Crowdsourcing means Business

CrowdSourcing Business

As we have already seen, crowdsourcing is not just about the crowd of graphic design designers, content writers, animators working to meet the requirements of the challenges. It has also given organizations a creative tool to engage its customers, thereby bridging the gap between consumers and businesses. In the past, similar job would have been left to the individuals or small teams but with the advent of crowdsourcing, companies have widened their creative pool of thinkers to help them build businesses, economies, societies and nations.

But crowdsourcing isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. An organization must possess the required grit to make the effort yield a profitable result. To launch a successful crowdsourcing initiative for your company, follow the points mentioned below:

•    Set realistic goals.
•    Identify your target audience.
•    The success of any crowdsourcing initiative lies in the quantity and quality of group engagement. Hence, it’s important to have a strong grip on the coveted result and to reward the participant for their constructive contribution.
•    Work on the suggestions & ideas that you receive.
•    Respond to your customers concerns, proposals and intentions.

Crowdsourcing & Social Media

Crowd Think Tanks

Crowdsourcing, it’s more like a movement now and has finally moved away from just being a niche to the next big thing on the World Wide Web. All the publicity and even the backlash that it’s getting, shows off that it’s not just a fad and this phenomenon is here to stay.

These are exciting times for a marketer. Crowdsourcing has broadened its horizon & has moved beyond its “graphic design challenge model” to harness the power of the crowds to create new products or services and improve upon the existing ones. Social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook has helped in this evolution since they provide a rich source of instantly updated information that could easily be tapped for market research. Several companies are creating online societies or networks where they connect and converse with the crowds to increase brand intimacy & customer loyalty.

Social Media

Crowdsourcing has given the power back into the hands of the consumer and social media has made it easier than ever to engage them. This next-gen crowdsourcing offers huge opportunities for companies to deliver exceptional service to its customers.

FLIRTing With Crowdsourcing

CrowdSourcing

Electronic media has transformed our society and crowdsourcing has evolved from its modest roots to a growth engine for various industries worldwide, contributing enough dollars to keep the digital economy afloat in a post-recessionary world.  This has been possible because the internet has lowered the costs and has removed the barriers that had existed earlier, and has in turn allowed self-employed masses from all over the world to uncork their potential in handling freelance projects.

Companies today are using the power of the crowds or their customers to create important marketing, branding or product development breakthroughs, and social shopping is one such revelation. The FLIRT model of crowdsourcing by Sami Viitamäki of Finland fits this new phenomenon perfectly. FLIRT stands for:

•    Focus
•    Language
•    Incentives
•    Rules
•    Tools

The model demystifies the role of each player in the crowdsourcing ecosystem and offers strategies that could be used by crowdsourcing companies like CrowdThinkTank. It’s a model that anyone managing group organization and communication should not miss.

Crowdsourcing is the Future

Crowd Sourcing

We humans, especially graphic design designers, are a peculiar little species. They’re limited by impermanence, occupy a lilliputian space on a planet that goes around one of innumerable stars, with scale and intricacies they do not have the means to understand – and yet, they act like they are God & can predict the future, in this case: Future of Crowdsourcing!

Crowdsourcing, for the uninitiated, is a simple act of grouping people from various parts of the world to get the work done for a fee. It’s something humankind is doing from the time immemorial but today the social crowdsourcing web has attained a more substantial character. But most design agencies are audaciously predicting that crowdsourcing will die sooner than later, disregarding the fact that this industry has survived recession successfully and is thriving beyond sustainability. One of the major reasons for criticism against crowd-sourcing by major design agencies is – FEAR! Fear because crowdsourcing undermines all the established graphic design designers and their potential work. But being terrified and panicky is not an adequate reason to contradict a rising movement. Regardless of what these obstructionists feel, the reality is that crowd-sourcing is a growing trend which is hard to reverse now.

Crowdsourcing & Design Contests – My Thoughts!

Crowd Sourcing

The most controversial word in the graphics design industry these days is “CrowdSourcing”.  Sentiments are split on its worthiness and people either love the idea of getting their work done on the cheap or hate others for not shutting up about it and the most determined seems to be the ones shooting straight-from-their-shoulders.

Crowd sourcing according to me has number of advantages that cannot be ignored by the graphic design designers of the creative world. It caters to the people who have budget constraints & cannot afford huge sums of money that a professional design company would charge. Also participating in graphic design challenges can give initial break to the creative’s in the design industry & help build their portfolios. The democratization of the design work & the level playing field offered by crowd sourcing concept stirs up the competition leading to increased creativity and quality. It’s up to you to decide whether you want to be a part of this juggernaut or not because it is here for good – in fact it is the future.