Think better, think together | Digital Letterpress: Part 6

Thanks to the Internet, we don’t consume content like we used to. If you’ve kept up with this blog at all in the past two months, you will notice that as a recurring theme in my posts. The Internet has literally changed how our society lives, behaves, interacts, and expects to be entertained. Thanks, Internet. The days of the general public being left out of creative processes are long gone. We now expect the ability to give feedback and to voice our opinions while artists, businesses, and other public figures produce content. YouTube Trends Manager Kevin Allocca says, “Unlike the one-way entertainment of the twentieth century, this community participation is how we become a part of the phenomenon, either by spreading it or doing something new with it.”

Our ability to connect and share ideas makes up the general principle of crowdsourcing. Industries can now reach out to audiences for input to gather new innovative ideas. The Internet allows them to find good ideas from the masses, a feat not possible in the past. Crowdsourcing provides a way to both solve problems and promote new content. Marketers and communicators can utilize crowd sharing to ignite advertising campaigns, and at the same time, businesses may inquire for community involvement in projects. Overall, our society will work more efficiently and effectively when we embrace the concept of sharing the responsibility inherent in idea creation and circulation.

Allowing people to think and express ideas freely is a tenet of democracy. Crowdsourcing can thrive in communities that encourage the empowerment of public minds. Instead of keeping the creative process limited to the few people actually working on the project, it attempts to include giant collectives in the creation of ideas. Daren Brabham says it gives “individuals in the crowd a chance at entrepreneurship, or at the very least and outlet for creative energy.” There is nothing more democratic than reaching out to one’s own audience and gleaning input, ideas, and opinions. It places power in the hands of the consumer rather than simply leaving it in the lap of the business or other creator. Not only is it sharing power, but it it strengthening relationships. As individuals from the public are allowed to share input, greater bonds and connections build between them and the “crowdsourcer.”

“In other words, a company posts a problem online, a vast number of individuals offer solutions to the problem, the winning ideas are awarded some form of bounty, and the company mass produces the idea for its own gain.” Daren Brabham in Crowdsourcing as a Model for Problem Solving

As Brabham explains, the idea-fishing represented here is symbiotic as it rewards both parties involved. It empowers those creating ideas while it answers questions and solves problems for the ones receiving those ideas. Kathryn Kearns gives insight to a number of crowdsourcing success stories in her blog on tweakyourbiz.com. (Here is the link to her article.) Two companies in particular take intriguing approaches to consumer-connection. Lego allows users to design their very own products that are voted on by the community. Winning products then are created and sold by Lego, “1% royalty” returning to the creator. McDonald’s recently did something similar when it allowed people to “make your own” burger. Winning burgers were released by McDonald’s while publicizing the inventor with a picture and bio. In both cases, the companies benefited by receiving new products to sell, while individuals were given platforms to express their creativity.

These ideas generated from a collective are birthed in innovation. Ideas can build on one another and go through iterative processes. Like Mr. Allocca said in the quote from the beginning of this post, entertainment is now a two-way dialogue instead of one-way consumption. When companies allow for conversation between their creators and their general audience, they give chances to tweak, polish, and even reinvent their vision. The end result is a better product because the process journeyed through the minds of many instead of a few. Companies who use crowdsourcing for problem-solving subscribe to the concept that better ideas will come from a group rather than just one or two internal employees.

“Crowdsourcing is often based on the framework of collective intelligence, the idea that knowledge is the most accurate when it consists of inputs from a distributed population – ‘all of us together are smarter than any one of us individually.’” From The Promise of Idea Crowdsourcing – Benefits, Contexts, Limitations written by Tanja Aitamurto, Aija Leiponen, and Richard Tee

Creation takes drafting and revising, always striving for a better result. When more minds invest into a project, new perspectives arise and give fresh takes on an idea or problem. In Mr. Allocca’s TED Talk quoted above, he showed how a video on Youtube that consisted of a very simple premise went viral because other people added their own visions to the original product. In the end, the ideas of the resulting videos were much grander than the original. Imagine if we could apply this to problems in real life. If we can spark many minds brainstorming in unison, tackling an issue from different angles and perspectives, we can get bigger and better results. When we fully “buy in” to this idea of group input and creation, we will be able to solve problems more effectively since crowdsourcing allows for deliberate communication and relationship between a business and outside creators.

The use of social connections in crowdsourcing can also propel ideas or brands forward. It can be used as an immense marketing strategy. David Winston’s “Four C’s” of the digital world–communications, content, collaboration, and community–greatly influence how members of an audience share, respond, and advertise ideas set forward by companies. Industries, because of social media, can instantly connect with audiences and request their assistance in spreading messages. Successful businesses now and in the future will be able to capitalize on the relationships built with their allies.

“Media organizations and businesses have struggled to make and keep these connections, partly because they have yet to allow for full public engagement. They have also neglected the relationship between their brands—not just their content—and their potential audiences.” Avery Holton and Mark Coddington in Recasting Social Media Users as Brand Ambassadors: Opening the Doors to the First ‘Social Suite’

The power of communities to circulate information is too powerful for marketers to ignore moving forward. Not only can they invest in their current audiences, but they can reach out to new ones, all through the use of groups as transmitters. Instead of investing in an expensive marketing campaign, they could invest in people and trust that they will reach new markets. The community will spread the message, and the community will invest back into the company that trusted them. In the end, it’s all about relationship.

And in the end, crowdsourcing is all about relationship. If we want to communicate better, and create bigger ideas, we need to be investing in people. We should be reaching out to groups, looking for uniques voices and perspectives. If we want a more efficient society, we will do all we can to think together, journey together, and dream big together.