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For a term which has attracted much criticism and critique, since it was first coined in 2006, crowdsourcing is increasingly being thrown around in the corporate world.
I recently read that Unilever announced “crowdsourcing success” through its drive to generate short commercial films for 13 Unilever brands (read the article here).
Prior to this I read that MIT and the Climate CoLab have created a crowdsourcing contest asking for ideas that will shape an international climate agreement (read this one here).
But the story that has caused the most controversy and has certainly kept my attention in the last few days is of course, that infamous Gap logo “cock-up” (so they say).
Marka Hansen, president of Gap brand North America, in a recent press release, said:
“At Gap brand, our customers have always come first. We’ve been listening to and watching all of the comments this past week. We heard them say over and over again they are passionate about our blue box logo, and they want it back. So we’ve made the decision to do just that – we will bring it back across all channels.”
Shock, horror! Not really, and I think you’ll agree with me that was a good move, right?
Gap recognized that they did not go about their branding project in the right way by missing the opportunity to engage with the online community throughout the process. All credit to them, they did learn from their mistakes. Consequently they scrapped the new logo and are now probably going back to the drawing board.
My point is, all these stories are referring to crowdsourcing but really all that is happening here is crowd ‘listening’. With ever-growing innovative social media interactions taking place in the corporate world, companies are starting to really understand the importance of ‘listening’ in on conversations about their brand. Consequently those that are not will be left behind. Imagine if Gap just launched their logo and didn’t bother to see what people were saying about it on Twitter and Facebook?
A lot of people are put off when you use the term crowdsourcing, they associate it with something which will take a lot of time and resources to organize and manage. In reality there are many automated tools out there that will do the hard work for you. Tools that will help you to keep an eye out on what others are saying about you and your brand online. Remember these conversations are happening right now whether good or bad. Turning a blind eye is not the solution to any problem.
Everyone these days wants to be a part of the social media buzz. You probably already have a presence in the social media world. But how well are you listening, engaging and participating in the buzz?
I recently read that Unilever announced “crowdsourcing success” through its drive to generate short commercial films for 13 Unilever brands (read the article here).
Prior to this I read that MIT and the Climate CoLab have created a crowdsourcing contest asking for ideas that will shape an international climate agreement (read this one here).
But the story that has caused the most controversy and has certainly kept my attention in the last few days is of course, that infamous Gap logo “cock-up” (so they say).
Marka Hansen, president of Gap brand North America, in a recent press release, said:
“At Gap brand, our customers have always come first. We’ve been listening to and watching all of the comments this past week. We heard them say over and over again they are passionate about our blue box logo, and they want it back. So we’ve made the decision to do just that – we will bring it back across all channels.”
Shock, horror! Not really, and I think you’ll agree with me that was a good move, right?
Gap recognized that they did not go about their branding project in the right way by missing the opportunity to engage with the online community throughout the process. All credit to them, they did learn from their mistakes. Consequently they scrapped the new logo and are now probably going back to the drawing board.
My point is, all these stories are referring to crowdsourcing but really all that is happening here is crowd ‘listening’. With ever-growing innovative social media interactions taking place in the corporate world, companies are starting to really understand the importance of ‘listening’ in on conversations about their brand. Consequently those that are not will be left behind. Imagine if Gap just launched their logo and didn’t bother to see what people were saying about it on Twitter and Facebook?
A lot of people are put off when you use the term crowdsourcing, they associate it with something which will take a lot of time and resources to organize and manage. In reality there are many automated tools out there that will do the hard work for you. Tools that will help you to keep an eye out on what others are saying about you and your brand online. Remember these conversations are happening right now whether good or bad. Turning a blind eye is not the solution to any problem.
Everyone these days wants to be a part of the social media buzz. You probably already have a presence in the social media world. But how well are you listening, engaging and participating in the buzz?
