Parents Will Love Common Sense Media’s New Facebook Contest

I’m not a parent, but I’ve seen them in the wild. They’re often flustered, stressed, high-strung individuals, blindly heading down a path that they have no way of knowing is the right one, accompanied by an inescapable feeling of isolation. That’s silly, says I, since they have so much potential to learn from and offer support to each other to lighten some of the load for all of them. And in a relatively uncharted frontier like the Internet, it’s great that there are websites like Common Sense Media to give parents the helping hand they may not even know they need.

CSM has a multitude of resources for parents from movie reviews of family titles to materials for education and discussion. Recently, they started an ad campaign encouraging parents to talk to their children about their digital lives. It’s a great campaign, focusing on the awkwardness that ensues when a parent feels that they have to intervene with their child’s media diet but isn’t sure how. One of the ads, featuring a mom wary about her daughter’s computer usage, calls attention to the highly relatable parental tactic of giving their child a kiss on the head so they can sneak a look at what’s on their computer screen.

And Common Sense doesn’t stop there; the contest mentioned in the headline asks parents to share their own awkward stories about how they interact with their child and the Internet. The company really shines here, and here’s why: the campaign focuses not on the ads, but on the parents. CSM readily admits that they expect the parental stories to surpass their own ads in terms of engagement, which also shows that they understand the potential of crowdsourcing compared to in-house production. Their primary goal is to get parents talking to their kids, which I can’t bring myself to describe as anything but “extremely noble”.

If you’re a parent, poke around the site or check out their Facebook page. I can’t get too much out of this material, since it’s not for me, but I’m curious to see what Mom and Dad think about the tactics and suggestions addressed here.

Thank You, Sameeha and TheInkedLeaf!

If you’ll direct your gaze towards the top of the screen, you’ll notice that instead of boring black block text welcoming you to this blog, I now have a gorgeous custom banner! And if you look to your right, you’ll see an equally handsome logo!

“Those are sweet, Seth! How’d you get them?”

I’m glad you asked, hypothetical inquirer! The answer is one Sameeha Bricklemyer and her custom-design website TheInkedLeaf.com. While not a crowdsourcing site in itself, it was crowdsourcing that led me there after Sameeha won a design contest for Baltimore TechBreakfast. This attracted my attention, I contacted her to commission a logo, and it went from planning to completion in less than a week.

Gushing about a platform/service I like is kind of my M.O., and this isn’t going to be any different. Sameeha was professional and courteous every step of the way, made it clear exactly what would be expected from both of us, and handled my many revisions, mind-changes, and backpedals with poise and expertise. The end result was exactly what I was looking for in a logo, and I couldn’t be more happy about it. And while I am not at liberty to reveal what I was charged, suffice it to say it was extremely reasonable. As in, you’ll-spend-more-on-a-fancy-date reasonable.

This experience has shown me another layer of crowdsourcing. Until now I’ve focused on platforms without much regard for the end result, but now I’ve had first-hand experience with what a successful crowdsourcing campaign can do for a brand. Sameeha got TechBreakfast business and my business; this isn’t going to be anywhere near the end for her. Because now I’m writing about it, and you’re reading it thinking “you know, I could use a custom designer that knows what the heck she’s doing and doesn’t give me the runaround…”

Flesh Out Your Small Business With Squadhelp

Running a small business (like, say, a crowdsourcing blog) isn’t the easiest thing in the world, especially if you’re like me and you have little free time and limited knowledge. Squadhelp aims to reduce these problems by offering brands affordable, high-quality crowdsourced work with lightning-fast turnaround. This work includes everything from logo design and tagline generation to viral video production and website optimization.

The site solicits help in the standard “contest” format; they present an assignment to the crowd, the best entries are voted on, critiqued, and improved, and the best one is eventually picked and rewarded with cash. Despite the entries being provided by non-professionals, the final products I saw on the site were surprisingly satisfactory, ranging from “adequate” to “actually quite clever”. And with their most expensive services starting at only $200, the price is very right for a new business that can’t really afford to blow a huge chunk of their budget.

Of course, if you’re just trying to earn a living, you can also sign up to be a contestant, or contributor. Personally, I plan to test the waters by having Squadhelp design a logo for Tiny Work. The one I currently have is boring! As soon as I scrape together $100 from my couch cushions and busking on the street, expect to see a follow-up.