Crowdsourcing is the practice of leveraging the collective skills, ideas, and contributions of a diverse group of individuals, often through online platforms, to accomplish a task, gather information, or solve a problem.
For example, businesses can utilize crowdsourcing to gather customer feedback, generate creative content, or solve complex challenges by tapping into the collective intelligence of a broad audience.
Crowdsourcing helps brands understand their customers better. By engaging directly with the crowd, businesses can gain valuable insights into customer preferences, pain points, and expectations. This data can be instrumental in shaping future strategies and product offerings.
Here’s a great perk of crowdsourcing: It lets you upgrade products or services based on direct customer feedback. For example, a company might use crowdsourcing to gather suggestions for new features or improvements. This not only helps enhance the product but also builds a sense of community and loyalty among customers.
Crowdsourcing can also be an effective tool for performance evaluation. By gathering feedback from a large group of users, businesses can identify strengths and weaknesses, track performance metrics, and make data-driven decisions to optimize their operations.
Let’s look at the different types of crowdsourcing activities:
Let’s dive into the awesome benefits of social media crowdsourcing:
Here are some popular crowdsourcing platforms you might find interesting:
Check out this Kickstarter campaign that raised over $250,000—now that's what we call crowdsourcing success.
Crowdsourcing is the practice of obtaining input, ideas, or services from a large group of people, typically via the internet. This approach leverages the collective intelligence and diversity of a crowd to solve problems, generate ideas, or complete tasks.
Crowdsourcing can significantly boost your social media marketing by engaging your followers in a meaningful way. It can help you gather valuable insights, create user-generated content, and build a community around your brand.
Successful crowdsourcing campaigns are often characterized by clear objectives, engaging tasks, and attractive rewards. For instance, Nestlé’s crowdsourcing campaign for Milkybar invited the public to propose new snack ideas using natural ingredients, with the winning idea earning a $5,000 prize. This example showcases how crowdsourcing can drive innovation and customer engagement. Another noteworthy example is LEGO Ideas, where LEGO fans submit their designs for new sets, and the best ideas are developed into actual products. This approach not only engages their community but also introduces fresh and innovative products to the market.
Various platforms can facilitate effective crowdsourcing, each catering to different needs and industries. For example, Kickstarter is ideal for fundraising and launching new products, while Amazon Mechanical Turk is useful for outsourcing micro-tasks. InnoCentive excels at solving complex scientific problems, and Crowdspring is perfect for creative tasks like graphic design and branding.