When I started working as a community leader in the Genesis of A Great Idea campaign for Genesis Today with Collective Bias, I said the unthinkable..
Anyone can have a Great Idea worth $10,000.
And while I support the fact that social media marketing is being part of the community and listening to the community, I was strongly against having community to vote the best ideas. In theory it sounds like a great idea, and I would love to have everyone involved picking the best ideas. In reality – the best idea would not win, and the whole contest wouldn’t be anything but yet another popularity contest and the person with most friends to vote would win.
Some marketers and even bloggers might argue and say that wouldn’t you want someone with the most “social capital” and the biggest network to win? They would drive traffic to the Genesis of A Great Idea site and get even more eye balls to the contest and the brand. Wouldn’t you want someone who has that much pull to also be rooting for your brand?
Well, yes and no. Not necessarily.
The same reason why the traffic numbers don’t tell all the story, the same reason if I am helping a company to find a brand advocate, spokesperson or someone to help them to execute a social media campaign, I will not start my job by googling the bloggers who reach my client’s target market. I will start by looking for people who share the same passion as the company. And usually – the target market and reach and everything else will fall in its place.
People follow passion.
So when we were putting together this campaign for Genesis Today, we decided that we truly want anyone to be able to win. We won’t ask your traffic stats, nor blog name. Oh, in fact, we don’t even ask your name. Of course we will ask them so we can contact you, but the panel who is deciding who will win, will not see them during judging.
Every single idea is judged without any prejudices and you will submit your ideas anonymously to the panel.
Crazy, huh? In a way this makes it easier for anyone to enter, in a way this makes the contest even more difficult! Hey – if your idea is all we’ve got, it better be a damn good idea!
Start working on your next Great Social Media Idea right now and submit it starting on Friday when the contest goes live at Genesis of a Great Idea.
