The rapid growth of digital marketing and social media in today’s business world offers many revolutionary opportunities for exploring new horizons. These technologies are commonly focused and employed in the domains of marketing and consumer research, although they can be very effective if used powerfully in the practice of marketing. crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing describes the practice of companies or individuals obtaining necessary services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people, especially from the online community, rather than traditional employees or vendors.
The crowdsourcing principle highlights the fact that more heads are better than one. When polling a large crowd of people for ideas, skills, or participation, the quality of content and idea creation will definitely be superior. The proper application of crowdsourcing to a company allows the selection of the best result from a sea of ’best entries’, rather than being forced to receive the best entry from a single provider. Results can also be delivered much faster than traditional methods, as crowdsourcing is a form of freelance work.
Social businesses, especially nonprofits, can make use of crowdsourcing, applying it from fundraising and marketing to activism and volunteering. With this concept, nonprofits can harness the power of the crowd to raise awareness of their cause, gather information, cultivate new donors and volunteers, and even get the job done.
Even in its early days, people have been using the Internet to solicit and organize groups of people to play small roles in projects. Therefore, we can define crowdsourcing actions in modern social businesses as engaged communities, be it your group of volunteers, donors and clients, your local community or a community of like-minded people to provide contributions, ideas and feedback that generally can not. get. The idea of outsourcing non-profit tasks through crowdsourcing can demonstrate openness and transparency in decision-making and there are different models of this application that exist for social business. These models include;
Attract collective knowledge: This crowdsourcing model involves the exchange and aggregation of information to find solutions to problems, as it focuses on the idea that two or more heads are better than one.
Microvolunteering: In this crowdsourcing model, large tasks are broken down into much smaller ones, allowing for the ability to outsource repetitive jobs to the crowd. Microvolunteering was successfully implemented after Hurricane Katrina, when large numbers of volunteers manually logged 15,200 entries to consolidate each of the missing persons information sources. Nonprofits can learn to effectively apply this crowdsourcing model by utilizing local fundraising consulting services.
Crowd creation: Here, crowds are used to help produce original works of art. This model is similar to an open source project in which many people make contributions.
Mass voting: Because everyone has an opinion, this crowdsourcing model is designed to explore people’s love of expressing themselves by voting on something or rating and giving feedback. Harnessing that desire can increase awareness of your cause while attracting valuable new audiences for your message.
Fundraising: This category included the general idea of encouraging people and crowds to financially support projects that benefit others. Some nonprofits in the United States are optimizing crowdfunding as communities are mobilizing crowds to provide funds on special “give days.” For example, in November 2011, more than $ 13.4 million was raised on “Give To The Max Day” in Minnesota.
Any of these models or categories can be used in isolation or combined with other approaches to match the goals of your particular organization.
After discussing the potential ideal crowdsourcing models for your organization, it is equally important to practice this revolutionary concept with caution to always keep things simple and meaningful. For example, if your nonprofit organization needed to devise new plans for an upcoming annual fundraising event, the organization’s fundraising manager could email all supporters asking for ideas and suggestions.
Although each non-profit organization may have different specific ways of making productive use of crowdsourcing, it is necessary to always keep the following guidelines and tips in mind in any social business model to ensure productivity and success;
Plan in advance:
Always start by choosing the right model for your organization’s goals. This involves figuring out what you’re trying to achieve and finding ways to address your goals by choosing the right audience, setting up a crowdsourcing campaign, and getting the word out to the right people. Develop a comprehensive outreach plan that combines the use of social media and emails to access current followers. These current backers are key to the entire plan, as they often have access to networks of like-minded people, helping to get your project across.
For example, choosing a crowdfunding website that closely matches your goal establishes a good platform. Sensitive decisions in the nonprofit planning stages are always more efficient with the proper involvement of a nonprofit consulting professional.
Keep it simple:
Keep your message as simple as possible to get across so it’s easy to help you get it across. Break strategic goals down into smaller tasks that people can help with, and always make it very clear what you want the crowd to do. Crowdfunding is a relatively easy means of soliciting support and is most successful when crowdfunding initiatives rely on family, friends, and colleagues rather than strangers. Key to achieving goals is setting reasonable expectations, along with recognition of traditional fundraising credibility rules, strong networks, a track record of success, and transparency.
Involve and reward participation:
When implementing crowdsourcing methods to engage new groups of potential followers, be as creative as possible in the effort to spread your campaign to places in hopes of reaching new audiences. Consider and establish programs to regularly interact with current supporters and introduce incentives and rewards for participation.
Stay positive:
In all campaigns, it is important to maintain a positive attitude in both the private and public spheres. Also, staying friendly with people who can contribute combined with personal interactions increases the possibility of a donation or action. Believe in the process, forget about any activity that doesn’t clearly support your mission, and stay focused on the mission.
Crowdfunding can produce valuable results when applied correctly in social business and the key to this success is to make the instructions as clear as possible after specific analysis and before the creation of the marketing plan. The easiest way to get your crowdfunding campaign on the right track is to hire profit consulting services or fundraising consulting professionals who specialize in crowdsourcing.