Can You Use Social Media for Crowdsourcing?

Social media is a part of everything now. Businesses can no longer perform without having a social media presence, and people do virtually all their communication through it. A business can connect with their customers through this platform, gauging opinions and providing customer service. The resource really is invaluable, but can it also be used as a crowdsource platform?

Crowd sourcing

Crowd sourcing is really everything that social media has brought us Basically, it means you ask people you have connected with to submit their content, designs, ideas, or even money. It provides you with insight and enables you to interact with the very people you want to connect with. It is one of the most engaging marketing techniques available to us, and it means businesses have uncountable talent right at their fingertips.

How to Use Social Media to Crowd source

First, you have to start the conversation itself. Social media is all about open dialogue. You can no longer expect your customers to be loyal to you simply because you present them with an advertisement. Customers want to be on an equal footing with businesses, and this is where crowd sourcing comes in. You can use it, for instance, as a competition. People can submit their ideas, and they can win something in return. But many people will be happy to join in just for a chance to be part of the conversation.

An example: let’s say you ask your customers to upload videos of them using a product and to explain why they like it. This gives you awesome content that can be shared everywhere, but it also gives you the opportunity to hear what your customers really think about you as well. At the same time, it shows just how much people are willing to do for you. And there’s something in it for the customer as well. They get a bit of fame, for instance. Or you could give them the product they have tried for free. Whatever your idea is, social media is the place to do it.

Social media is absolutely the best online space you could come across on which you can crowd source a project of any kind. It has an informal, relaxed feeling to it, and that means people are ready to engage with you, and to join in on competitions, discussions, and more. People use social media all the time, for absolutely everything, which means there are countless opportunities there for you to get your brand out there. This is a huge way forward from the ancient email campaigns, in which you could only remind people about you so many time before you would get labeled as spam. Best of all, when people engage with you, other people will see it as well, which means your brand name goes even wider. Not only is there no better platform for crowd sourcing, therefore, there is no better platform for free advertising either.

If you haven’t started a social media account for your business yet, you really need to do it right now.