Did the crowdsourced concert films by Radiohead and the Beastie Boys ever inspire you to produce something similarly community-driven and creative? Because they definitely had that effect on marketing author and speaker David Meerman Scott.
In January 2011, David was the keynote speaker at MarketingSherpa's Email Summit in Las Vegas . His talk about Real-Time Marketing & PR was captured by at least a dozen members of the audience who later contributed their footage for the creation of a crowdsourced marketing video. This video, as David points out, “pulls everything together and gives you a sense of what it was like to be in the audience experiencing the talk in real-time.”
View complete video here!
The crowdsourced video not only includes different angles and views of the speech, but it also features live tweets from the audience. In this way, it highlights what resonated with the public and how people interpreted certain stories. The video combines elements from both the physical and the online space, thus offering a more holistic viewing experience.
We wanted to examine the process of building this type of crowdsource content, in case you want to create a similar project:
1. Coordination on Social Media
In crowdsourcing content, there is always space for social media, whether it will be part of the organization process or used for the final content piece. One can coordinate people through a Facebook group, start a few discussions on LinkedIn or create a Twitter hashtag to build an ever-evolving conversation. Either way, including real-time interaction among your audience members is essential for crowdsourcing.
2. Tools for Crowdsourcing Content
Building a crowdsourced project off of films and images is always a good idea. It suggests the final product will be easy to consume by the general audience. The video tools you want to use, or encourage others to use, don’t have to be too sophisticated. During David’s speech, for instance, viewers used FlipCams or their phones to capture footage. Nothing too fancy, yet intriguing enough thanks to their unique angles and shots.
3. Invest Time in Editing
While you can get video footage, photographs, tweets, and other content by tapping the crowd, putting all of that content together into one package takes time. For this video, David ended up with hundreds of tweets and about 20 hours of video footage. So when embarking on such a project, consider this step and make sure you give yourself (or your video editor) enough time to put it all together.
4. Promotion and Distribution
Lastly, you want to make sure people will have the ability to easily spread this content. Engage the same participants who helped you create the project in the first place. Are they able to blog about it and share it with their networks? Make the piece social media-friendly and share it in your email newsletter.
To reinforce this last point, we want to invite our readers to help with the distribution of David’s crowdsourced video. Everyone who tweets about it with the hashtag #DMScrowd , will enter a random drawing for David’ book, Real-Time Marketing & PR . What is more, the winner will receive a 30-minute telephone consultation with David. Hope you get to share the video and leave your mark!
Suzanne Vadnais Monson 9:11 AM on March 01, 2011
Thanks so much for posting these detailed instructions. I am just learning how to do this and find this really helpful!
David Meerman Scott 9:21 AM on March 01, 2011
Maggie -- thanks for pulling these steps together like this. I wish I had this list when we started. I'm thrilled with the way the video turned out. Thanks for your support.
Lee Kirkby 10:09 AM on March 01, 2011
I guess in some ways what we have been seeing in the middle east in the past few weeks is a real case of crowdsourced video. All of the news agencies etc. have taken the perspective of the participants into their stories.
This really challenges our minds to think about how we can use this interest effectively in our businesses and maybe in our charitable work too....I'm thinking of how my Rotary Club could use this approach.
David Meerman Scott 1:20 PM on March 01, 2011
Lee -- Interesting comment on video in the Middle East and North Africa. You're right. Never thought that what's happening there is similar.
Jane 2:48 PM on March 01, 2011
Fantastic! Thanks for the 'how-to' tips. My mind is reeling with the possibilities and at the same time I'm thinking "Why haven't we done this before?!" Thanks for the motivation.
The video is fantastic - great energy.
Billy 4:27 PM on March 01, 2011
Really interested in making some great videos for my business. Something to be said of video marketing. After MTV hit then all the other video sites(youtube). Good stuff like the blog.
Jillian Babbel 4:36 PM on March 01, 2011
What a GREAT post! The steps are fabulous and the video above was so inspirational. Thanks!
Nic Headlee 2:52 AM on March 02, 2011
Thanks for the post Magdalena! You should all check out what Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails has done to produce crowd-sourced video. His fans recorded and produced a DVD without his involvement. Yet another lesson we can all learn from the music industry! Here is a link to some of the footage, although it appears that physical copies of are sold out :( http://atinylittledot.com/video
Carl Esposti 10:07 AM on March 02, 2011
A very helpful article! We published a recent user case study on a crowdsourcing video project: http://www.crowdsourcing.org/l/493
We would like to create our own crowdsourced video - if anybody would like to work on it with us please reach out to me.