The term crowdsourcing, first introduced in Howe and Robinson’s 2006 Wired Magazine article, is a relatively new term that refers to the process of outsourcing the activities of a firm to an online community or crowd in the form of an “open call.” More specifically, Howe said that “crowdsourcing is the process by which the power of the many can be leveraged to accomplish feats that were once the province of a specialized few.” Though crowdsourcing has existed in some form for a long time, it is only recently with the tools & technologies available to 21st Century marketers that we've seen a surge in crowdsourcing campaigns.
I'd like to walk through three different forms of crowdsourcing, along with examples of how each are being used in the marketplace. The three forms are: Crowdfunding, Crowd Marketing, and Crowdsourced New Product Development.
I'd like to walk through three different forms of crowdsourcing, along with examples of how each are being used in the marketplace. The three forms are: Crowdfunding, Crowd Marketing, and Crowdsourced New Product Development.