FreshNetworks Blog

Last night I went to see Jeff Howe, contributing editor at Wired magazine, who was speaking at the ICA in London prior to publicising his new book Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business.

We’ve written about crowdsourcing and co-creation at some length recently, and it’s an area of keen interest for all of us at FreshNetworks. Howe’s talk looked at the concept but also at its effect on various aspects of our life, from online design, merging concepts into businesses and even influencing political movements. He was really the first person to really take on the concept of gathering a group of people together online and realizing how this ‘crowd’ or ‘community’ could be harnessed to deliver innovation or insight into an idea, a brand, or simply to answer a question that might be stumping boffins in a particular company.

Walking away I reflected on what I had heard meant, especially for those of us involved in building and managing online communities. I came up with four main takeaways that I thought I would share here:

1. Any attempt at crowdsourcing must be tailored to the needs of the brand, company or problem. Technology alone will not solve the problem, but through application of tailored (and flexible) tools, supported by planning and management, communities will flourish and return benefit far outstripping the original investment.
2. Online communities offer a greater depth of insight into the thoughts and behaviour of your supporters and detractors, due to a deeper level of emotional engagement from your customers, that no survey or focus group alone can offer (for a similar cost). Companies such as Dell and Nokia have used this to grow their brands in response to the direct wishes of their customers, with great success.
3. A community is not about selling a product, it’s about communicating needs and information. Nike achieved this with Nike+, where the motive is not to sell shoes, but to generate a feeling of community, a common bond amongst its customers. The results speak for themselves, with 93% of Nike+ community members saying that they would recommend it to a friend. Friendships are built, common bonds formed and the brand is strengthened as a result.
4. Communities can deliver change. Real change, not the sort promised during a political campaign, but it can turn a brand around. Who would have thought that a t shirt art competition could turn into a community that was the seed for a multi-million pound business - Threadless anyone?

Some more reading

• SideTaker - crowdsource your private life
• Crowdsourcing Book Excerpt: The Canary in the Coal Mine
• Crowd Funding: A Different Way to Pay for the News You Want
• Wiki Textbook: Two’s Company Three’s a Crowdsource
• Q&A;: Jeff Howe on ‘crowdsourcing’
• GotATeenager? Some best practices in online community strategy
• Incentives In Online Social Communities
• Ways to Crowdsource
• So Much for Crowdsourcing