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crowdSPRING Blog

A weblog by crowdSPRING about digital creativity, the web, business and more.

Celebrate Incremental SuccessYesterday

We have a daily five minute all-team meeting at crowdSPRING. At this meeting, we review key performance metrics from the day before. We share this information with the entire team because we believe in being transparent and because we want each person on the team to know how we are doing as a company and to see firsthand how the changes we make as a team impact our business.

During a meeting earlier this week, someone asked whether we should lower our goals for each day so that we could meet the goals more often. My initial reaction was to respond that we set the goals high based on what we’ve already achieved and based on our desire to push ourselves hard to achieve more. I still believe that to be true.

But our short discussion prompted me to think globally about how people interpret goals and how they measure success. Many people have difficulty  appreciating smaller accomplishments. After all, we are conditioned to believe that success in founding a start-up is met only if you sell the company for hundreds of millions of dollars. We think that success in starting a blog is meaningful only if we have 50,000 subscribers. We are conditioned to believe that success on Twitter means a minimum of 5,000 followers. We think that being a successful graphic designer means being able to charge tens of thousands of dollars for a logo. And we think our kids are successful only if they become a doctor or a lawyer.

Setting very high goals is important - we do

Weekly Glance of Awesomeness #16Yesterday

Hiya everyone,
Here’s this Weekly Glance of Awesomeness, extra crunchy with mild spices. I hope you enjoy it!

Glance #1: Blocklites Logo
The Award: $300
End Date: November 22nd
The Breakdown: Blocklites are a neat concept that allows signs to be visible during daytime, while being invisible at night when looked at with lights at night, or vice versa. I love any innovative ways to advertise (Have you seen beamvertising? Pretty sweet!), so this new product definitely piqued my interest. Blocklites needs a snazzy logo that is simple and strong, yet able to capture their target audience. Check the project out!

Glance #2:

So You Think You Can Dance? Or Community Manage?November 18

Since my announcement yesterday, we’ve gotten a flood of resumes, emails, and tweets about the crowdSPRING Community Manager position.

Several people have come to me and asked about the job description, saying “But Angeline, a snazzy resume and a witty email alone probably won’t get me this job? You want to see how well I can present myself and make you love me from afar? What does it all mean?” So, our brilliant Pete suggested that I help you all out, because isn’t that what a community is truly about? Learning, sharing, and growing with each other? So, to all of you crowdSPRING Community Manager hopefuls, here is the tale of one fair maiden and seven strapping lads. Sit around the campfire, ’cause it’s story time, and this one might actually help you out.

The 5 Crucial Components to Becoming Part of the crowdSPRING Crew:

1. Tone - One of the biggest talking points around crowdSPRING is the tone of the copy throughout the site + our brand. We’re fun! Warm and fuzzy! Sorta cheeky! And seriously awesome! The Community Manager is in charge of interacting with people on and off-site, writing blog posts, and sometimes crafting copy to help out with PR / Marketing efforts. There are many people with good grammar and writing skills. However, it is crucial that you are able to be a great professional writer who can also nail the tone of our company. There is a super fine line between cheeky and annoying. If you can walk the right side of the line, then crowdSPRING wants you.

2. Personality - I can tell you right now that these guys did not hire me for my extensive qualifications in community management or social media. Before working here, I never looked at Mashable or Tech Crunch. I never went to a Tweetup. But I had developed and executed a viral marketing campaign for a band which landed them some serious exposure, managed street teams, worked at a ticketing startup, and dealt well with being in confined spaces with only males (try a tour bus with 12 of them, to be precise). The crew isn’t just looking for the typical social media marketer. They are looking for someone with that spark and passion for crowdSPRING - someone who understands the company and who they are as an organization and as individuals. We eat lunch together and will talk for hours over foreign policy, the Wall Street bailout, Wes Anderson films, and whether or not The Beatles were so famous because of their music or their marketing. We went to Lollapalooza together. We Photoshop each others’ heads on celebrities. You better be ready to bring some serious pasting + blending skills!

3. Motivation - Self-starters need apply. If you like practically being your own boss, coming up with your own duties, and developing great ideas and implementing them, then this job is for you. A huge part of this position is defining what your daily tasks include and shaping the direction of our Community section and social media strategy. From day one, the only directions I’ve been given are to let as many people know about crowdSPRING as possible and to share, connect, and learn from others in the creative and tech fields. It’s up to you to make the most out of the freedom given to you. Sometimes there are long hours. We stayed past 11pm to test crowdSPRING Pro. Sometimes, customer service is a Saturday morning duty while making breakfast. But that’s okay, because we all believe in what we do.

4. Creativity - I know this should be obvious as crowdSPRING is the creative marketplace, but I cannot urge how important creativity is here. Whether it’s coming up with new word of mouth marketing ideas, functional elements for the site, or features for the blog, creativity is the key element that makes crowdSPRING exist. Sure, we are a startup, which automatically places us in the tech field. We love our iPhones, MacBooks, gizmos, and gadgets. But more than that, we love and appreciate innovation and thinking outside of the box. We applaud the “crazy ones” that come up with ideas that make our world better.

5. Proof - You really want this job? Go the extra mile to show your enthusiasm. What would you be doing as Community Manager? Do some form of it already, and show the crew! After applying for this position, I researched the company and social media in general. I visited the site daily, read the blogs, checked up on projects, and wondered what I could do that would set me apart from the inevitable throngs of resumes and cover letters that they would receive. Finally, it came in the form of a featured project with the band Phantom Planet on the front page. My current roommate was on tour with them at the time, and as luck would have it, they were playing in Los Angeles (where I lived) the next day. Determined to be crowdSPRING’s Community Manager, I grabbed my little handheld camera and asked Alex to give me a recommendation. We love being amused and impressed. So please, do it!

Just Do It Right The First TimeNovember 18

Nike achieved unprecedented heights with it’s “Just Do It” campaign several decades ago. “Just Do It” has been one of the most memorable marketing slogans of all time.

We can all benefit from a variation on that slogan: Just Do It Right The First Time.

Let’s face it - while there are plenty of exceptions, we often try to take shortcuts in many of the things that we do. If we’re writing code, we’ll sometimes look for the fastest way to solve the problem, not the best way. If we’re fixing a bug, we’ll often be content with fixing the bug for a customer without finding the root cause for everyone else. If we’re creating a design, we’ll settle for something that might get the job done, rather than something we’re proud of. If we’re creating a wireframe, we’ll settle for one that looks OK to the client, rather than one that represents exceptional functional design. We are content with delivering customer service, not world class customer service. We tell clients what they want to hear, not what we as professionals believe they SHOULD hear. We compromise every day. We go through the motions. We suffer through our jobs. We settle for being average.

But we often reach a point when we recognize that band-aid solutions can no longer work, when we appreciate that we should have just done it right the first time.

For me, this epiphany came this

12 Questions: Meet Audree Rowe (Glenview, USA)November 17

In our 12 Questions blog series, we feature interviews with someone from the crowdSPRING community. For these interviews, we pick people who add value to our community - in the blog, in the forums, in the projects. Plainly - activities that make crowdSPRING a better community. Be professional, treat others with respect, help us build something very special, and we’ll take notice.

We’re very proud to feature Audree Rowe (crowdSPRING username: ArtbyAudree) today. Audree lives and works in Glenview, Illinois.

1. Please tell us about yourself.

Hi, I’m Audree Rowe. I’m an artist, a cartoonist, a mom, a lame cook, and a trophy wife. (As you can see from my picture.) I grew up in Evanston, Illinois – ETHS (Evanston Township High School) class of ’84. Are you doing the math? I’m 42. I have a degree in studio art from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and later earned my Master’s in Teaching here in Illinois.  Now I live in beautiful Glenview, IL – a suburb of Chicago- with my rockin’ husband, Anthony (a 5th grade teacher);