Connecting with the Crowd: Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing.


According to The Networked Nonprofit, "crowdsourcing is the process of an organizing many people to participate in a joint project, often in small ways. The results are greater than an individual or an organization could have accomplished alone."


This concept is very common in this day and age, one that is dominated by the influence of social media. I found it very interesting to apply this concept to our class's current partnership with Safe Harbor.

WHY?
Safe Harbor has reached out to our class as a resource. They wanted to gain intelligence or crowd wisdom. When an organization does this, they are basically in search of a melting pot of ideas. It is common sense that ideas from a group of people will be more affective than a singular individual or organization. Crowd creation means crowds can create their own--original--works of knowledge. Crowd voting definitely applies to our situation. In out partnership with Safe Harbor, we are reaching out to extended crowds to gain votes. Granted these votes are not geared to provide Safe Harbor with knowledge on how to improve their trade, but they are still votes from an assortment of crowds working towards a certain outcome. 

WHAT?
Once you have establish an extended crowdsource, it's important to utilize this crowd effectively and not waste any assistance they are able to provide. What do you want your crowd to do? Safe Harbor wanted us to 1. initiate an entry for the Pepsi Refresh Grant  2. create a video for the Web site/youtube  3. create Christmas mailers  4. improve the organizations use of social media.  Within our first task, we had to reach out to additional crowdsources in order to achieve as many votes as possible. In this case, we wanted our crowds to vote daily as well as pass the word along to friends and family. 


WHO?
It is also pivotal so establish which crowds are the most fitting. We, a Comm Studies/pr class, was a perfect fit for Safe Harbor. We are young and have grown up utilizing social media. Also, we are constantly learning about how to reach crowds, the best communication tactics and best of all, we're free! 
We, as a class, had to find the best crowds to reach out to for Pepsi Refresh votes. Who is going to care? Who is going to take the time to vote everyday? Who won't care? After much thought, we were able to establish a handful of crowds both on and off campus that seemed to be promising allies. 


Crowdsourcing is a crucial tool in the business world today, especially the world on non profits. It provides willing sources that want to help and will help to the best of their ability. It would be in the best interest of any non profit to take advantage of this phenomenon that social media has bestowed upon us.