When we came up with the “Snap Other Way to Launch Contest” two months ago, it was new territory for me in many ways: I’d never actively participated in the Blogosphere, I’d never asked my potential customers to help solve one of my key business problems, and I had never “abdicated” control to the masses. Now, having survived the first phase of our launch, I’d like to share what I’ve learned (so far) from this experience.

#1. Take Two Aspirin and Chill. As a committed control freak, the notions of doing a blog “for and by the people”, of letting the Blogosphere pretty much run the contest, and asking users to help figure out how to launch Snap.com were unsettling thoughts. Democracy is for government, not business, I believed. Yet, I also knew that we were making a simple bet — involve our users as equals and maybe we’d get their commitment to our success. While clearly outside my comfort zone, I (and the rest of us at Snap) was willing to roll the dice.

The really scary thing is once you’ve taken the first step, there really isn’t any turning back. For instance, regardless of whether I was in love with all the top ideas or not, the rules were that you guys were going to pick the winner, not us. Or how about committing to put all posts/comments on the blog no matter how derogatory they might be? We were going beyond user-contributed content to user-controlled content. Once again, not a decision that would be supported by many companies.
Was it worth the loss of sleep and Weekly Status Reports? Absolutely.

#2. There really is something called the Blogosphere and it’s powerful. One can read about “creating buzz” in some magazine, blog or newspaper every day, and for me it was just a concept that I knew happened to other people and companies. It’s one thing to intellectually know what a powerful personal communications medium the Internet had become, it’s all together different to experience its power first hand.

For our 15 minutes of lightning, the Blogosphere was a spectacular storm to watch as post after comment after post after comment started the night before we launched. The word about this new search engine and this crazy contest was getting around so quickly that it was difficult to keep up, really.

After the first day, I walked into Bill Gross’ office and dumped a two inch thick wad of paper on his desk, “What’s this?” he asked. “It’s the first day’s postings and coverage of our launch,” I said with I’m sure the same look on my face as was his. This was amazing!

There was something going on that we were a part of, perhaps even the subject of, but we had little to no control over. The Blogosphere was erupting about Snap. Wow.

#3. With the Good, Comes the Bad & Ugly. During the launch and the contest, it became the daily ritual to read all the postings and comments. And while I think we netted out with 2/3rds of you liking Snap a lot, the other 1/3rd were brutal and it hurt. Whoever said business isn’t personal hasn’t launched a product. It’s definitely personal.

Some of you non snap lovers made really good points and I’d find myself saying, “Yes, I can see how they feel that way.” It hurt, but it was logical and tough and there’s nothing wrong with that.

And then there were some who just ragged and ragged on us with so little knowledge and insight, I’d think who is this guy and why would anyone listen to them? Moreover, what is it about using anonymous user IDs that makes people think its OK to flame people and to be just plain rude?

But, I guess it comes down to if you’re not willing to hear from everyone, then don’t invite everyone to comment. It comes with the territory.

#4. “User-Contributed Content” shouldn’t be underestimated. Despite what I said about the Uglies in #3, I was totally blown away by all the thinking and hard work that you put into the Snap “The other way to Launch” Contest. I made it a point to read and study all 170+ ideas, looking for any nugget of an idea that might work. It was like being in a brainstorming riff with hundreds of people. You guys out there get it!

The coverage of user-contributed content to date has focused on the MySpaces and Flickrs of the world – communities in which the content is from its membership and is largely self expressionism in one form or another. We experienced a very different kind of user-contributed content – collective problem solving and ideation. And while some of the ideas we received were obviously just for grins (spend $1.63Billion on Google Adwords for example), many of them were well thought out and comprehensive entries in which the contestant had obviously put a lot of thought into it. They covered the full range of thinking from targeting special segments (teachers, webmasters, and students) to integrating with larger players (Apple) to encouraging repeat usage through frequent flyer type loyalty programs. You can still check the ideas out in the Contest Ideas part of this blog.

#5. It’s easy to underestimate the amount of time necessary to undertake a program like this one. Becoming an active part of the Blogosphere is time consuming and not easily scaleable. That’s one of the reasons we decided to make our blog a group responsibility rather than the sole domain of one person. Each department has committed to making regular posts on subjects that are of interest to them. Aside from a desire to clean up the grammar a little, we leave people alone to blog on what they like. A side benefit of this approach is that more people have investments in its success.

But, the real reason to make a company’s blog the responsibility of lots of people within the company is that it forces everyone to be involved in the dialog between users and the company. This is a critically important part of the equation for us as we are a user-centered development company.

The downside of becoming part of the dialog of course is that it takes time to dialog. And I guarantee it will take longer than you think it will going in.

#6. Contests not sweepstakes. A slightly different take on #4 above, a lot of people took part in our contest. My interpretation is that many of you like the idea of a contest versus just a sweepstakes. While they both involve winning, one is dependent on skill/talent/determination and the other is just luck. The ideas that garnered the highest number of votes were the recipients of well-organized American Idol style campaigns in which logistical support, campaigning, and incentives were all part of the game.

#7. If it can be gamed, it will be gamed. Especially if there’s money on the table. It took us a full week to analyze the votes to identify people who were trying to game our game. We found blatant gamers and people whose actions were right on the line with what’s allowed and fair. Next time, we’ll write much tighter rules. And there will be a next time.

Thanks once again to everyone who participated in this dialog. We appreciate it.