Crowdsourcing – Why should it matter to you …
Creators of the 1980s Faberge commercial saw the future. Those of you who were around in the pre-social media age may remember the commercial in which the narrator declares, “… and she told two friends and so on and so on and so on…”
This concept, then known as only as word of mouth (WOM) has, with the dawn of cyberspace, exploded exponentially into viral word out mouth. C2C – consumer to consumer — that’s what crowdsourcing is all about. Companies are making money because Jane tells Sue who tells Amanda that a product is great. Back in “ancient times” (as our children undoubtedly believe the 20th Century to be), that meant three people heard great things (or negative things) about a business. Perhaps a few more if Jane and Sue and Amanda told a few other friends and so on and so on and so on. But now, WOM has turned into VWOM – word of mouth has gone viral. If Jane has 500 friends on FB and she “makes a comment” or “likes” a company or product, now her 500 friends know about her great experience with that product. And if just one of those 500 FB friends tells his/her 500 friends then that’s 1000 people hearing about Jane’s “like” of a product. If you think about what happens if all 500 FB friends make a comment, then that’s 500 times 500 times 500 and so on and so on and so on, to a point that we need to employ exponents to explain just how many people have now heard something about a product that Jane used. That’s a crowd of people – that’s crowdsourcing.
C2C, crowdsourcing, is the future of marketing for businesses that sell to consumers. People trust their friends’ opinions and the opinions of their friends. It’s not that they don’t trust advertisers or advertising, it’s just that people trust their friends more. And that concept is actually part of the dawn of a new era. Think about it: Don’t you trust your friends? Just think about how many restaurants, clothing stores, hair products, books you have gone to or purchased because a friend told you how great it was. And, considering that crowdsourcing is a free marketing technique, there’s not much for a business to complain about, unless your product isn’t getting good reviews. And even that is controllable in this new era of social media. We’ll save that topic for another blog.
So, despite the “jargony” name, crowdsourcing is a key business concept. And because of social media it’s a business bandwagon that should be employed, not ignored.
The upside: Let the consumer “work” for you. Use the Internet to find out what a “community of customers” thinks of your product, your business. Consumers are passionate about what they like. They create their own communities. Use their feedback and lower your costs for formal focus groups and other research on trends. At the same time, you will be generating interest and enthusiasm for a new product. It’s a win/win scenario.
The downside: You cannot control your customer. They are not your employees. And while they won’t ask for a paycheck, they may want something for their time. It could be as simple as recognition for helping you out in the form of a freebee, but it may be a little more complicated like demanding transparency, honesty, and the desire to be heard. This is good for a business but may prove to be a kind of culture shock for many larger businesses.
A little history: The term crowdsourcing was coined in 2006 and the concept itself has become exponentially powerful . Some other words that mean the same thing: Fansourcing, crowdcasting, open sourcing, open innovation, crowdfunding, mass collaboration, collective customer commitment, wikinomics
Where to get the most out of crowdsourcing? FB isn’t the only place a business can tap into their consumer networks. Blogs, online forums and e-mail blasts, YouTube, Twitter are just a few of them. And it won’t stop there. There’s a great social network on the horizon that may not have exploded yet on the scene. Keep your eyes and ears open and make sure you have good sources who can keep you on top of the trends.
