Johnny Kim is the President and CEO of Team Manna, a leading MLM distributor of Mannatech health, beauty and 100% natural nutritional products known globally for their high quality and proven healing potential. Visit him at http://team-manna.com and write to him at johnnyjkim@yahoo.com. Just tell him you want to learn more about MLM and Mannatech.
A Fountain for New Ideas for Multi Level Marketers
Although the playing field in the wide world of multi level marketing today is as level as it can be, competition continues to remain stiff even for the veterans of the field. Crowdsourcing has recently emerged as a great way to identify and implement fresh ideas about your business by sourcing them directly from your online audience. The concept isn’t new by any stretch of the imagination. Marketers have been asking customers for ideas on how to improve quality and productivity for years. In the context of direct marketing such as MLM, there is a distinct advantage you have because you are in touch with your customer community literally 24X7.
Crowdsourcing is for Everyone
Do you want an attractive design for your MLM brochure? You fish around for ideas among friends, business associates and relatives. If you are a little innovative, you may initiate a contest of sorts among students in schools and colleges located in your area. When you invite suggestions on the Internet, the scale of crowdsourcing increases hugely because your audience is in the millions and not in the thousands.
In crowdsourcing, you invite your audience, captive or otherwise, to suggest positive ideas and to solve your problems. It may be to design your MLM website, a T-shirt which you are planning to give away to your entire down line, a name for your business or whatever else it takes to take your multi level marketing company to the next level. A platform is created on a website and respondents participate. The winning entry is usually rewarded in some way. Some times a winner is invited to become a part of the project team.
Crowd sourcing as a Potent Response Mechanism
In 2007, a US political analysis website got wind of the fact that US attorney generals were being influenced by the powers to be with respect to their duties. It unearthed more than 1,000 e-mail messages and asked its readers to sift through them and identify the required evidence. In August 2009, the Washington Post used crowdsourcing to analyze thousands of pages of data published by the Governor General, which chronicled the steps taken by a US federal agency while conducting interrogations in Iraq. The response in both cases was well beyond anyone’s expectations.
Benefits of Crowdsourcing
Here are just a few of the many benefits of crowdsourcing for multi level marketers:
- You pay on the basis of results rather than on the basis of efforts.
- In some cases for example, choosing a name for a non profit organization, you may not have to pay at all. Since many individuals are involved, it may be possible to pull in a large number of results very quickly
- Many thousands of participants means that a sizeable pool of talent may be available in your audience community.
- You can tap into a wider range of talent than might be present in your own organization.
- By asking for feedback from your audience, you may gain direct insights into consumer preferences.
- Your MLM business would be building a rapport with the consumer community.
Crowdsourcing Wiki
There is a website called crowdsourcingexamples which is a wiki of sorts. It provides a list of websites that allow various types of crowdsourcing. It has categorized crowdsourcing into four main themes:
- Individual sites that capture the power of online crowds
- Brand sponsored forums which depend on crowdsourcing
- Brand initiatives that allow users to customize products
- Brand sponsored competition drawing on crowdsourcing
Some of the sites in this wiki mentioned above are no longer on the web but their references have been retained for analysis purposes. A visit will inform you and expand your ideas on the type of activities which are worth pursuing as a part of any crowdsourcing initiative.
Popular Crowdsourcing Platforms
Chaordix
This site was launched in 2006 and began as a community for new business and technology ideas. It attracted more than 50,000 members and 7000 ideas from the crowd. The company, Cambrian House, developed Chaordix as the technology to harness a crowd for breakthrough ideas.
The Chaordix crowdsourcing platform is a proven, flexible engine to tap communities and reduce the risks of competing in the marketplace. Chaordix is scalable and able to minimize bias in voting.
IdeaScale
IdeaScale offers a process to ask for ideas and allow customers to rate, discuss, and brainstorm for the company. Any idea can be voted to the top or buried back down to the bottom. It relies on the “wisdom of the crowds” like Digg.
IdeaScale is a powerful feature rich idea management tool. It allows you to choose the look and feel of your portal to match your own identity. Customize your portal to match your brand including the URL. You can export your ideas to Excel or CSV files for offline reporting. IdeaScale provides tools such as cell phone support, wiki support, and Twitter and Facebook integration. It is a hosted, turn key solution to collect ideas . There is no software to install.
Crowdspirit
Crowdspirit proposes a unique model of crowdsourcing that enables innovators to design new products and services. In CrowdSprit, you submit ideas in response to a challenge set. Then you may be invited to join the project team developing the idea with the company. You will have the privilege of being the first to use this new product or service or receive some type of an incentive.
Zyrist
Zyrist is a global marketplace for ideas & innovation made up of intellectual property, inventions, patents, and products & services where professionals and businesses collaborate.
Zyrist has a team of professionals from diverse education and professional backgrounds including biotechnologists, software developers, engineers, attorneys and illustrators.
MobIncentive
MobIncentive is all about collective incentives. If people get behind an idea and “put their money where their mouths are”, things get done. Through MobIncentive, you can share your gems of wisdom and see who else wants to support it. As people “put their money where their mouths are,” the reward for taking action on that idea grows. You can collect the money from an idea by submitting a solution that is picked by the idea’s judge
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