CROWDSOURCING. SO, WHAT'S THIS ALL ABOUT?

       

September 24, 2017 By: Deric Kennedy

Hey, welcome back to The SCEM VIEW, with Deric. As you know, I’m pursuing a master’s degree in Strategic Communication at Troy University and this show (blog) was created to explore and discuss various topics and content in my Strategic Communication & Emerging Media (SCEM) course. I’m glad to have you back! Before we move on to this week’s show, here’s a quick recap of last week’s. During week five, my COM 6630 class explored Blogging, Citizen Journalism and Digital Democracy. Admittedly, I got a little off topic but overall, I believe it was insightful. We took a look into, what I call a “Journalistic Beef” between educated- professional journalists and everyday citizen journalists and bloggers. A lot was shared but what I concluded was, it is all journalism, just done differently. While I do acknowledge what seems to be a “ranking” in relevance and credibility, at base, both journalists and bloggers essentially carry out very similar missions.

Well, we are now at week six! This week, COM 6630 is exploring Crowdsourcing, Politics and the Global Impact of Emerging Media. Yes, I know, putting crowd sourcing, politics and the global impact of emerging media together may appear to be a strange combination on the surface but as Dr. Padgett hoped, I have indeed noticed how these points work together. But can I be honest here? It wasn’t until very recently that I actually understood this stuff. The global impact of emerging media was easy to understand and analyze. And so was the political aspect of it all but, I wasn’t exactly sure what crowdsourcing was nor how it worked.

I presume that most of us are familiar with crowdsourcing but in case there’s someone who isn’t, let’s go back. What exactly is crowdsourcing? According to dictionary.com, crowdsourcing is to utilize labor, information, etc., contributed by the general public (crowd), often via the Internet and without compensation. This definition wasn’t the clearest for me. But, I found this one, “Crowdsourcing, is using a CROWD (via the internet) as your SOURCE to obtain needed knowledge, goods or services.” Hopefully, that description was more helpful for those who, like myself, weren’t all too familiar! Through the weeks reading and assignments I have learned that businesses, individuals and organizations of all kinds have used this process to solicit ideas and raise money as well as consolidate and promote information. The Techtarget Network notes these entities leverage the internet, social media and purpose-built platforms to elicit and receive the knowledge, goods or services they're seeking. This allows them to engage with a broader spectrum of sources than they would if they had used employees, suppliers and other traditional sources of expertise via conventional routes of engagement.

I, like many others, was a little skeptical about crowdsourcing and favored traditional sources but once I gathered more information, I quickly concluded that it was the gold route! The beauty of crowdsourcing is that you can now have access to thousands of talented individuals who can do work faster and at a lower cost. Most would agree that two minds are better than one. So, a lot of minds working together must be even better! This is precisely why crowdsourcing is so beneficial, most would say. Traditionally, you’d have a team or organization and for whatever was needed, the team would look within to complete the task. But as we grew into a more mobile and connected society, those walls came down and organizations began to look beyond. This relatively new form of outsourcing is typically used by companies to save costs as well as engage with consumers and audiences. Speaking of saving costs, I found a great example of this on an article I found on wired.com. Jeff Howe, wired.com, mentioned the story of a project director at the National Heath Museum in Washington, DC who was putting together a series of interactive kiosks devoted to potential pandemics like the flu. Well, apparently Menashe, the director, needed photos for the project and sought to make a deal with well- known freelance photographer, Mark Harmel, but after weeks of communication, she regretfully informed him the deal was off. You see, Menashe discovered a stock photo site which had images at very affordable prices, unlike the price tags attached to Mr. Harmels, who wasn’t aware that his offers were no longer scarce. Like this example, the use of crowdsourcing helped Menashe cut costs and still able to attain the good or services needed. This of course wasn’t the best news for the photographer but it definitely was a more economic route for Menashe.

As we’ve learned, crowdsourcing is used for many purposes including generation, saving costs, solving problems and consumer engagement but those who utilize this strategy must be careful. As mentioned previously, the beauty of crowdsourcing is that you can now have access to thousands of talented individuals who can do work faster and at a lower cost; however, specialists should be wary of a few mistakes because crowdsourcing can lead to problems when not used in the best capacity! A really clear example of this was found on the Harvard Business Review called “4 Mistakes that Kill Crowdsourcing Efforts.” The four mistakes were allowing messy, unfocused core interactions, too much vertical integration and too little orchestration, producing too much social waste and failing to leverage network effects.  Laymen’s terms, companies need to find better than decent individuals to help find good products. After all, not everyone in a “crowd” is an expert and/or qualified. You don’t want to receive low-quality work. Lastly, and in my opinion, one of the most important notes mistakes we want to stand clear of, using crowdsourcing strategy should only take place if your organization is ready. You don’t want to cause turbulence in your business. But hey, enough of that. The beauty and benefit of crowdsourcing outweigh the risks and now that I have a general understanding of it all, I don’t think I could picture the future without it.

Well, I hope this show (post) has been most insightful and entertaining even! And we ‘re going to end this week’s show on that note. Catch you right back here next week with The SCEM View, with Deric!

Thanks.