Do you realize how valuable your crowd is? Would you turn to them to get their input to aid in your decision making process? I hope you said yes to both of those questions because your crowd has a lot to offer.
Why is Crowdsourcing Valuable?
A recent survey was conducted to find out more about the role of crowdsourcing and social media in raising awareness and driving engagement for CSR projects. In the socialIMPACT article “The Role of Crowdsourcing in Social Media,” Paul Massey presents some interesting findings from a survey the company collaborated on with KRC Research. They surveyed over 200 top executives from Fortune 2000 companies that were responsible for philanthropic, social responsibility or community outreach. The survey found:
Forty-four percent of executives we surveyed say they have used crowdsourcing – asking customers to provide ideas and help in decision-making. Among those executives, an overwhelming 95 percent reported that it was valuable to their organization’s CSR programming.
When asked why crowdsourcing is so valuable for CSR, executives said it:
- Surfaces new perspectives and diverse opinions (36%)
- Builds engagement and relationships with key audiences (25%)
- Invites clients and customers from nontraditional sources to contribute ideas and opinions (22%)
- Brings new energy into the process of generating ideas and content (16%)
These results show that the opinion of the crowd is important for businesses. Crowdsourcing makes it easier and more affordable for businesses to reach their crowd, listen to their ideas and solicit feedback and comments on proposed projects. Looking to the crowd for ideas helps you get a fresh perspective on an issue and receive opinions from a diverse group of individuals. You can’t cram thousands – or hundreds of thousands – of people into a conference room for a brainstorming session, but you can reach out to them online through social media and crowdsourcing.
Here’s the Slideshare deck from the survey, which offers even more insight into the survey results:
