There’s never been a better time for brands – both large to the small - to start investigating how crowdsourcing could work for their business. Crowdsourcing is fast grown up and has moved out of the 'buzzword' phase and is starting to mature nicely with a plethora of niche platforms and services that all aim to bring people together in order to solve a problem and get the job done.
This means that it’s incredibly easy to get a crowdsourcing project off the ground these days. Like most things in life though, there are some guiding principles which you must understand before you can jump right in. Here at Idea Bounty we’ve learnt these lessons through the projects we’ve hosted with brands ranging from Red Bull to the Financial Times. Since we’re such avid fans of sharing wisdom, ideas and lessons learnt; here are our top tips for successful crowdsourcing.
1. Define your crowd
This is the first and possibly most important element of any crowdsourcing campaign. The easiest way to define your crowd is to think about the problem you want solved. Are you looking for a logo? Or ideas for new a product? If you’re looking for a logo, you want to target a specific group of people (designers and creatives) while ideas for a new product can come from anyone. Defining you crowd will also help you decide where’s best to go to find that crowd - for logos a community like 99designs would be the best choice whereas ideas for a new television ad might be better suited to a platform like Idea Bounty. Crowdsourcing platforms have spent time and effort in growing communities that respond to certain types of problems and challenges - knowing what you would like your crowd to look like helps you decide which is the best crowd to reach out to.
2. Make your problem crystal clear
This may seem like and obvious one but you’d be surprised how many people are not 100% clear about the challenge they face. In order to get the most out of a crowdsourcing project, your challenge must be as clear as possible - there must be no questions about what you are looking for and the crowd must understand what you’re asking for (without being able to interpret it in different ways). It is always a good idea to spend time and effort in making your challenge as clear and simple as possible.
3. Process, process, process
This is something that you will find all crowdsourcing platforms have in place already - however it’s still important to make sure you understand this process and that it’s easy to understand. Things to look out for are well defined steps in the process, for example (1) Challenge posted (2) Solutions submitted (3) Selections made (4) Voting etc…
4. Involve yourself
Not all (but most) crowdsourcing platforms give you, the brand, an opportunity to engage with the community - do this! Crowdsourcing is a conversation and you need to make sure you’re “talking”. If possible, make sure that your senior management is there too, it makes a big difference for the crowd when they know they’re talking to people who call the shots. It’s also a great way to answer any questions the crowd may have about your business and brand, this level of engagement and interest in your brand is hard to generate elsewhere so capitalise on it when you can.
5. Feedback
Yes, responding to every contribution ( no matter whether it’s useful or not) is resource-intensive but well worth the effort. A brand that takes the time to show people they’re genuinely engaged does wonders for image and reputation - on top of this, a good response to a non-useful contribution can result in a new idea and a much better contribution later on down the line.
6. Give credit
No matter what the reward system of the platform you’re using, it’s always a good idea to give extra credit to the crowd. Again; this shows people that you are appreciative of their efforts and contributions and will make them enamoured with your brand - as an added bonus it’ll encourage responses the next time you go back to the crowd.
Bonus tip - Be transparent
This is something that needs to be an overarching principal that is stuck to for the entire duration of the project. As mentioned above, crowdsourcing is a conversation and just like in Social Media, you need to be transparent about all that you do. Make sure the crowd knows what you will do with the results, how the final decision was made and how the contributions will be rewarded. Be open and the crowd will open up to you.
Lastly we’d like to encourage you to never be afraid to ask the crowd - you will consistently be amazed at how open and willing they are to get involved and pass on their ideas… you just have to ask.
