Soliciting contributions from large crowds has been proven to deliver better results than from experts alone, and has also saved time and money for businesses. Learn why crowdsourcing is so valuable to businesses, the various types of crowdsourcing, who is doing it right and what these businesses have in common. Full webinar at: How to leverage social media data for crowdsourcing business insights

1. December 8, 2015
The Power of Crowds

2. To follow the conversation on Twitter,
use #TracxCrowds
Conversation Analysis

3. Reinhardt Schuhmann, Product
Manager, Tracx
Conversation Analysis

4. Identifying Crowdsourcing

5. What is it?
• Crowdsourcing is defined as soliciting
contributions from large crowds
• It has been around for many years, and
has evolved along with technology
• One of the most powerful platforms for
crowdsourcing is social media
Identifying Crowdsourcing

6. Before The Internet
• 1714 - The Longitude Prize
• The British Government offered the
public a monetary prize to come up
with a method for measuring a
ship’s longitude. John Harrison
succeeded.
• 1884 – The Oxford English Dictionary
• Created from an open call for
volunteers to contribute words in
the English language with
quotations that included examples
of their usage.
Early Examples of Crowdsourcing

7. The Internet has led to an explosion
of crowdsourcing opportunities.
• Open source software paved the way for
the types of crowdsourcing we see today
• Starting in 1991, Linus Torvalds
crowdsourced much of the
architecture behind the Linux OS,
which now powers roughly 40% of
the world’s servers.
• Widespread Internet adoption, in
particular social media, has eroded the
barriers to organizing without
organizations.
• Clay Shirky, Here Comes
Everybody: The Power of
Organizing Without Organizations.
Crowdsourcing Today

8. • Deeply impacts research and development
• Businesses better understand the needs of their
customers
• Cuts costs and breeds innovation
Crowdsourcing Purposes

9. • A group of people gets a higher sense of
belonging and becomes more active if it
works together on achieving a task
• Individuals within a group feed off each
other’s energy and conversation,
sparking engagement and the free
flowing of ideas
• Diverse minds do better than expert
minds when their decisions are
averaged*
Why Crowdsource
*In groups of 40 or more, the crowd response is better than 99% of participants.
http://www.wired.com/insights/2014/01/crowdsourcing-2014-great-power-comes-great-responsibility/

10. Various types of
Crowdsourcing

11. Crowdfunding
What is it?
• Crowdfunding is the result of
many people funding a project
with small amounts of money
• Kickstarter, a popular
crowdfunding platform, is a main
benefactor to the arts; 50% of
projects have been successfully
funded
• Crowdfunding platforms leverage
human desires to participate in a
common goal, and reduce the
costs associated with making a
concept a reality.
Types of Crowdsourcing

12. Crowdfunding Examples
• The ALS Association’s Ice Bucket Challenge; results: In six weeks, they raised
$112 million in donations, and over the course of one year, they amassed $2.5
million
• The movie Veronica Mars was the one of the highest grossing crowdfunded
projects with a goal of $2 million; results: 91,585 backers pledged over $5.5
million
Types of Crowdsourcing

13. Crowd Advertising
What is it?
• Sourcing an audience for TV spots or
creative for print ads, among other
forms of advertising or campaigns with
video
• Examples: Pepsi and Doritos, Super
Bowl commercials
• Gives full creative control to the
audience
• Cost-saving tactic
• Greatly engages audience/fans/
customers
Types of Crowdsourcing

14. Crowd Coding
What is it?
Crowdsourcing a coder community for
help to solve problems
• Harvard Clinical and Translational
Science Center collaborated with
Topcoder
• They crowdsourced coding that its own
scientists were challenged with
• Results: 122 solvers each submitted a
viable solution
• Many of the solutions outdid the ones
developed by Harvard scientists & the
National Institutes of Health
Types of Crowdsourcing

15. Crowd Labor
What is it?
Breaking down unwanted tasks into
smaller, micro-tasks, such as data entry,
transcribing, and taking surveys
• Pairs businesses with requesters who
compete for tasks at a defined price and
time frame
• Connects the collaborative nature of the
Internet
Types of Crowdsourcing

16. Crowd Labor Examples
• Fiverr: Sources digital tasks such as
logo design, and other graphics-oriented
jobs for only five dollars each
• CNN’s iReport: Citizen engagement
program in which people submit local
news (images, text, and video) and
happenings through utilizing #iReport
• Creatives like writers are becoming fed
up with the low pay, yet there are still
many who participate
Types of Crowdsourcing
“The value of transactions over platforms such as car services Lyft and Uber, grocery delivery service
Instacart, courier service Postmates, and others could grow as large as $10 billion this year,” reveals
reporter Sarah Kessler on Fast Company’s website.

17. Crowdsourcing:
Who’s Doing it Right?

18. Who’s Doing it Right?
Successful Crowdfunding
Starbucks: mystarbucksidea.com
• The platform allows for customers to work
with Starbucks employees called “Idea
Partners”, and polls them for feedback on
existing products or new product ideas

19. Who’s Doing it Right?
Successful Crowdfunding
IBM: used the incentive of money to get their employees to vote for ideas based
on their donations (money allocated from different departments)
• After applying the principle to various departments, they amassed an
enormous amount of data.
• Crowdsourcing has become a core strategy at IBM

20. Who’s Doing it Right?
Successful Crowdfunding
UBER: a form of crowd labor, the Uber
platform is a simple and easy to use
mobile application that allocated drivers
and their cars for a taxi service
• UBER doesn’t actually own their assets
• Anyone with a driver’s license and a
car can apply to be a driver (they are
then vetted)
• Customers are charged on their credit
card, avoiding any cash exchange and
saving time

21. Who’s Doing it Right?
Successful Crowdfunding
airbnb: sources crowds in over 190 countries to offer their home for rent, in lieu of
a hotel for travelers
• Pairs travelers and hosts, who earn extra income; travelers benefit by staying in
comfortable homes and interacting with locals
• 1.2 million listings and growing, the company has served over 35 million
travelers

22. Leveraging Social
Data for
Crowdsourcing

23. Leveraging Social Data
• Crowds already exist; businesses don’t necessarily need to create
crowdsourcing campaigns
• Mining existing information as opposed to seeking it out is an option
• Existing information such as social data can reveal powerful intelligence
through the use of a social management and monitoring platform
How it’s Done

24. Leveraging Social Data
Monitoring social media conversations, reviews and comments can help
discover answers to questions that brands are asking about how their
customers use their product(s) and what can be better about it.

25. Crowd Insights
What is it?
Mining crowd data to learn valuable
information about a group.
• Made possible by the rise of digital and
social technology
• Rather than ask the crowd to provide a
specific answer or result, this process
seeks to learn new things from the
crowd’s organic activity.
• Data analyzed can be conversational,
behavioral, or related to how people
organize and connect.
A New Type of Crowdsourcing

26. Leveraging Social Data
• Social data allows businesses to measure messaging and ad performance helps
marketing to determine the efficacy of its efforts
• New product ideas and feedback can be applied through social data analysis and
insights

27. Leveraging Social Data
• Applying social data can help businesses identify missed opportunities, which can
reveal how they are faring compared to the competition
• Through sentiment analysis from social data, consumer preferences can be measured
• Social data goes beyond being a marketing tool, and should fall into the hands of
research and development teams as well as product managers

28. Is Crowdsourcing
Right for All?

29. Right for All?
• Having a problem that cannot be solved internally?
• A need to create a buzz?
• Working against the clock?
• Are looking for diversity in ideas?
• Have budget constraints?
Questions to Ask

30. How to Approach
Crowdsourcing

31. How?
• Dedicate resources
• Work with a trusted partner
• Stay humble – the crowd may have better ideas
• Choose an appropriate and relevant audience

32. How?
• Understand your audience to motivate participation
• Use video or imagery to capture the crowd’s attention
• If possible, offer an incentive – monetary or otherwise
• Be sure your task and goal are clearly conveyed
• Give feedback as the crowd submits responses – stay engaged

33. Q & A

34. Thank you
www.tracx.com
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