3 Benefits of Crowdsourcing
The world of social media has grown tremendously in the past few years. It’s where people go to get news updates, buy products, find new businesses, talk with friends, find romance, and most importantly, share their opinions.
Seriously, everyone thinks their point of view is worth more than gold, so they often share their thoughts through their social media platforms.
With that said, it makes sense why companies are creating and perfecting their social media accounts to increase brand awareness and boost conversion rates.
However, there is one crucial thing that most brands are missing out on, and that’s CROWDSOURCING!
It’s one of those things that will ultimately take your brand or product to the next level.
Yet, before we get into some advantages of using crowdsourced content, let’s breakdown the meaning of it.
What is Crowdsourcing?
Well, it’s simply the gathering of information, opinions, or material from a group of people, which is usually sourced through the internet. In this case, we are focusing on crowdsourcing content and ideas through social media platforms.
Once a brand collects the data from crowdsourcing, it can use it to create new campaigns and make changes to its service that will appeal to its target audience.
For instance, a brand poses a question to its followers to get their opinions on their product, then uses the results to make the necessary changes and create new posts that reflect the changes.
Basically, by getting your consumers involved and engaged through crowdsourcing, you turn your consumers into brand ambassadors.
Now that we’ve got that covered let’s jump into 3 benefits of crowdsourcing content.
Low Cost
First things first, if you’re worried about if crowdsourcing will fit in your budget, don’t fret.
It’s pretty much going to be the same amount you are already spending on your social media budget. Simply because crowdsourcing is based on voluntary reviews, quotes, and social engagement from your audience, meaning there is no cost involved in that process.
Plus, collecting content from consumers and using it to connect with them could cost little to nothing.
In fact, Oreo utilized crowdsourcing in its “Daily Twist” campaign for its 100th anniversary. They held a 100-day series of cookie designs and asked their audience to select their favorite designs on their social media.
The campaign was so effective that Oreo’s Facebook page sharing increased more than 4,000 percent.
Even though they may have spent money on paid ads and other expenses during the campaign, the ROI was much higher than the cost.
Better Understanding of Audience
One of the main benefits of using crowdsourcing is that it provides brands with a better understanding of their target audience.
It allows you to obtain unique insight directly from your consumers and use it to your advantage.
It is an effective way of getting quality feedback from consumers to know exactly how they feel about your brand. Plus, utilizing quotes from the feedback creates a story behind your brand and allows you to learn how consumers connect and interact with your brand.
By collecting feedback directly from your consumers, you can better understand their content preferences, buying behavior, interests, pain points, etc.
Take the Lay’s brand, for example. They successfully used crowdsourcing for their “Do Us A Flavor” contest. Lay’s asked their customers to submit ideas for their next potato chip flavor and then select their favorite out of the finalist.
This allowed them to understand their customers better and ensure that they are providing them with what they want. Plus, they were able to try out new flavors and see customer reactions to them.
Brand Enhancement
Crowdsourcing can also help brands improve their service or product by utilizing customer feedback from social media.
I mean, seriously! What better way to find out what issues consumer are having with your products than by listening to the consumers themselves?
Brands have the opportunity to use crowdsourcing to identify those issues and then make the necessary adjustments to improve them.
Starbucks is a brand that has been effectively using crowdsourcing for years to improve its products and services.
The company uses it to collect ideas from customers ranging from new products, like Cake Pops and K-Cups, to in-house experiences, like free Wi-Fi.
Plus, crowdsourcing has helped them build a strong social media community where they can gather feedback directly from their customers.
One of their most famous crowdsourcing campaigns was their “White Cup Contest,” where they asked customers to submit their coffee cup designs to social media with the hashtag #WhiteCupContest.
As a result of the crowdsourcing contest, Starbucks received free promotion, with almost 4,000 designs, expanding its reach and building its community. Plus, they got a new reusable cup design, and their customers get a 10-cent discount each they use the cup at their stores.
With all of this in mind, crowdsourcing content is an effective strategy for any brand with many benefits. It provides ways to connect with consumers personally, collect their feedback on products and new ideas, and display creativity.
In other words, what are you waiting for?
Happy Crowdsourcing!
