Emma Dessau is the Senior Producer of POV Digital. She is currently working on an independent project – a mobile interface and story platform to help people deal with social anxiety by finding media that helps put their experience in perspective. This is the second in a series of blog posts on her process creating a platform to support mental health through art, storytelling and software. Read the first post here »
The term “crowdsourcing” might strike equal notes of reverence and fear in the minds of storytellers. On the one hand, fostering a conversation and interacting with an audience in order to shape a narrative or project has resulted in some truly innovative, insightful work. On the other, to successfully launch and carry out a crowdsourcing campaign requires research, strategy, planning and attention — and a lot of time — as well as an acceptance that the story or data may take an unexpected turn.
The core of my project will be a library of curated media that helps people cope with social anxiety. This collection will start small and will hopefully grow as people use the platform and contribute within it. I’ve been gathering examples of visual art, stories, tools and apps that resonate with me, but the larger the collection starts out, the better the initial user experiences will be. So, while building the infrastructure of this app, I am working to crowdsource recommendations of “media that helps” folks deal with social anxiety. And, surprise! It’s hard.
Whether you’re working within an organization and a team dedicated to crowdsourcing, or you are, say, one person with a humble-at-best social media presence working on a passion project from your living room – here are a few do’s and don’ts to keep in mind. For a comprehensive, searchable and easily digestible longer read with case studies of successful crowdsourcing, I highly recommend the Tow Center for Digital Journalism’s Guide to Crowdsourcing.
Identify interested communities to reach out to
One of the main motivations for crowdsourcing is to reach people and gather voices you don’t always converse with or hear from. Therefore, it is counterintuitive to think you can effectively crowdsource by posting on the social media networks you use most frequently, staying safely inside your algorithmic bubble.
Start by researching communities that are already engaging with the topic you’re looking for information, data, stories or feedback on. Despite knowing better, I made the mistake of starting with the approach above. I quickly took a step back to find forums, subreddits, Facebook groups, message boards and hashtags already being used to discuss social anxiety, giving me a much better shot at reaching a receptive pool of people to ask for media recommendations. I also found new places to mine for resources by combing through the discussions already taking place.
… but don’t expect that reaching out one time will get results
Just because you’ve found a relevant space or group doesn’t mean that one post in a forum will yield results. Language is crucial, as is presence. Consider why someone would seek out the space you’ve found and read the ways people interact with each other before posting. If it’s a forum that rewards participation, like Reddit, consider if you feel comfortable interacting in that space outside of what you’re there to ask for. If it’s a Facebook group, take the time to understand the kinds of conversations happening there and adjust your ask accordingly. Read the guidelines — most public and private Facebook groups have them listed clearly. If you’re using a hashtag, check the last time it was used and be sure that there’s an active community before tacking it onto your post. Also, remember that creating your own hashtag has a different purpose than tapping into an already existing conversation.
Create a survey
If there is a specific set of information you’re looking to gather from everyone and everywhere you’re posting, it probably makes sense to create a survey or form. This can be one central means of getting information, and you can direct people to it easily. Make a short link for it that’s descriptive and easy to remember and type.
Remember that not all surveys are created equal, and free services like Google Forms can be formatted in different, nuanced ways. Take some time to carefully write, edit, and re-write your questions. Ask for feedback on flow, copy and logic, and “user test” your survey. Add a progress bar so that people see how much longer they have to go. Write a mission statement at the top, including an estimate of how long it will take them to finish, and be clear about what you intend to do with the responses received.
At first, I created one long form with all questions displayed at once. After asking for feedback, someone recommended that I employ more survey logic and show questions based on answers, so that people were asked “Yes/No” questions before being asked to contribute. This format breaks down the survey so that the user only sees one question at a time. It looks significantly less overwhelming and shortens the time it takes to fill out.
Language and tone is really important. Keeping in mind that I am asking people to respond from personal experiences they might not often reflect on, I added an opening line with the goal of putting responders in a sharing mindset off to bat: “This section asks you to think of times when you’ve felt socially anxious and to share some examples of media that help you manage the experience.”
I also broke my survey into two parts — part one is for media recommendations, part two is for more anecdotal information — and offered users an out after responding to part one.
… but don’t rely exclusively on the survey responses
I personally love a good survey. But even if you’ve created the smoothest, most visually pleasing survey possible, anticipate that people just might not be motivated to answer your questions in that format. Consider where you’re posting the survey, and adjust your planning and expectations accordingly. Posting a survey to your personal Facebook page, where people presumably have a certain amount of familiarity with your work, might yield more completed responses than posting it to a forum you just joined. On a social media platform like Instagram, posing a specific question or asking people to use a hashtag will likely be more successful than mentioning a survey, since linking doesn’t work within the text of an Instagram post.
Although the survey I created the second time around was an improvement, I’ve still found more success asking specific questions targeted for the platform and audience I’m reaching out to. When posting to a listserv for radio and podcasters, for example, I included a link to the survey, but also asked specifically for examples of audio or radio that seemed applicable to my project. Unsurprisingly, the second approach brought on more responses.
Keep track of where you’re asking for responses and stay organized. Bring everything into a master list or spreadsheet. If it takes a frustrating amount of time to comb through and gather the responses and comments on all the posts you’ve put out there, then congrats, it’s working!
Share personal experiences
If you’re hoping people will relate to your project enough to share their own experiences, it’s probably a good idea to consider sharing some of your own. I spoke with Logan Jaffe, whose “Confronting Racist Objects” project asked The New York Times readers to share their experiences, stories and memories of racist paraphernalia they’ve come across or been confronted with. When the project launched, Logan kicked off the call for submissions with a personal essay, explaining her motivation for the project and her own grappling with a blindspot — the salt and pepper shakers depicting an offensive Mammy caricature — found in her grandmother’s home.
Starting the conversation with a recognition of her own role in the perpetuation of these racist objects found in so many American homes set the stage for an open, honest discourse. The “Confronting Racist Objects” call out ended up receiving more than 400 submissions.
… but carefully consider the best place for it
This is sort of a repeat of the first point, but, as I’ve come to see, a lot of these best practices include repetitive, common sense approaches, check ins and adjustments. Logan recommended I consider pitching a personal essay about my own experience with social anxiety and my motivation for this project to a publication that delves into these issues regularly, and I think she’s right.
But I haven’t done it yet. Sharing a personal experience about a topic as broad as “social anxiety” requires an angle. I don’t want to assume that my own definition of this experience, or my idea for this project, is something that would resonate with everyone who struggles with social anxiety. I’m taking stock of publications that have a mental health focus as well as organizations that do this work, and considering a thoughtful pitch that would be in line with their work and appeal to their audience. As an individual working on this project, my authentic investment needs to be made clear.
Keep trying new things
There is no exact science to crowdsourcing. The Tow Center’s Guide to Crowdsourcing is an extremely helpful resource, and it contains case studies from some of the news organizations who successfully crowdsource for their work — ProPublica, WNYC, The Guardian and WBEZ’s Curious City, to name a few — but all strategies are constantly in progress and being revised for every new project. If the way something is phrased or the media you post doesn’t get the response you want the first time, try it on another platform, or re-work the language you use, or find different images and media to go along with your posts.
… and don’t get frustrated when approaches don’t quite work as you’d hoped
I’ve been posting a piece of media from the library I’ve gathered so far to my personal Instagram once every other day with the hashtag #mediathathelps for about a week, and I’m going to keep doing it. It’s not that these posts are doing super well in terms of likes, comments, or even use of the hashtag, but continuing with this will create a searchable series on Instagram that can be referenced, shown to potential collaborators, and used to define what I’m looking for. I still think it’s worth my time.
These are some things I’ve learned in the short time I’ve been crowdsourcing for this project. I still have a lot of work to do, and I can’t say I’ve put all of these lessons to use yet… but I’m working on it. If you’re looking for a comprehensive list of best practices, the Tow Center’s report summarizes their findings here.
Do you have any examples of media you’ve come across that helps you understand, manage or contextualize social anxiety that you’d like to contribute to this project? Please consider filling out this survey.
