5 Tips for finding the right crowdsourcing platform
Crowdsourcing is more than just a buzz word being used in strategy and innovation circles – it's a game-changer for leaders across policy, community engagement and business management. But what is crowdsourcing and where do you start?
Crowdsourcing is all about leveraging the power of many to be able to identify opportunities and challenges faster using the wisdom of the crowd. It combines aspects of knowledge gathering and democratic deliberation, in a way that paves the way for shared insight and learning, which in turn leads to innovative problem-solving and powerful insights. A number of platforms have been built to scale the crowdsourcing model, some provide a digital space for asking questions, some idea management and some have gone on to build an insight community for development of innovative solutions. So which crowdsourcing platform is right for you?
Here are our top tips for finding the right Crowdsourcing Platform.
Tip 1: Find the right Community
Our first tip for finding the right crowdsourcing platform is know their community and make sure it aligns with your values and the questions you're looking to solve. Let's use plant-based food products as an example. There are idea management platforms that connect you to experts in specific fields like science and technology research, which is great if your question is around emerging tech but would be limiting if you are working on your go to market strategy and need to better understand the consumer motivation. Bringing the right problem to the right crowd, is the first step to insightful and passionate discussion.
Tip 2: Accessibility
Our second tip is trial the platform. To get the most out of crowdsourcing, there needs to be minimal barriers for the crowd to engage with your question and each other. Therefore it’s important to test the accessibility of the technology itself. Free platforms will allow a wider audience to engage in chosen discussions, garnering a wide area of backgrounds from all the participants. While a paid-for service restricts users may offer highly specialised groups. Both have benefits and downfalls in their own right, which is up to your discretion.
Tip 3: Networking
The third tip is the most interesting when it comes to Crowdsourcing Platforms... Networking. Networking yourself and your brand to others is how businesses and their leaders excel. The chance to sell yourself and engage with a new crowd is going to be seen as a win-win. Solve your problem through insightful discussion whilst being able to connect with new people. Finding platforms that offer direct access for networking and discussion is an added benefit for anyone looking to use one, as many act as a gatekeeper to the experts you're trying to reach. Read more about the benefits of Networking.
Tip 4: Understanding the Discussion
The fourth tip is how you extract insight from those discussions. You need to be able to easily look over the revolving discussing without any biases taking place. Platforms that are both intuitive and easy to learn break down that barrier between you and the discussion taking place. As the individual or organisation taking advantage of your chosen crowdsourcing platform, you want to be able to track every aspect of it. This may even include platforms allowing external powerful tools such as Leximancer to allow you to extract data from the conversations that took place. Full control over the technology will be key in extracting those key insights.
Tip 5: Ease of use
The final tip is 'ease of use' when it comes to finding the right crowdsourcing platform. Being able to easily learn and adapt to the functionality of the app you have to work with is key in efficiency. Though some platforms will have a team run the crowdsourcing campaign for you at a large cost, most of us need to manage the engagement process ourselves, therefore look for a platform that can easily function to your demands and is highly customisable to your needs. Every crowdsourcing project needs to be crafted for maximum efficiency, with the right platform you can reach the head and hearts of every participants and reach the peak of insightful discussion.
We hope these tips can help you find the perfect crowdsourcing platform for you needs. You may not need to look far however as Mindhive is a free crowdsourcing platform that has something for everyone.
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