Part of the beauty of the Internet is the amount of brainpower and creativity that runs rampant on it day in and day out. Crowdsourcing ideas can be an incredible way to get your team out of a rut when it comes to creative business innovations, problem solving or improving everyday operations and productivity problems that all small businesses and corporate giants face.

Crowdsourcing can take place online or in person. Using social media to announce a meeting or get together has quickly become a societal standard (particularly for Millennials) and easy way to keep attendees accountable. But, it’s also a proven fact that most people tend to speak more freely behind the guise of a keyboard, and in more anonymous cases, a false username or profile. This is the reason online forum websites like Reddit are so vastly productive, and harbor so many theories, secrets, and layers of online discovery. As long as users welcome feedback, ranging from thoughtful to extreme, it can be a highly productive form of self reflection and reevaluation for your small business or personal venture.

For marketing firms, ad agencies, or small businesses in general, crowdsourcing can also be an effective way to get user feedback or gain a general direction toward the next ‘big’ project. Just like social media is a simple and viable direct marketing tool, forums are a simple way to ask the question, “what are we doing right (or wrong)?”.

Business owners can also connect with the community they market to by crowdsourcing an array of interesting, relevant, and viable content from their employees or the community itself. From consumer spotlights to showcasing the opinions, work, or good deeds of those involved with the company itself, crowdsourcing that information is an easy way to add a relatable human element to your company’s online presence.

Last, crowdsourcing is a great way to repurpose content in a pinch. There’s a theory that nothing on the internet is truly original, and that all content is somehow derived from previous content or something that already exists offline. It’s no crime to repurpose content as long as it’s original enough or the source is given credit. So go on! Crowdsource your way to your business or blog’s next big breakthrough. Leave it to the experts at Rocky Mountain Computer Specialists to keep the hardware running and the software smooth while you work to make your dreams come true online and off.