Crowdsourcing

Chapter nine of "Real-Time Marketing and PR" talks about crowdsourcing, or taking a task that a few people can do and distributing it among a larger group of people via online social networks. David Meerman Scott begins the chapter by talking about BrandBowl 2010, created by the ad agency Mullen, which ranked viewers' reactions to ads that were shown during the 2010 Super Bowl. Through the chapter, Scott shares various ways crowdsourcing can be used for different tasks. These include how to name a product or title a book and how to produce a movie with no budget.

Scott talks about how Mark Levy use crowdsourcing to come up with the final title of his book, "Accidental Genius: Using Writing to Generate Your Best Ideas, Insight and Content." Levy and the publisher utilized SurveyMonkey to gain input from people on the title and subtitle of the book. A email questionnaire was sent to Levy's friends, colleagues and fans. They had to rank their favorites from the lists of titles and subtitles. Although Levy was worried that he would lose control of his project, that wasn't the case. The "Accidental Genius" title was the favorite title. In addition, he provided a forum to people to help create the subtitle.

Another example of crowdsourcing occurred with Jan Willem Alphenaar, who produced and directed a two-hour documentary, "DSB the Movie", for free. He crowdsourced everything that was required for the film. Not only that, the documentary was completed in four months, compared to the typical year for similar productions. The time it took for the movie to be finished surprised me.  Alphenaar told people about his film through LinkedIn, Twitter and Hyves, a Dutch-language social networking site. Through crowdsourcing, many tasks were accomplished quickly, such as writing the script, filming the movie and determining the soundtrack.

While crowdsourcing sounds like a great idea, you also have to consider what the contributors will receive. In the case of "DSB the Movie," the contributors felt like they were greatly involved in the film and received a credit in the film. They should be offered a reward for their efforts. Perhaps you thank the contributors, or they receive an item.

Crowdsourcing sounds like an interesting idea. Tasks can get done much quicker than by using a traditional method. However, you have to consider the positives with the negatives. It is possible that crowdsourcing could gain a bad reputation. Some people could try and get something for nothing and not provide a benefit to contributors.