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SC’s Contribution Guidelines

How to make your contributions shine (and earn gems along the way)

Alvaro Velasco avatar
Written by Alvaro Velasco
Updated this week

SellerCrowd exists to help media sellers uncover the right decision-makers at national advertisers and agencies—fast. What makes a contribution valuable isn’t just the contact itself, but the context around it. Who are they? What do they actually work on? What details will help other members know if this person or team is worth targeting?
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We’re not trying to be the biggest database of media buyers (that’s what tools like MediaRadar, Winmo, ZoomInfo, and LinkedIn are for). Instead, SellerCrowd is designed to be the most useful place for sellers—to cut through the noise and surface the decision-makers that matter most.
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SellerCrowd works best when you share accurate, timely, contextual information. The clearer your contribution, the faster our research team can approve it—and the more powerful it becomes for the community as a whole.
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Think of your contribution like a recipe: high-quality ingredients, in the right order → delicious results (plus 🍬 gems for you).


✅ What makes a great contribution?

Contributions from our community of experienced advertising professionals help each other stay informed on key advertisers and agencies.
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Here’s what you could do when sharing:


Client-side contacts

Include:

  • Name + Current Role (with context of what they do)

  • Media Types Managed (digital, TV, OOH, etc.)

  • Decision-Making Power (do they influence buying?)

  • LinkedIn Profile (if available)

  • Contact Info (working email preferred)

  • Relevance (why they matter for SellerCrowd)

  • Don’t just upload names from your CRM. A good contribution is someone you’ve actually interacted with recently, not just someone you emailed once. Think: Would my fellow sellers actually get traction reaching out to this person right now?

💡 Good example:

Sarah Lee, Media Manager at XYZ Corp. Oversees digital media spend. Decision maker for ~$15M budget. [LinkedIn link] [Email]


Agency-side contacts

Include:

  • Location (where they’re based)

  • Current Role

  • Clients Supported

  • Media Types Handled

  • Team Members (if known)

  • Decision-Making Power

  • LinkedIn Profile + Contact Info

  • Relevance

  • Client Departures/Arrivals

  • Don’t just upload names from your CRM. A good contribution is someone you’ve actually interacted with recently, not just someone you emailed once. Think: Would my fellow sellers actually get traction reaching out to this person right now?

💡 Good example:

John Doe, Media Buyer at XYZ Agency (NY office). Handles programmatic for Client ABC. [LinkedIn link]


Agency teams

Include:

  • Team Members

  • Roles and Responsibilities

  • Recent changes (new hires, departures, restructures)
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Spending tips (Upcoming Spend)

Focus on confirmed, upcoming spend. Don’t post RFPs where companies are seeking new agencies — those aren’t spending tips.
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Good spending tips are gold, but only if fresh:

  • Active + Confirmed Only (outdated = no gems)

  • Advertiser Name

  • Media Type

  • Direct or Agency? (and location if agency)

  • Target Audience

  • Budget (estimate)

⚠️ See something stale? Flag it.
If you notice a spending tip that’s outdated, please comment on the post.

This helps:

  1. Inform the community that it’s no longer current.

  2. Alert our team so we can remove/review it.

  3. Ensure gems or rewards tied to outdated tips can be corrected.


Out-of-office messages (OOO)

Out-of-office info is only valuable if it reveals something useful — like a real backup contact or actual team structure.

  • Backup contact details

  • Team structure insights

  • Don’t add duties to a person or team unless you know for sure where that info came from.

Org Charts & File Uploads

If you upload an org chart or file, make sure it’s:

  • Recent (within the last month)

  • Clearly labeled with when it’s from

  • Relevant to media buying (no conference lists or bulk dumps)

🥇 First Good Answer

The “first good answer” reward isn’t about being the fastest, it’s about being the first to share a useful, accurate, and actionable contribution.


Quick but incomplete answers won’t qualify.


​How the bonus is awarded:

  • Within 1 hour of the post creation → 20 gems

  • Within 1 day of the post creation → 10 gems

  • Within 1 week of the post creation → 5 gems

  • Within 30 days of the post creation → 3 gems

  • After 30 days → no gems awarded
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🔥 Superb Intel Bonus

Not all great contributions are tied to org chart changes — sometimes you share something so useful it deserves recognition on its own.

That’s where the Superb Intel Bonus comes in.

  • It can be manually awarded by our research team when a contribution provides exceptional value outside the usual categories.

Think of it as our way of saying: “Wow, this is gold — thanks for sharing!”
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❌ What not to share


Outdated information

  • Contacts no longer in role

  • Old RFPs/spending tips (age like milk, not wine 🥴)

  • Data copied from tools like MediaRadar/Winmo without verifying.
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Non-buying contacts

  • Avoid adding roles that are not media decision makers: CEOs, Presidents, Finance, Sales, Tech, Design, Creative, Janitors, etc.

  • Also avoid copying data from tools like MediaRadar, Winmo, ZoomInfo, etc. without verifying it.


Floods of low-context contacts

  • Ten random emails in separate comments = no gems

  • If you’ve got a lot, bundle them neatly in one structured post

End-of-month dumps

  • Large backlogs at once overwhelm the review team. Pace yourself!
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🔔 About “No Gems” Notifications

Sometimes you’ll see a message like “No gems awarded.”

This doesn’t mean your info was useless — it just means it didn’t meet the guidelines. Common reasons include:

  • Too many unstructured comments

  • Missing context (e.g. just dropping email addresses)

  • Outdated or irrelevant info

  • Didn’t answer the question → for example, if someone asks for programmatic contacts at X agency and you post in-house advertiser contacts instead.

Think of it as feedback, not punishment. Reformat → resubmit → earn gems.

💎 How gems and fairness work

  • Consistency + clarity = faster review = more gems.

  • Leaderboards highlight frequent structured contributors — but anyone can rise up by following these guidelines.

  • Outdated or low-value info can lead to gem removal.

  • Quality beats quantity every time.


🙌 Final note

Every contribution matters. We’re human too, reviewing thousands of posts each month. The clearer your format, the faster we can process it, the more likely it gets rewarded.
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Part of keeping SellerCrowd fresh is helping each other — so if you spot outdated info, especially old RFPs or spending tips, please flag it. The faster we know, the faster we can act.
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Help us keep SellerCrowd valuable, fresh, and fair for everyone. And if in doubt:
​Would I find this useful if I were selling to this client tomorrow?
If yes → post it. If no → maybe rethink.
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Thank you for helping keep SellerCrowd a valuable and relevant resource for everyone in the community! ❤️
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