What Is Crowdsourcing?

Crowdsourcing is the practice of leveraging the collective skills and contributions of a diverse group of individuals to accomplish a task, gather information, or solve a problem.

If a content creator or influencer is crowdsourcing on social media, they are asking people to provide their opinions or ideas on a specific topic. They then use this feedback to support their product development, customer services, and marketing campaigns.

More About Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing is a primary social media approach that, if used appropriately, can help a brand to better understand its customers and their perspectives on the business.

So, what is crowdsourcing? Crowdsourcing solicits ideas, information, or contributions from a large group of people on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram or specific crowdsourcing platforms like Kickstarter.

The crowd typically comprises customers, followers, or other stakeholders, usually engaged in solving a specific problem, generating new ideas, or participating in a creative project.

You can use the crowdsourcing technique to enhance the performance of your campaigns on social media platforms. A few ways through which crowdsourcing on social media adds value to your business are as follows:

The basic actions behind social media crowdsourcing are as follows:

  • Asking for feedback
  • Holding contests and giveaways
  • Arranging for polls or surveys

Let’s look at a couple of examples of a brand accomplishing crowdsourcing. Nestlé, the popular food company, crowdsourced ideas for its Milkybar via eYeka. The company wanted a new snack with natural ingredients, so they asked participants to propose product ideas along with the packaging and presentation. The proposer of the best idea was awarded a $5,000 prize money.

The following image shows another example of Nestlé’s crowdsourcing ventures, wherein they invited their associates to propose food and nutritional solutions for babies.

InGenius

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the main advantage of social media crowdsourcing?

The publicity a brand generates from crowdsourcing campaigns can result in increased sales. Crowdsourcing can also help to build brand loyalty and increase social media engagement by fostering a sense of community and involvement among your followers.

What are a few examples of social media crowdsourcing?

Crowdsourcing on social media can take a variety of forms, such as:

  • Idea generation: Soliciting ideas or suggestions from your followers or customers for new products, services, or initiatives.
  • Content creation: Engaging your followers or customers to develop user-generated content, such as photos, videos, or reviews, that can be used to promote your brand or products.
  • Feedback and reviews: Ask your customers or followers to provide feedback or reviews on your products or services or to participate in surveys or polls to gather data and insights.
  • Fundraising: Crowdsourcing on social media can also be used to raise funds for a specific cause, project, or initiative.

What are some examples of crowdsourcing platforms?

Many brands use specific crowdsourcing sites to find solutions for niche tasks, such as content writing, copywriting, graphic design, proofreading, etc. Examples of crowdsourcing platforms include Kickstarter, Amazon Mechanical Turk, InnoCentive, and Crowdspring.

What are some tips for conducting social media crowdsourcing?

Here are a few things to consider for crowdsourcing on social media:

  • Determine your goals or objectives.
  • Select the appropriate channels or social media platforms that meet your requirements.
  • Team up with your audience by responding appropriately to their actions.
  • Be transparent about communicating your goals and objectives to the audience.
  • Encourage your audience by offering incentives like exclusive content access, discounts, etc.
  • Respect your audience’s privacy and copyright before using their content.
  • Monitor and analyze the data correctly to develop better campaign strategies.

What do different social media platforms do for crowdsourcing?

Different social media platforms support crowdsourcing in different ways:

  • Instagram allows users to arrange polls on Instagram stories for a marketing campaign.
  • Twitter lets users create polls and collects feedback from its followers.
  • Facebook's ‘Questions’ feature enables users to create polls and surveys.
  • LinkedIn’s ‘LinkedIn Polls’ feature permits users to design and share polls with their professional network.
  • TikTok presents a ‘Stitch’ feature for users to react to videos using their own content, thus building collaboration on creative projects.

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