Is crowdsourcing the next step in brand building?

More and more brands are turning to social networks and community message boards to virally spread their message to the masses. Crowdsourcing is a relatively new trend in this area which takes the thoughts of a large group of people in the form of an open call.

by Kristina Knight

One way this can be done is to ask the group to create a design or help to develop a new technology. It can also be used to analyze data; but how can it be used in the marketing realm?

To create a searchable database on your content site. Crowdsourcing this rather than depending on a few staff members or experts could give a greater depth to the database because potentially thousands of opinions and voices can be heard. Crowdsourcing can also be more cost-effective and faster because of the large amount of people involved. Contributions are solicited with each person offering a little bit of information rather than paying one person to do a wealth of research to find the same answers.

However, any random consumer won't work; the consumers involved in crowd sourcing must have a developed interest in the subject. Search and sound recognition firm Melodis posted an open call for karoke enthusiasts to help them create their database of searchable music. They created a star system for users to rank favorite songs, giving their database greater depth. Users can also post profiles and comment on other users' performances; users can also interact socially by sharing photos and songs.

Because the users are engaged because of their prior interest, Melodis created an even deeper engagement level that can be copied by other brands. Find out what creates interest in your brand or product and from there develop ways to more deeply engage your core audience.