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Crowdsourcing is the act of outsourcing tasks, traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, to a large group of people or community (a crowd), through an open call.
The difference between crowdsourcing and outsourcing is that a task or problem is outsourced to an undefined public rather than a specific group. In crowdsourcing the activity is initiated by a client and the work might be undertaken on an individual, as well as a group, basis.
The perceived benefits of crowdsourcing include:
- Problems can be explored at comparatively little cost and often extremely quickly.
- Payment is often omitted.
- Your company can tap a wider range of talent than might be present within your own organization.
- By listening to the crowd, you can gain first-hand insight on your customers' desires.
- The community may feel a brand-building kinship with the crowdsourcer, which is the result of an earned sense of ownership through contribution and collaboration.
A few months ago we needed to do some research regarding a service we were planning to implement. By enlisting our followers on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, this blog and via our newsletter we were able to systematically utilize those who are already familiar with what we do to give us feedback on our project. Crowdsourcing confirmed a need and desire for our new service in mere minutes rather than months.
Additionally, by surveying those in the "crowd" we learned of concerns we hadn't thought of. As a result, we built a relationship with several individuals who wanted to utilize our new services and several of those relationships have blossomed into much larger sales and far more leads than expected.
In an interview with Andrea Grover [a curator of crowdsourced art], Grover is asked if web-based collaborative projects tend to be different from face-to-face projects. She states that individuals tend to be more open because they are not being physically judged or scrutinized...In an online atmosphere there is more attention being given to the project rather than communication with other individuals.
Crowdsourcing is not limited to any particular industry or even a specific purpose which makes it an inexpensive method for anyone to find solutions to just about anything. With the recent surge of CrowdFunding, we're sure to see this method of information-sharing explode alongside advances in technology. So, if you need answers cheap and on the fly, Crowdsourcing or even Crowdfunding might be the solution you're looking for.
Allison B. Kontur
www.BathBodySupply.com
2 comments:
Love this post! I crowdsource all the time. It's so great that it often happens naturally. It's fun and productive to listen to what people are saying. People love to share their ideas and opinions. As for crowdfunding, I've never tried it, but an IBN member recently funded the printing of her first book using Kickstarter (can't remember the exact name). Everyone who sent money got a free copy of the book, and she got it printed with hardly any out of pocket costs of her own. Yay for the CROWD!
I really believe that Crowdsourcing saves time, energy and money. As indies, this is even more important (or should be)!
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