How I went from dicking around on the internet to Virtual Mall CEO

Lessons in wild ideas and community engagement.

It’s easy to say I spend a lot of time on the internet. Heck, my social life, work life, and extracurricular life often all revolve around a screen. And given that whole major pandemic thing going on outside my window, I’ve constantly been looking for something to distract me from reading more and more bad news about this virus.

Enter: a Google Docs escape room.

I was up past my bedtime on Twitter, scrolling through, finding how people were adapting to the crisis outside, when I found the Google Docs Escape Room. Created by Anthony Smith, I nerded out and DM’d him to learn more. This was a genius move (and for the record, I still haven’t beat it).

Turning dicking around on the internet to actual idea.

Fast forward to that Friday at work, in a marketing meeting. The topic: how do you create a community when all your community engagement plans were sidelined by COVID-19 (can’t do Ibiza Yacht Clubs, Mixers, pop ups, NONE OF THAT when you’re social distancing).

My brain wasn’t 100% in the meeting, admittedly. I was still stuck on the virtual escape room, thinking about how it was made and how to solve and escape it. What clue did I miss? Why were there teeth under the pillow? How many hours were poured into this?

Unable to get my mind off it, I brought up the escape room. Here was something that I’ve been thinking about non-stop; it’s captured not just my attention, but thousands of other people online, all trying to solve this damn google doc escape room. There’s got to be something there? Maybe?

As a disclaimer: I’m fortunate to work for an organization that embraces wild ideas. Heck, on day two of being in this role, I was shown the Kanye Story and told to think like Bart Simpson: when you come up with a crazy idea, don’t question it — just act! And in the time of unprecedented events (like a pandemic), it’s time for us to do unprecedented things.

Rounds of brainstorming and googling about every spreadsheet on the internet offering resources, an idea was born: what if we made an online mall for offline products, made as lo-fi as possible, entirely within a Google Spreadsheet? Bingo.

We had no idea where this would go. We figured it would get us a few likes in the evening and maybe a chuckle or two, but we never thought that this would be one of our largest community outreach endeavors thus far.

Throwing shit at the wall, and watching what sticks.

Just before 6 PM, we went live. I’m not sure exactly how many people we were expecting outside the rest of our team and maybe a few of our friends, but I surely didn’t expect this much of a reaction.

After monitoring the mall for 45 minutes after launch, the unlocked Google Sheets had people adding in their own creations. Candle companies, food court additions, and new floors we were starting to add on top of what we’d built so far. The mall was taking off.

Good job team! An hour of watching this take off, I finally logged off and headed to the grocery store — proud of the work that I had done. 80 people were on it, editing it and adding to it in real-time. We were in a good spot. It was living and it was free of trolls.

Too soon, Erin, too soon. As a child of the internet, I really should have known better.

“Hey um… someone is adding porn to the mall. I removed it, but umm… thought you should know.”

Cool. Thanks dudes.

A few moments later, Marco (the mall’s co-creator) and I are texting and making modifications on the fly, shifting the mall to be editable on request only because the porn trolls just wouldn’t give it up.

We staved off Rule 34 and restored it to it’s creative, porn-free origin.

That said, I couldn’t help myself from coming back to this mall time and time again, half in shock-and-awe, half admiring the people I work with — all because we’re able to move on a wild ass idea. We became Bart Simpson that night.

Breaking down the science, why is a virtual mall actually worthy of a full-force community engagement plan now?

There’s a lot of talk on the internet nowadays regarding how to learn about your audience and online communities, but the reality is: if you’re thinking in terms of audience only, you’re often thinking about being a megaphone. You’re shouting out to the audience, hoping that someone will respond.

This is one of the reasons that I hate the term “audience engagement”. It’s one-sided. You’re essentially yelling out on the internet and blindly hoping that someone responds. Ever been in a classroom setting with that one annoying kid that will not shut up? That’s essentially what’s happening. You’re favoring those who speak up over those who have something to actually add to the conversation.

Priya Parker, author of The Art of Gathering, attributes one of the largest ways a gathering can succeed is by creating a temporarily alternative world and by priming people with what you want them to do. While these seem like two heavy lifts to complete, I’d argue they’re easier than we all realize. And, these are the two tenets that made this virtual mall a real success.

Setting the expectations from the get-go

It’s not a sales pitch. It’s not a product demo. It’s a virtual mall. You go on it to hang out with your friends and go shopping, just like you would in your Orange Julius sipping days. By being clear in our intentions and offering people a space on the internet to express themselves, we started a way of including people that may not feel creative and we provided a whimsical escape in times of chaos.

“One way to send your guests a signal is to give your gathering a specific name. To name a gathering affects the way people perceive it. The name signals what the purpose of the event is, and it also prepares people for their role and level of expected participation.”
— Priya Parker, The Art of Gathering

Name: The Elliot Virtual Mall

What we know: It’s a virtual mall, it’s editable, request the Google Sheets for access, It has brands in it, it’s online, it’s created by Elliot.

Even in these little moments, working on having fun and being collaborative further created this positive experience.

And in these times, isn’t a positive online experience more of what we need?

The future of the mall.

At this point, it’s proven that the mall isn’t going anywhere. We have approximately 200 people rotating through the mall all day and have had a few very hands-on architects.

And now we’re building out a marketplace that you can directly shop with from. A few hours of silly brainstorming is looking like it may pay off for the long run. Maybe Bart was up to something, after all.

The end conclusion

Get wild. We’re in uncharted territory, so do something that hasn’t been done before. Don’t be afraid to try something new. Just do it with authenticity, and by thinking community first, not audience first.

Too many times, we get hung up on dismissing an idea before it’s even out in the world, without throwing something at the wall and seeing if it sticks. Or we’re so concerned about what’s in it for us that we don’t even take time to consider an opportunity. It’s time we knock that shit off.

Put down the megaphone, extend a hand. And create your own crazy idea.

Are you working on a wild idea? I’d love to know more about it. Shoot me an email or connect with me on twitter.

If you want more insights like this, I also write a newsletter about technology, the internet, and its oddities.

Let’s create more wild shit together.