their Do Good For The Gulf (part of The Refresh Project) is a prime example of social media/crowdsourcing gone awry. In summary, 5 days to submit a proposal, 2 weeks of reviewing proposals, 30 days of voting, 3 more weeks of reviews and a final announcement.
Seems to me you could use about 2 weeks to come up with and hone a really good idea with a week or 2 of voting. This “crowdsource the vote” is without a doubt the easiest way of doing good without taking any responsibility. When did the most votes become synonymous with the best ideas? This is a million bucks we’re talking about. Put together a BOD/panel of leadership and pick the best ideas with the highest level of impact. All crowdsourcing does is create a really terrible noise level online with people lousing up your facebook/twitter pages with their incessant “vote for me, vote for me” updates. (Oh wait, it’s social media - it looks great for the brand - think of all the hits we’ll get!) Three weeks to announce a winner? If you’re going with “the most votes”, you don’t need that big of a window.
Did any of you see the Coke Zero March Madness debacle? The WORST ideas won (and there was some shittastic competition) while the really good ideas were left for dead. That was for some dumb fan campaign; this Pepsi Refresh Everything is for real, immediate problems with huge social impact and they’re going to leave it to the crowd? Bad idea. You wouldn’t run a company that way, don’t run your campaign that way.
Also, today’s the last day to submit an idea so hop to it!
