crowd is their sole source of income. Being able to take the time to see a situation from the crowd's perspective, I am able to communicate more clearly and at times, sympathetically.
If you relate to your crowd & have common ground, they will give you great feedback, and they'll love to see you implement their ideas. Isn't that what crowdsourcing is all about?
How do you relate to your crowd? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.