Crowdsourcing... a startups diamond in the rough that is available to everyone

Everything these days has to do with the idea of "crowdsourcing".  It is an ingenious way for someone small to be able to grow something big with the power of the internet.  Whether you are just looking for more impressions, growing an awareness campaign, to getting your startup off the ground, the use of crowdsourcing over the past few years has taken large leaps.

Through the use of these types of tools found below, anyone has power to harness the internet and go from a small splash in a pond to a tidal wave in days and not years.

Most Common Types of Crowdsourcing and Examples

Crowd-Sourcing: Crowdsourcing can be used to help solve day to day problems from the use of a larger public audience typically found on the internet.  You can solve problems that range from what shirt you should wear today help presidential candidates get feedback on national issues!

"the basic idea is to tap into the collective intelligence of the public at large to complete business-related tasks that a company would normally either perform itself or outsource to a third-party provider." - CBS News

Crowd-Funding: Crowdfunding is certainly a more popular option for new startups and ideas that need money.  On Kickstarter, a small company who does not have a national presence, can raise millions of dollars in days instead of months from supporters who donate $5 here and there.  This option has sparked a large amount of new companies such as Kickstarter, Indiegogo, who help anyone from a musician who wants to record a new album, to the newest technology to hit the market! 

"the practice of funding a project or venture by raising many small amounts of money from a large number of people, typically via the Internet." - Forbes

Crowd-Speaking: Crowd-speaking is a way to get your message out to the millions of people on the internet.  Spreading your message is key to gaining traction, but general "shares and likes" can sometimes get lost in the clutter of social media.  In order to make a real impact, crowd-speaking campaigns can be created to help spread the word to people who really care about your message and then use their influence to gain more traction!

"Crowd Speaking is the method by which you can amplify your message so that those tweets or shares or likes are not posted randomly" - Crowdspeaking.co

Crowd-Contests: Crowd Contests are used most commonly to help find people to bid on design projects.  Companies such as 99 Designs allows a company to post their "need" such as a logo or website design, and talented web designers will place bids to complete their project.  This opens the company to having access to a larger number of talented designers then just 1 or 2 designers who are in house.

You can find other Crowdsourcing explanations at this great blog post here! Understanding the Five Types of Crowdsourcing - For Dummies