When I first considered a new undergraduate social media marketing class I started with a few ideas and a half page outline. The outline in the previous post is the one I am now using in the course. It has benefited immensely from input from twitter, LinkedIn and blog friends.

Would I call the course “crowdsourced”?

Most of the help came from experts who consult to companies on social media marketing, have led seminars on SMM, have written books, or taught pieces of SMM in their university classes. (Although good suggestions came from students and others as well.)

So should I instead call it “lead user” innovation?

I think the process is best called “Community-sourcing.” I believe that this is a case study in why you should develop a focused twitter and blog following and community: the benefit from such a community is obvious at times like this but is also present day-to-day.

The incredible help I have received on my SMM course reminded me of an aha! moment after I moved to Hong Kong. When I was in Chicago I was good at generating trading ideas; after being in Hong Kong for a couple months it was getting harder. I at first blamed the long hours. Then I realized my infrastructure had changed: in Chicago I rode the morning train with an economist focused on fixed income and currency markets; when I got to the office I talked with the floor people before they headed to the bond pits and had pre-market calls with major institutional traders. The decline in ideas was not due to lost sleep, but my lost community…

Why do people help?

Why did I receive such an outpouring of help and support from the online community? This is always an issue in crowdsourcing and lead-users as well -WHY DO PEOPLE HELP???

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

(The current full outline is in the following post)