What Is Crowdsourcing?

More About Crowdsourcing:
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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.

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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:
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• Feedback Collection - One of the most straightforward forms of crowdsourcing is asking for feedback. This can be done through surveys, polls, or open-ended questions on social media platforms. For example, a brand might use Instagram Stories to conduct polls that gather customer opinions on a new product idea.
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• Contests and Giveaways - Holding contests and giveaways is another popular crowdsourcing technique. Brands can encourage users to submit creative content, such as photos, videos, or designs, with the promise of a reward for the best entries. This not only generates user-generated content but also increases engagement and visibility.
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• Surveys and Polls - Arranging for surveys and polls is another effective way to crowdsource information. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn offer built-in features that allow users to create and share polls with their followers. This can be particularly useful for market research and gathering customer insights.

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Let’s dive into the awesome benefits of social media crowdsourcing:
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1. Increased Publicity - Crowdsourcing campaigns often generate significant publicity, which can lead to increased sales and brand awareness. By involving a large number of people, brands can create buzz and attract attention to their products or services.
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2. Building Brand Loyalty - Crowdsourcing helps build brand loyalty by fostering a sense of community and involvement among followers. When customers feel that their opinions and contributions are valued, they are more likely to remain loyal to the brand and engage with its content.
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3. Enhanced Social Media Engagement - Crowdsourcing can also boost social media engagement by encouraging followers to participate in various activities, such as polls, contests, and feedback sessions. This increased interaction can lead to higher engagement rates and a more active online community.

Here are some popular crowdsourcing platforms you might find interesting:
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1. Kickstarter - Kickstarter is a popular crowdfunding platform that allows creators to raise funds for their projects by soliciting contributions from the public. It has been used to launch a wide range of products, from tech gadgets to creative projects.
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2. Amazon Mechanical Turk - Amazon Mechanical Turk is a marketplace for micro-tasks, where businesses can post small tasks that can be completed by a large pool of workers. This platform is ideal for tasks that require human intelligence, such as data validation and content moderation.
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3. InnoCentive - InnoCentive focuses on solving complex scientific and business challenges through crowdsourcing. Organizations can post problems on the platform, and a global network of experts and solvers can submit solutions. Successful solutions are often rewarded with cash prizes.
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4. Crowdspring - Crowdspring is a platform for creative services, such as graphic design, copywriting, and web development. Businesses can post projects and receive submissions from a community of freelancers, allowing them to choose the best design or concept.
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Check out this Kickstarter campaign that raised over $250,000—now that's what we call crowdsourcing success.
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