Crowdsourcing and Social Media's Impact in an Evolving Digital Landscape

 I was not familiar with crowdsourcing until this class. I have taken part in many surveys throughout my life. Surveys are more focused on giving specific questions that do not give participants as much leeway in how they answer. Crowdsourcing allows participants to have more creativity in their answers to certain questions. Crowdsourcing is beneficial for strategic communicators to use to engage with their audience and gain new ideas to build their brand. In today’s discussion, I will talk about how social media and crowdsourcing is beneficial for strategic communicators to gain new insights that can grow their company’s brand. 

 

Social Media: A Critical Component of Crowdsourcing

Strategic communicators can use social media to their advantage when it comes to crowdsourcing. Social media plays a key role in bringing people of different perspectives together. Companies that want to have a diverse portfolio of participants for a crowdsourcing campaign should use social media platforms to drive their campaigns. “Social media is becoming an essential component to crowdsourcing as it allows organizations to reach a wider audience faster, cheaper and more efficiently than ever before” (Marchionda, n.d.). As technology continues to advance, crowdsourcing on social media will be more common for companies that want to receive a wide range of innovative ideas for their online campaigns. Doritos is widely known for their unique commercials, especially during the Super Bowl. The company continues to expand its brand through crowdsourcing. Doritos uses Viralocity, an online campaign that “requires users to name a newest flavor, make a viral video about it and then share it online” (Marchionda, n.d.). The company uses its online audience to help create new ideas that would not have been found through only traditional marketing. The campaign was regarded as a success because it “generated more than 1,100 entries, seven million video views, a YouTube following of 3,500 subscribers and more than 66,000 Facebook fans” (Marchionda, n.d.). Social media is the driving force of crowdsourcing because companies can not only gather a wider sample of critical data, but also engage and interact with its online audience.

Crowdsourcing: A Marketing Tool for Businesses

Companies can use crowdsourcing to receive feedback from the public that can help gage whether their service or product is of good quality or needs to be improved. Companies like Doritos use crowdsourcing to help create their commercials. One of the company’s most popular commercials was the “Time Machine.” The commercial, which was released during the 2014 Super Bowl, was created by an aspiring filmmaker who won Doritos’ annual Crash the Super Bowl contest. “Frito-Lay, Dorito's conglomerate, ran Crash the Super Bowl every year from 2007 through 2016, awarding the winner with a huge cash prize and airing their commercial during the Super Bowl. And by offering such a can't-miss opportunity, which allowed them to tap into tens of thousands of people's creativity, Doritos could associate some of the most unforgettable Super Bowl ads with their brand” (Riserbato, 2020). Doritos is one of the most popular brands because they use public input to help generate their content. When companies interact with their consumers then they can have a better understanding of how their products or services are being used. PepsiCo’s Lay’s brand, a competitor of Doritos, also takes advantage of crowdsourcing. PepsiCo puts out a “Do Us a Flavor” campaign every few years to help create new flavor combinations and garner interest from the public. One of my favorite flavors from the campaign was fried green tomato. I even submitted some flavors of my own in past campaigns. I liked the idea of Nutella flavored chips.

The Effect of Crowdsourcing in Government

Governments at all levels can use crowdsourcing on social media platforms to receive public input on certain topics of interest. Some local governments have not caught on to using crowdsourcing as a tool to connect with their residents. “In last year’s Bloomberg Philanthropies survey of American mayors, only 26 percent of cities said they crowdsource ideas from residents” (Bloomberg Cities, 2019). If more local leaders utilize crowdsourcing, then they can have a better relationship with their residents. Residents can feel like they are being heard when they are able to engage with their local government. Local governments facing a problem can use crowdsourcing to help find a solution through active engagement with residents. “Instead of assuming City Hall has all the answers, crowdsourcing acknowledges that residents know best what the problems are where they live. And residents often have ideas for solutions that the ‘experts’ may not have thought of” (Bloomberg Cities, 2019). One such example came from San José, California. The problem was how to erase graffiti. The mayor put out a challenge to seek input from residents on how to fix the issue. The solution came from a group of residents who had the idea to use a drone to remove graffiti from the city’s buildings. When governments enlist the assistance of residents, creative insights can be shared, and innovative solutions can be developed.

The Future of Crowdsourcing

Personalized crowdsourcing is a new practice that is already gaining traction from individuals and businesses. “The difference between crowdsourcing and personalized crowdsourcing is that crowdsourcing involves obtaining ideas or services from a large group of people, to either solve a problem, or receive reliable information based on the input from a wide selection of people. However, this new personalization component takes it a step further by filtering content to what a person and/or business is exactly looking for -- it's crowdsourcing as you know it, but with the option to dive deep into the crowd and find people that are similar to you to chat with and ensure that your decision, whether it be what hotel to stay at, which restaurant to try, or what car to buy, is as accurate as can be” (Efrati, 2019). Personalized crowdsourcing would be beneficial for those who do not want to sift through recommendations that do not relate to them. When an online user can find content that relates to their preferences, then there would be less uncertainty when it comes to making decisions about such things as a travel arrangement or house purchase.

In conclusion, crowdsourcing is beneficial for companies because it helps generate creative insights to grow a brand. Crowdsourcing is not possible without many customers that can be used to brainstorm new ideas. When companies interact with their customers, they develop a relationship. When a relationship is formed between a customer and a brand, then there is a level of trust that is built between the two parties. Customers will not take part in helping a brand if they do not have trust in the company. When companies damage their reputation, they lose the trust of their customers. Crowdsourcing does not gain as much traction when bridges are burned between companies and customers. Companies that want to grow their business need to have a good relationship with their customers. Crowdsourcing and social media will help strategic communicators build their company’s brand with fresh and creative content that will last for years to come.  

References:

Bloomberg Cities. (2020, February 28). Explainer: What You Need to Know About Crowdsourcing. Medium. Retrieved September 19, 2021, from https://bloombergcities.medium.com/explainer-what-is-crowdsourcing-9dc2914e1845.

Efrati, O. (2020, November 12). The Rise of Crowdsourcing: It Gets The People Going. International Business Times. Retrieved September 19, 2021, from https://www.ibtimes.com/rise-crowdsourcing-it-gets-people-going-2803310.

Marchionda, M. (n.d.). Crowdsourcing Spreading Like Wildfire with Social Media. Prescient Digital Media. Retrieved September 19, 2021, from https://www.prescientdigital.com/articles/web-2.0/crowdsourcing-spreading-like-wildfire-with-social-media.

Riserbato, R. (2020, April 22). The Ultimate Guide to Crowdsourcing. HubSpot Blog. Retrieved September 19, 2021, from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/crowdsourcing.