Welcome back to the Art of Strategic Communication!
This week we will be talking about crowdsourcing and the impact it has on the world that we live in. To begin with, what is crowdsourcing?
According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, crowdsourcing is:
"the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people and especially from the online community rather than from traditional employees or suppliers."
With ever-growing social media and digital communication platforms, crowdsourcing is a tool that many people around the world use every day—even if they do not realize it. To gain a better understanding of what crowdsourcing is and why it applies to your life, let's discuss some applications that heavily rely on the technique.
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| Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash |
1. Waze
- If you have recently traveled on the interstate without using Waze, you are really missing out. This community-based GPS app has over 90 million users around the world who report real-time traffic information. Waze allows users to report traffic jams, police car sightings, accidents, hazardous road conditions, and gas stations while traveling along major highways and small town country roads (Riserbato, 2020). As users send in information, they are participating in crowdsourcing information for the benefit of other users traveling on a similar path.
2. Unsplash
- While many of you may have no idea what Unsplash is, as a graphic designer—it is one of my life lines! Unsplash serves as an online environment for artists everywhere to share free, unlicensed stock photos. This means that photographers can share their art for designers all over the world to use in their designs for free as long as they give them credit in some way. There are currently over 850,000 photos on the website, and they are all crowdsourced to the webpage (Riserbato, 2020). Most stock photos have a hefty price tag, but this site allows users to create using others art for free. What a unique experience!
3. Airbnb
- One of my favorite ways to travel is by using Airbnb! This platform allows everyday people to rent out their personal spaces as vacation rentals. If users did not post their homes, there would be no Airbnb. Crowdsouring is the only way this website survives (Riserbato, 2020). That's not to mention that users also have the ability to leave reviews on their experiences while staying at their vacation spot! So crowdsourcing is being used in more way than one.
As you can tell, many of us use crowdsourced platforms often without even realizing it. So, it would make sense for communications professionals to use the technique to their advantage as well.
With the ever-evolving social media platforms that are constantly being accepted into society such as Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Twitter, communication professionals have more of an advantage than ever before to receive information from their audiences in a positive way. Users are able to use these platforms to share their opinions and stories without having to go through several different channels to finally obtain a response. Many people will simply tag a company they want to review, and more likely than not—they will receive a response at a fairly quick rate.
Another way crowdsourcing on social media has helped communications professionals is through sharing breaking news information. For example, have any of you heard of Gabby Petito?
Gabby Petito is a 22-year-old woman who was reported missing by her family on September 11, 2021. She and her fiance, Brian, had been traveling cross-country for the past few months, but when her fiance returned home without her—her family began growing concerned for their child's safety. Since the initial report of Brian's return home, his family has come forward and said he left for a nature reserve on Tuesday, September 14th. The FBI and local police officers throughout their travel route are currently searching for both Gabby and Brian (Maxouris, 2021).
How does this relate to crowdsourcing?
Well, social media users across America have taken a lot of interest in this case. Many posting theories, and doing their own investigations based on what has happened to this young woman and her fiance. On TikTok, the hashtag #gabbypetito has over 275 million views with many viral videos of unconfirmed reports and personal opinions of what has happened to these young adults. However, one TikTok user, Miranda Baker, posted a video saying that she and her boyfriend picked up Brian on August 29th as he was hitchhiking alone at Grand Teton Park (Bacon et al., 2021). You can view the video here.
While this information may or may not be valid, Miranda decided to share this information after learning about the case on social media. She and her boyfriend also have spoken with authorities to try to help them solve this case. Other users have posted possible sightings of the young adults online in order for the police and FBI agencies to see them faster than they may if they report it to the local news. While not all of the reports have been true, it does seem that a lot of people are actively searching to find this couple.
People all over the world are helping communication professionals cover this story by sharing information as it is revealed. Although it is not all factual, it is still helping in some ways. The crowdsourcing technique in general is not the most reliable method for retrieving information, but it definitely is faster than traditional methods of gather intel.
I am personally looking forward to seeing how more applications adopt crowdsourcing methods into their own algorithms to make platforms more intuitive and user-friendly. Look for future communication professionals to rely on crowdsourced information more heavily than they do today. Crowdsourcing is going to be instrumental in technological advances as they continue to progress.
References:
Bacon, J., Connor, A., & Weires, S. G. (2021, September 19). What happened to Gabby Petito? mystery prompts vast searches; social media sleuths hunt for clues. USA Today. Retrieved September 19, 2021, from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/09/19/gabby-petito-mystery-prompts-searches-police-social-media-sleuths/8410170002/.
Maxouris, C. (2021, September 18). A timeline of missing 22-year-old Gabby Petito's case. CNN. Retrieved September 19, 2021, from https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/16/us/gabby-petito-timeline-missing-case/.
Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Crowdsourcing. Merriam-Webster. Retrieved September 19, 2021, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/crowdsourcing.
Riserbato, R. (2020, April 22). The Ultimate Guide to Crowdsourcing. HubSpot Blog. Retrieved September 19, 2021, from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/crowdsourcing.
Excellent post. You did a great job of tying citizen journalism and crowdsourcing recalling the story of Gabby Petito. Although still an ongoing investigation, crowdsourcing was instrumental in helping to bring attention to a very disheartening story. I feel the communication professionals should use this process to help create new content, generate brand awareness, strengthen brand loyal, and engage with the public. As you alluded to in your post, crowdsourcing has been adopted as a business structure for certain apps. With brands wanting to continue be innovative, people are still the most invaluable resource we have to generate ideas. Who knows what people want more than the people themselves? If you involve people, they may generate a stronger bond to your product or service because they feel their insight and opinions are valued. News outlets may not openly use crowdsourcing but monitoring social media chatter has led to helping organizations find their stories. Further the idea of democracy being a marketplace of ideas, learning firsthand knowledge on important stories in one's community could help gain the public's trust in media. However, crowdsourcing should not only be used for gaining information and insight. I agree with your sentiment that the information gather may not be fully accurate, properly vetted, and even incomplete. However, it is a tool used to drive innovation, content generation, and connect with your desired audiences. I am interested in how communication professionals utilize this tool growing further, especially in journalism.
ReplyDeleteCasey,
ReplyDeleteI took a lot of different angles into consideration as I was writing my blog post on crowdsourcing. Thinking of how the Gabby Petito story resulted in a form of crowdsourcing is such a great example. This truly sad story did show the impact of crowdsourcing for something that is truly life or death. It is truly tragic, but it turned out that the reason her body was found at all was because a content creator was editing video and realized that he had captured a clip of their van. He shared this information and it ultimately led to her discovery. Crowdsourcing truly led to her discovery.
To also play devil's advocate, there is a lot wrong with using crowdsourcing in the hunt for a missing person. The entire world wants to call in a tip that they saw them at Sonic, the grocery store, or in the mall. Authorities are overwhelmed with bad tips and it is hard for them to distinguish the good from the bad.
Just like anything else, there is a good side and bad side to crowdsourcing. However, this story is one that benefited from the process because it ultimately led to her discovery.