Two Social Media Projects Implementing Crowdsourcing
What seems like ages ago, Web 1.0 was upon us. Simple webpage design, no RSS feeds, not even a “Tweet This” icon… it seems unimaginable. Fortunately, Web 1.0 had a successor: Web 2.0.
What Web 1.0 lacked in complexity, Web 2.0 has made up for in endless possibilities in facilitating conversation, collaboration, and participation that knows no geographical boundaries. Web 2.0 offers communications professionals a wealth of opportunities to convey our messages to specific audiences, and, more importantly, interact with our audiences and hear their comments and feedback – good or bad – in a spontaneous, real-time way.
Taking this interaction to a new level, and moving beyond collaboration, is the implementation of crowdsourcing. The purpose of crowdsourcing is two-fold, (1) to pool ideas and suggestions straight from the consumer and (2) creating a virtual marketplace of ideas. Think of it as a virtual suggestion box. The crucial part of any successful crowdsourcing venture, though, is it’s second phase: action. If you aren’t going to seriously consider the feedback you receive while crowdsourcing, you might as well be throwing your consumers’ ideas in a garbage can.
One successful example, My Starbucks Idea was launched by the company as a web platform where customers can share, vote, and discuss their ideas to better the brand. As Starbucks so politely puts it,
”What would make your Starbucks experience perfect? We know you’ve got ideas – big ideas, little ideas, maybe even totally revolutionary ideas – and we want to hear them all.”
Most important, the company has made good on its word and followed through by offering examples of how particular ideas were implemented in stores.
Crowdsourcing is a great way to build a successful business; simply put, if your customers have a “seat at the table” and they know their voice is being heard, they are more likely to engage with your brand. Crowdsourcing is a valuable component of customer service, but can also be used for nonprofit causes and awareness campaigns.
Last fall Go
ogle launched Project 10 to 100, “a call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible.” Google received an overwhelming response, “people from more than 170 countries submitted more than 150,000 (or around 10^5.2) ideas.” Google then condensed these ideas into 16 broader categories ranging from, “Work toward socially conscious tax policies,” to “Promote health monitoring and data analysis.” This type of crowdsourcing, although different from Starbucks’ method, allows users to have control over a facet of what Google does, in this case, what segments they raise awareness for and promote.
Not sure if you’re ready to crowdsource? Just remember that crowdsourcing works when the aforementioned “crowd” has a collective investment in the product or cause, and when the company conducting the crowdsourcing has the means to implement customers’ (good) ideas. Otherwise, it can backfire by creating a group of disgruntled consumer’s struggling to have their voices heard. And if that happens, you might as well wake up wishing you still lived in a Web 1.0 world.
Tags: Crowdsourcing, Social media, web 2.0
