Experiments, community, social media and the3six5 project
The3six5 project: crowdsourcing, community and content distribution
Perhaps the most interesting thing about social media isn’t what brands are doing in the new space but what individuals and small teams are creating. I’ve written here before about some of my favorites: Erik Proulx’s ability to make Lemonade the movie; Sheena Matheiken’s clever Uniform Project that raised over $100,000 for the Akanksha Foundation; Michelle Ryan Lauto’s Facebook event, responsible for thousands of New Jersey students boycotting school in protest of tax cuts.
Today I participated in another project that’s pretty cool. Len Kendall’s and Daniel Honigman’s the3six5. The simple Posterous blog recruited 365 different people around the world to each write about a single day. The3six5 is a lesson in everything from crowdsourcing to generating free content, to harnessing the collective reach of a community.
It also offers the perfect formula for brands and marketers to follow.
It takes advantage of a simple, easy to use platform
No one built a website. Instead 3six5 uses the increasingly popular Posterous. The free platform comes with its own built-in community and offers an embeddable tab on Facebook. The old way of thinking was to create something you have to build. The new way of thinking is to build something from stuff that’s already created.
It invites participation
There will always be downright remarkable content toward which we all gravitate. But no one is content just to watch anymore. More and more everyone wants to join in and create. People will give more of their time, effort and ideas than you might imagine if they feel as if they’re contributing to something bigger and worthwhile.
It markets itself
Do the math. If 365 people contribute, and they each have a few thousand followers on Twitter, each of whom has hundreds more, well, you get the picture. It doesn’t take very long for those numbers to grow. In fact after just six months the3six5 has over a million views.
Ironically, my the3six5 post was about old fashioned community, the kind that doesn’t need social media. But if you’re a brand, a marketer, a small company or just one person who wants to make something happen, this is clearly the neighborhood to live in.
What do you think? I’d really appreciate it if you shared as many one person initiated projects that you can think of. Let’s start a collection in the comments below.
Comments
Wait, thought of one more:
Cool post. At first, I thought thinking of examples would be easy, but it's not. I've wracked my brain though and come of with a few:
Bandcamp, started by Ethan Diamond a few years ago and fast becoming the very best place on the web for individuals to post music (me included at http://deepsalvage.bandcamp.com)
FAWM.org, an online songwriting community.
Facebook, it fits the criteria, right?
Linux, started by Linus Torvalds.
Countless musical projects!
Hmmm, will keep thinking...
Jeff
Jeff:
Thanks for sharing. Will put to good use in future presentation.
Edward,
Thanks for the wonderful post and for being one of our notable authors.
As we've said many times, the3six5 hasn't necessarily brought any new concept to the table, it has just repackaged components that in the past have worked for other successful projects. Something about this idea sparked a major interest in people far beyond what Daniel and I expected. We set the stage and asked for 365 authors...we received over 5,000 people asking to be part of this project. After that, as you hinted, the math works out well for everyone.
From a crowdsourcing perspective, the project may show the next stage in how that scenario evolves. Every person who has joined us in the project will have a visible role. No "winners." No work that goes unnoticed. Every person gets their day and with minimal (we try not to micromanage) editorial from us, they get their stage in front of the masses.
In tune with your post's request, here are a few other notable projects started by individuals:
http://www.citid.net/
An ambitious project aiming to gain global consciousness by giving a (type)face to every city worldwide; big or small, rich or poor, famous or infamous, well-known or unheard-of.
http://www.kickstarter.com/
An ongoing collection of personal projects aiming to be funded by the masses. There are some amazing creators here (I've personally funded over 10 projects already. It's quite addictive)
Something dear to my heart Edward. I say this often. Social Media is a revolution of human interpersonal communication. Brands and Agencies think they can hijack every place we place our eyes. I am sure every male has seen a Zoom Media Advertising Placement above a urinal in a mens room more than once. But in all seriousness social media is a communication revolution and we really don't need brands to be part of it. Notice the lack of branding for the incredible 3Six5 Project. Trust me if Nabisco could weasel their way in they would!
That mouthful said the beautiful connectivity between people all over the world has force and staying power for good and bad. For every conference people are tweeting a hashtag from there is also a nazi hate hashtag on twitter (sad but true). But we have free speech. And Social Media has made it even freer. I now have friends all over the world because of Twitter. In the past it was the random person I met at a pub in my travels or locally that connected me to someone far away.
So stay tuned. The communication revolution has just begun. Speech is free and it allows us all to find who we like, participate in things we had never dreamed of (like the 3sixty5) truly hopefully making us one world one people.
http://30daysofcreativity.com
- spam
- offensive
- disagree
- off topic
Like