18 Tasks You Can Crowdsource

A few weeks ago I wrote about what crowdsourcing is useful for, breaking it down into three main categories: Work, Input and Organizing. Crowdsourcing is a way of getting work done that can help you save time, money and free you up to get to other work at hand.

Here are some ideas for tasks that can be crowdsourced, and links to sites that can help you with those tasks. Note that some of the sites mentioned can be used for several different types of crowdsourcing, and not just the tasks mentioned here.

TECHNICAL TASKS

• Translation. Need something translated, without having to rely on Google Translation to do the trick? Try MyGenGo.
• Transcription. Have audio files that need transcribing, such as a podcast? TryCastingWords.
• Photo tagging. Looking to get photographs tagged or classified and support a good cause? Try the nonprofit crowdsourced labor site Samasource.
• Keyword optimization. Looking for SEO help? Try Trada.
• Data verification. Have a long list of business information, like a contact list or URLs, and need that content verified? Try the CrowdFlower self-service site (CrowdFlower CEOLukas Biewald will be speaking about the future of work and crowdsourcing at ourNet:Work conference in San Francisco next month).
• Website testing. Looking for usability testing for your site? Try Usertesting.com.
• Beta testing software. Need some skilled beta testers to test your software or go through your code? Try TopCoder.
• Article writing. Need some content for your website or blog? Try SquadHelp.

CREATIVE TASKS

• Logo design. Looking for a logo for your company? Try Prova.com.
• Business card design. Need a new business card layout? Try Guerra-Creativa.
• Print and online ads. Want a print ad or an online banner ad? Try 99designs.
• Website design. Need a new website interface design? Try crowdSPRING.
• Product development. Want to see if your cool product concept can become a real product? Try Quirky.com.
• Brand names and taglines. Looking for a new name for a company, product or service or a clever tagline? Try NamingForce.
• Video. Need a video produced? Try Tongal.
• Packaging. Need packaging for a new product? Try BootB.
• Creative campaign. Running a campaign and need a winning idea? Try IdeaBounty.
• Quick ideas. Need some fast, inexpensive input? Try IdeaOffer.

Whatever your need, crowdsourcing can help you get work done and tap into crowds of talented and skilled workers willing to perform work in new ways. Keep in mind that the work can vary in terms of quality. Most sites that charge for services have some kind of refund policy if you are not 100 percent satisfied, but read the fine print.

How Much Time Does Social Media Marketing Take?

http://gigaom.com/collaboration/how-much-time-does-social-media-marketing-take/

The 18 Social Business Imperatives

The new way to produce breakthroughs in
revenue, cost, and innovation.

http://www.jivesoftware.com/resources/business-imperatives

Opportunities like Social Business don’t come along often. It is now possible to make a quantum leap in business outcomes. Fast. The jump in results happens across three areas of engagement: the way you engage your employees, customers, and the Social Web.

Leading companies and government agencies apply Social Business practices and Jive technology in 18 distinct areas:

Engage
Employees

• Innovation Acceleration
• Corporate Communications
• Expertise Location / Corporate Directory
• M&A Integration
• Contact Center Enablement
• Sales & Channel Enablement

Engage
Customers

• Event Communities
• Social Commerce
• Community-Based Support
• Account Management
• Customer Innovation
• Social Marketing

Engage
the Social Web

• Product Launches
• Community Recruiting
• Social Brand Management
• Service Everywhere
• Social Selling
• Competitive Intelligence

How Web-Based Tools Level the Enterprise Playing Field

We’re well aware of how advances in technology – particularly the Internet – have transformed the workforce. Thanks to fixed and mobile broadband, workers are no longer shackled to their desks from dawn until dusk. Their office is wherever their smartphone, laptop, netbook or other device of choice is.

While communication tools like Skypehave succeeded in mobilizing an entire generation of workers, collaboration tools are now driving change within the walls of traditional enterprises worldwide. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) tools, such as Huddle, Yammer and Jive Software, are breaking down the communication silos that have developed within organizations.

Traditional, inward-looking enterprise software, such as SharePoint, often reflects the structure of a traditional business. Staff using these complex tools can work with people in their department, but collaborating with people outside of this silo is a challenge. Cloud collaboration tools remove these barriers and enable everyone to connect and work with everyone else. Information can be easily shared, knowledge “gate keepers” are removed, people can see who is contributing to projects (and who isn’t) and traditional business hierarchies start to crumble.

Everyone from the managers in an organization to interns can benefit from the flat structure that web-based collaboration tools are starting to nurture. Rather than being restricted to using people on their team for a project, managers can now draw on expertise from across the organization. Regardless of where they are located, what their job title is or what department they’re in, the best people can be selected for a job. Knowledge and expertise become the defining factors for choosing project teams rather than where people sit within the business hierarchy. Boundaries blur and you simply have a group of people working together.

An example of an organization that treats its workers as a global talent pool is independent digital marketing agency AKQA. With more than 900 employees across seven offices worldwide, AKQA’s staff often need to work with colleagues across multiple territories. Teams are assigned to projects regardless of which office they are based in. For example, a campaign may involve a creative team based in Washington D.C. and a technology team in London. To reduce email traffic between staff and the time spent traveling to and from face-to-face meetings, AKQA deployed Huddle as its standard global collaboration platform. As well as enabling staff to brainstorm ideas and work together on pitch materials, secure branded workspaces enable clients to access campaign content, approve and comment on documents, and keep track of projects in real-time.

Collaboration tools are also shaping enterprises by removing the communication barriers between organizations. Rather than being a self-contained unit, today’s enterprise is an increasingly fluid network of customers, partners and suppliers. As SaaS tools work across firewalls, staff can connect and work as effectively with people outside of their company as they can with the people sitting next to them. Faced with the challenge of successfully communicating and working with its dealer and subsidiary network in an economic downturn, Toshiba America Business Solutions (TABS) turned to Jive Software. An online community called Toshiba eXCHANGE was set up as the key information portal for TABS’ network of dealers. Rather than using email, phone calls and an intranet to gather information, dealers can go to Toshiba eXCHANGE to ask questions, share best practice, and view recent campaigns and product collateral. Three months after the community launched, 1,892 users were participating in discussions and sharing their knowledge.

Since WebWorkerDaily launched in 2006, technology has not just extended the enterprise beyond the office walls, it has started to change its structure. Thanks to online collaboration tools, the fragmented flow of information across organizations is now becoming a thing of the past. The enterprise is no longer dictated to by inflexible legacy technology, but shaped by collaboration tools that let groups form naturally and enable everyone to participate.

Andy McLoughlin, Co-founder and EVP Strategy at Huddle, can be reached on Twitter@Bandrew. See Andy speak about how collaboration tools are reshaping the enterprise at our Net:Work conference, coming to San Francisco on December 9th.

http://gigaom.com/collaboration/from-communication-to-collaboration-how-web-based-tools-are-leveling-the-enterprise-playing-field/

By The Numbers: How The Workforce Is Changing

In a post earlier this week, I wrote about work being the killer app of the Internet, arguing that the workplace of tomorrow is not going to be bound by space and time alone, because connected-ness brings ability to build distributed workforces. In order to better understand this, Incite conduced an online study on behalf ofGigaOM Pro and Skype. One of findings of the study: nearly two-thirds (62%) of companies surveyed had remote workers and over a third (34 percent) of those remote workers worked away from office – at client, customer or partner premises; at home or in public spaces. Clearly, we are in what Citrix Online President Brett Caine calls, a workshift.

The survey reached out to 1,000 technology empowered workers – 500 end users and 500 decision makers at businesses that ranged from small businesses to large corporations. As part of our Net:Work Conference coverage, we are sharing findings from the report:

The companies are adjusting to this new work reality.

• More than half, at 57 percent, of firms allow flexible working hours, that fit with employees’ lives, rather than “standard office hours.”
• Most employees, at 80 percent, appreciate flexible working as a means of balancing their lives.
• Of those employees 65 percent feel a flexible working policy would be important to a future
  change of job.

The change in the workforce is bringing in new tools and processes to the work place, continuing the consumerisation of the enterprise IT.

• In two-thirds of organizations, workers can bring their own personal technology into the workplace.
• 41 percent can bring and use their own tools independently (without permission from their IT departments.)

This explains why the iPad has been such a major hit in the enterprise, much like tools like Google’s Mail and Apps. The survey revels that video and VoIP are going to be big applications going forward. It makes sense – we at GigaOM are constantly using Skype Video, Google Talk Video and Apple’s Facetime. Some interesting stats about workers who use video for work:

• More than two-thirds at 68 percent experience richer and more productive communication with colleagues, clients and suppliers.
• Most of those at 65 percent, say they collaborate better.
• The majority also say they save time at 62 percent and money, at 56 percent.
• Almost seven in ten at 69 percent want video to be available on a range of devices and locations not just fixed systems.

The change in the work patterns, however, has a detrimental impact as well.

• A significant number of people at 42 percent agree the workplace is suffering from information overload.
• While 35 percent of people blame email for this overload.

http://gigaom.com/collaboration/by-the-numbers-how-the-workforce-is-changing/