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:
- Understanding your customers
- Upgrading your product or service based on customer feedback
- Improving your customer services on social media
- Performance evaluation
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.