Crowdsourcing in Poland has found an extremely fertile ground. It is favored by general changes related to the sharing economy. It is also a tool that can be used in marketing.
Why is crowdsourcing in Poland popular?
The American saying goes that in order for something of value to be created, it takes an entire village. This shows that social problem solving is as old as the world. As the Polish proverb says: two heads are better than one. The eighteenth century was a milestone in crowdsourcing, when, among others, British authorities began to organize the first competitions to solve current problems.
This type of crowdsourcing in Poland has also been known for quite a long time. In the off-line world, this was more or less about logo, jingle and slogan competitions. This type of problem solving is used not only by corporations. They are also used in the service of the public good - for non-governmental organizations or governments.
From the data collected in the report The state of crowdsourcing 2016 shows that in the world it is most often used by companies from the FMCG sector and the electronics industry. This tendency is also visible when it comes to crowdsourcing in Poland. When looking for an idea to use it in practice, you can use the classification according to which it is divided into:
- creative competitions,
- collective knowledge collection,
- microworking,
- proposals in the field of innovation,
- crowdfunding,
- crowdsourcing involving the involvement and charity work of individuals for a company or organization.
Each of these activities is governed by specific rules and gives slightly different possibilities.
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Crowdsourcing in Poland - examples
Crowdsourcing in Poland has become particularly popular due to hackathons organized by the prime minister in recent years. They consist in the fact that a group of programmers is given a task that should be solved by a joint effort within a certain period of time. An example is the hackathon organized in March 2020, when a solution was sought to solve the problems related to the situation around the coronavirus in the world.
Crowdsourcing in Poland is used in many industries, commercially and on a pro publico bono basis:
- culture: e.g. the OtwarteZabytki.pl portal;
- HR: one of the employers has created a portal open to recruiters, whom it invites to find a staff for him;
- marketing: one bank asked filmmakers from all over Poland to create videos to advertise the mobile app. Another collected over 2,000. ideas for sales support as part of the "Bank of Ideas".
- logistics and transport: solutions in which parcels or passengers are delivered by ordinary drivers, can also be mentioned among the examples of crowdsourcing in Poland.
Is it worth using crowdsourcing?
In Poland, this form of generating ideas is still not used in most companies. According to the Gartner report, in 2018 already 75 percent. the largest corporations have used crowdsourcing to some extent. Many of them have their own crowdsourcing departments that coordinate the collection of ideas. As social solutions are in the price these days, it will benefit from that too PR companies.
It is worth noting that many corporations operate mainly within the traditional framework set by their marketing and advertising departments. Nevertheless their communication strategy is based on putting to the fore the ideas based around crowdsourcing. Which ones exactly? This is, for example, collecting ideas from employees and clients, a logo competition, consultations with school students, etc. However, this is a solution not only for the largest corporations. A small company that does not have the money for market research or analysis can gather ready-made ideas in the field of marketing, development, etc. with minimal investment.
What are the risks of crowdsourcing in Poland (and not only)?
Crowdsourcing in Poland is a history of many successes, but there were also some slip-ups. Such a campaign must be properly thought out so that it does not have a negative impact on company image.
Examples of problems that may be encountered are the lack of reports or reports that do not match the assumptions. In order to prevent this, it is worth controlling the entire course of such actions and publishing only beneficial information (e.g. 1,200 submitted ideas, 14 embodied solutions). What can discourage crowdsourcing are unclear rules and the lack of a clearly defined reward. It doesn't necessarily have to be financial, though nothing stimulates creativity more than a large amount of money you can win. An incentive can also be prestige, an internship in a company or opening the door to a career in any other way.
It is worth considering whether the crowdsourcing campaign in Poland will be open to everyone or only to a specific environment. The first solution works well when diversity and the number of ideas count. In the second one, you can count on quality work for which, for example, only students or graduates of certain faculties, company employees, etc. are responsible. Crowdsourcing may even be an element of Employer Brandingwhen a large corporation asks for the views and ideas of ordinary employees and then puts them into practice. Here, however, it is also worth balancing the transparency and the use of concrete details with what is beneficial from the image point of view, so that the company does not lose the voice of employees at all levels.
In which industries will crowdsourcing develop in Poland?
Crowdsourcing is the process of engaging a wide group of people to perform tasks and proposing solutions that enable the achievement of the organizer's goals. It has long been used by public institutions and non-profit organizations to replace traditional workers. Some people call it "21st century volunteering" because it often engages people without giving them anything back. Others define it as "the wisdom of the crowd", because it is assumed that the solutions and ideas obtained are the result of the full commitment, knowledge and experience of users.
Crowdsourcing has been popular for a long time (and will undoubtedly continue to grow). Why? People are eager to engage in such campaigns because they enjoy being able to use their skills and knowledge in practice. They can show their best side, be creative and, in return, receive recognition from the company. The advantage of crowdsourcing is also the possibility to participate in large projects organized by popular brands without having to be employed in them.
However, to talk about crowdsourcing, certain conditions must be met. The first is the existence of an organizer that has a task to do - for example, to come up with an imprint on a new product. The second important issue is the existence of a community that is ready to carry out a given task voluntarily - with the highest commitment and full professionalism, using its knowledge and creativity. To achieve these goals, the following elements are also necessary: digital space in which the work will be done, contact between the organizer and the community, and the existence of mutual benefits for both parties.
Crowdsourcing is, according to some, the future of recruitment. Due to the constant economic development of the Polish market and the growing demand for specialists from various industries (especially in IT, customer service, logistics and finance), traditional methods of recruiting employees do not give the same effects as they did before. Crowdsourcing seems to be an effective, helpful tool in acquiring talented employees - through employee recommendation and recommendation programs (both internal, i.e. recommendations from employees, and external - from people not employed in a given company). The referral system is a great way to increase the efficiency of recruitment processes for various positions. Interestingly, it can be one of the elements internal employer branding - it will show employees that they can have a real impact on the company's development. You may be entitled to bonuses for recommending the person who will be hired.
The second industry where crowdsourcing can bring benefits is marketing. Crowdsourcing gives the opportunity to reach the knowledge, skills and experience of hundreds of people who can become testers or ambassadors of a given brand's products of their own accord, and with their actions they will promote the brand in their community. This form of crowdsourcing is a great way to spread a good impression about the company in various communities and attract new customers.
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Crowdsourcing - advantages and disadvantages
Crowdsourcing has a lot of advantages. The most important of these is the ability to acquire many ideas, content and experiences. Crowdsourcing projects mean diversity, originality, different perspectives and many points of view. This is an opportunity to obtain accurate, spectacular solutions that can bring a lot of good to the company - they can contribute to its development. Crowdsourcing allows you to obtain information on the needs and expectations of consumers, which can be very helpful in creating further marketing activities. Projects implemented within its framework create an engaged community (community), generate marketing and promotional benefits. The result of the activities is a group of committed service users who identify with the new, improved service. The brand gains loyal consumers or activists. The great advantage of crowdsourcing is a great saving of time and money - it allows you to operate without significant financial outlays. The crowd generates ideas quickly, and creating a crowdsourcing platform is definitely cheaper than paying for the work of a specialist team. It also carries a low risk of unsuccessful investments - it allows you to avoid losses that could have a negative impact on the company's operations.
Inadequately conducted crowdsourcing activities may have a negative impact on the company's operations. A brand that treats crowdsourcing as a source of free knowledge or marketing research will not implement the campaign correctly and, as a consequence, will be badly received by the crowd. The effect may be a drop in customer confidence, which will negatively affect brand image on the market.
A company that wants to conduct crowdsourcing activities must prepare an appropriate platform and regularly supervise it. Leaving the site unattended will discourage users from participating in the project, which can reduce their loyalty to the company. Crowdsourcing also requires the implementation of new projects, even if they were not completely successful. If users notice that none of the projects has been used, they will feel cheated, unheard of and will not engage in a similar action organized by the company again.
Forms of crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing is a flexible phenomenon that can be implemented in various forms in any spheres of activity. We can distinguish:
- virtual work,
- social creativity,
- social financing,
- knowledge sharing / social crowdsourcing,
- open innovation.
Virtual work is any activity in the cloud. The contact between the organizer and participants takes place entirely in the virtual world - on online platforms. The advantage of this form of crowdsourcing is access to a large number of people with appropriate competences, and thus the ability to reach many solutions, many proposals regardless of time and place.
Social creativity is activities aimed at the talent and creativity of participants. Their goal is to design or develop art, communication channels and a variety of content. It is a way to involve the Internet community in creating original products, advertisements, films, concepts, etc. It usually takes the form of contests for the best design.
Social funding relies on voluntary donations to a variety of endeavors. It is supporting cultural, music, sports or charity initiatives by financing them through dedicated platforms (e.g. kickstarter.com).
Sharing knowledge, or social crowdsourcing, is the transfer of knowledge to others, co-creation of various content. Today, in the age of the Internet and new technologies, you do not need to have extensive knowledge on various topics, because there will always be someone who will know what we do not know. The fruit of such activities is Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia that can be edited by anyone.
The last form of crowdsourcing is open innovation, in which the crowd is used as a source of knowledge that is the basis for creating new products or services for companies. Enterprises assume that the potential lies in the community. They believe that the crowd generates great ideas that can work.
Crowdsourcing can be performed in three models. The first is simple tasks that do not require a lot of work or special qualifications. The most important thing in them is the scale of operation (e.g. many people perform small, simple activities). It is used, among others for taking photos, marking objects on a map or reporting problems.
The second crowdsourcing model is complex tasks that require more work, time and higher qualifications. What matters in them is the scope - in the crowd you can find a person with the appropriate competences, with the greatest talent. The method is applicable in introducing innovations or solving empirical and scientific problems.
Creative Tasks is the third crowdsourcing model. These are activities that use the creativity and uniqueness of individuals. They focus on diversity. The model works well in creating new products or services.