Crowdsourcing: the Poor Man's Answer to Social Media

For anyone who enjoys having their cake and eating it too (and who doesn't, really?), an interesting new way to engage your audience through social media strategy and save your budget at the same time is called crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing refers to taking a task normally performed by an employee or outside contractor and handing it over to an undefined, generally large group of people or community in the form of an open call.

An example of crowdsourcing is the nonprofit Lights Camera Help, dedicated to promoting the story of grassroots and nonprofit organizations through film. LCH commissioned filmmakers and nonprofits to produce PSAs and films-for-a-cause for its film festival. Nonprofits and filmmakers got to promote their cause and LCH got to promote its festival while furthering its mission.

Another, less free example is California Congressman Mike Honda's initiative to have his supporters provide the redesign of his website. Honda used creative marketplace website crowdSPRING, where project heads can post their project, set their price and timeline, and have a pool of competitors fight for the prize.

It's a win-win situation: Honda gets some buzz and ends up with a revamped website for cheap, and aspiring designers get a relatively high-profile client.