The concept of looking to a crowd to help you achieve a specific goal is a relatively new one, but it works extremely well in many cases. Take crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, for example. They are so popular that they’ve spawned dozens of copycats that are now trying to replicate their success.
But it’s not just funding. Everywhere you look, smart companies are making powerful connections with their audiences by asking for their opinions, their preferences, and their stories to use as material for marketing content. The “day in the life of a mom/dad/coach…” ads that feature the stories of real people, and pepper the airwaves around the time of Mother’s Day/Father’s Day/the Super Bowl, are good examples.
Why Crowds are Willing to be Sources
We’re all busier than we want to be. Surely it would save us some time and effort to just politely decline when asked to contribute our thoughts to a crowdsourced content project. Then why do people participate? There are many possible reasons.
Probably the most common is that "15 minutes of fame" we hear so much about it. We’ve all got something to say. The fact that a company wants to give us a platform from which to say it is very appealing. Keep that in mind as you look for incentives to offer for participation. e.g. “Contribute a best practice to our upcoming Getting Started handbook and we’ll quote you as the source.”
Why Crowds Love Crowdsourced Content
While it may be hard to hear, your prospects and customers (even the very loyal ones) are more interested in their peers than they ever will be in you and your products or services. Crowdsourced material, and the human element it tends to contain, plays on that deep-seated human desire to find others like ourselves with whom to identify.
And a good piece of crowdsourced content spreads like wildfire. When Kyle finds out that his interview is going to be part of the new commercial Company XYZ is shooting, he calls, texts, and emails everyone he knows to have them look for it. Those people then call, text, and email everyone they know. And so on. In just a few of the concentric circles emanating from Kyle, Company XYZ can be sure that hundreds of people (at least!) have a heightened awareness of its offerings.
Why You’ll Love Crowdsourced Content
Accompanying the ripple effect described above is a growing reputation of your company—as one that cares about its customers. After all, you took the time to film them for your video, quote them on your website, and/or include the photo they submitted in your social media stream!
Another benefit of crowdsourcing is that it gives your internal content creation team a little bit of a breather. Plus, while you want your audience to come to recognize your unique marketing voice in the content you create, bringing in a different voice periodically can be a refreshing change of pace.
So, as you flesh out your content creation calendar, keep an eye out for projects that could benefit from you handing the microphone to the masses.
