Tips to create a perfect briefing for our authors

A good briefing on the part of the customer is the key to success for the realization of projects. This is especially true for crowdsourcing projects that are handled by numerous persons who generally do not have a personal contact to the customer and who have to rely on the briefing for the correct implementation of their tasks. A good briefing therefore ensures that all of those involved know exactly what to do, what the customer wants, and what the results are expected to look like.
The briefing is therefore an essential quality factor for the implementation of crowdsourcing projects. With this in mind, this newsletter will provide some tips for your next text orders at clickworker about how to draft your briefing for our authors. These tips include what you ought to pay attention to, as well as what information must be specified. The most difficult challenge is to provide our authors with relevant information while keeping it brief and straightforward: long briefings tend to be demotivating.

Seven tips to create a perfect briefing for authors at clickworker.com:

1. Write a short introduction
A sentence that explains what the text is meant for, what the themes and types of text are, greatly simplifies the author’s task.

• Example: Write a short product description for an online furniture store.

2. Describe the content and layout
Give a precise explanation of what your text is about and how you want it to be composed.

• What must be mentioned (for example delivery options), what must not be mentioned (for example delivery periods and prices)?
• How many text parts/paragraphs is the text supposed to consist of?
• How long are the respective text parts supposed to be? What will they be about?
• Is the text supposed to have headings? How long are they supposed to be?

3. Define the target group and style
Give the author precise information about whom the text targets and what it is supposed to achieve. What style is the text supposed to be written in (businesslike-informative or promotional)? Do you want the text to be written from a particular perspective (for example from the view of your company)?

• Example: The target group consists of young women who enjoy shopping. The reader will be addressed with an informal “you” and the text is supposed to make the reader want to purchase the products. Neutral perspective.

4. Be precise when you define the format
If you want a html format give the author exact instructions concerning what you want to have formatted. Keep in mind that most authors are not html experts and do not necessarily know what a strong tag is or how to format headings in html. Keep in mind that the more complex the formatting the more prone it will be to mistakes.

• Example: Keyword 1 is meant to be placed in strong tags 1x (<strong>Keyword 1</strong>).

5. Do not overload the texts with keywords
The more keywords you determine the more difficult it will be for the author to write an interesting and readable text. It is particularly difficult to place closely related keywords (for example, car rental, rent a car, car lease) in a text. Consider whether:

• Keywords can be inflected (would sports car also be permitted for the keyword “sport car”)?
• Stop words are permitted (would hotel in Düsseldorf also be permitted for hotel Düsseldorf)?
• Keywords must be placed in a certain place (for example keyword 1 must be in the heading 1 x).
• If you define a number of keywords please make sure that the keywords do not overlap. If wine is your keyword 1, and winery is your keyword 2, then keyword 2 contains keyword 1. This may cause problems for an automatic check.
• Keep in mind that the texts must not contain too many keywords. We recommend 1-3% with a maximum of 3-4 keywords.

6. Dispense with the obvious
Remarks such as “write in a good style”, “avoid repetitions” or “do not copy from other sources” are not helpful for the authors. Authors will not purposely use repetitions or poor style and every author pledges to deliver self-written texts. Use the space to give a clear and exact description of the style you have in mind.

7. Include a sample text
Even the best briefing can only give a vague idea of what you envisage. A sample text is an excellent way of helping the author understand what you expect the text to look like, what style you want to strike and what you want the text to contain. A link to other websites on which the authors can inform themselves is also helpful.

If you want to order texts from us and need further information regarding briefing or ordering, then please phone us at +49 201 9597180
or send a short email to: request@clickworker.com.