Social media has changed the way businesses engage with consumers—fans and followers don’t want to be told, they want to discover. It’s no longer a one-way (or even a two-way) conversation.

It’s now a multiplayer experience that relies on collective, thoughtful engagement.

Consumers have the tools, time and desire to be involved on a much deeper level than we’ve ever seen before. There are several distinct ways that you can take these ideas and build social media campaigns that use existing tools and technologies to achieve powerful results.

Today, brands big and small are homing in on the tactic of crowdsourcing, defined as the act of outsourcing tasks traditionally performed by an employee or contractor to an undefined, large group of people or community (a “crowd”), through an open call. Hidden within this utilitarian definition are powerful cultural drivers that can be catalyzed to achieve powerful social engagement and activation.

What’s the benefit of crowdsourcing?

As the evolving relationship between consumers and brands brings everyone closer together, interactions and relations will continue to become more and more complimentary each time, giving and taking equally and fairly. You can turn consumers into brand advocates by getting them involved and engaged.

It’s at the intersection of these ideas where a powerful and new way to socially activate and engage consumers exists. It’s time to get your consumers talking—so connect with your crowd when you’re using social media.

Alex Bogusky and John Winsor wrote in their book Baked In about organizational intelligence, saying, “The intelligence of the whole can differ wildly based on who is connected and to whom and how.” By extension, we can say that if a company is disconnected from its consumers, the organizational IQ suffers.

Open up your social media sites to the input and feedback of your "crowd." Image source: http://www.istockphoto.com/

Below are three principles of crowdsourcing that can be used on or in tandem with social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blogs.

#1: Ask for feedback (then do something with it)

Your business might say, “We listen to our customers, and your feedback is always welcome.” Well, that’s great, and listening is the first step, but without follow-up action, you’ll leave your customers feeling short-changed. The gap between satisfied and disappointed is easily closed, yet it’s often left wide open. This is a wasted opportunity.

Asking open-ended questions on your social media sites is a way to not only close the gap, but also create a program that turns the act of collecting and reacting to feedback into a marketing campaign of activation and engagement.

Biore Skincare asks their consumers questions to facilitate a conversation.

For example, ask fans when or why they first had a need for your product or service. You’ve not only connected with your online audience, but also gained valuable insight into the thought process of your constituents.

Starbucks executed this idea of using consumer feedback with “My Starbucks Idea.”

Starbucks fans can share, vote, discuss and see ideas on My Starbucks Idea.

The site allows users to submit suggestions to be voted on by Starbucks’ consumers, and the most popular suggestions are highlighted and reviewed. Starbucks then took it a step further and added an “Ideas in Action” blog that gives updates to users on the status of changes suggested.

#2: Create contests and giveaways

People love winning, and when they win prizes or discounts, they’ll share the news with their friends. Consider implementing trivia promotions and offering reduced-price or free products or services as prizes to fans who identify the correct answer first. Using a contest application can give you everything you need to implement and manage a campaign.

One thing you want to be sure of is your ability to capture contact information for participants. Getting users’ contact information allows you to plan for a post-event promotion. You’ll know the participants have your brand top of mind at the end of your event, so having a special promotion ready to offer immediately following the event while you have the attention of the participants is critical.

You also want to be sure the platform you choose has all the social media sharing tools built in so participants can use Facebook and Twitter to let their social networks know about the contest. After all, turning participants into promoters is one of the main reasons to run a crowdsourcing campaign in the first place.

For example, create contests with a seasonal twist to get people talking, like a costume photo contest for your consumers and fans during Halloween. A brand that executed this concept is Graco baby products. They implemented a Halloween Costume Contest in 2010 on the brand’s Flickr page and gave away a sound machine to the winner as an incentive for fans to participate.

Here's a promotion where people sent their child's cutest Halloween photo.

Another great big-brand example of crowdsourcing with social media is Dunkin Donuts. DD created the “Create Dunkin’s Next Donut” contest in 2010. The contest was a huge success, generating more than 130,000 donut submissions and 174,000 votes.

Dunkin Donuts asked fans to design the next donut.

#3: Poll or survey your fans

Consumers love to give their opinion. They want to share their ideas, feelings and opinions in a quick, easy way that makes them feel like they’re connecting with a brand. You can poll fans on anything; it makes them feel like their ideas, thoughts and feedback are appreciated.

Facebook Questions lets you submit an open-ended question and create custom multiple-choice polls.

For example, if you’re a restaurant owner, consider polling fans on what seasonal dish they would like to see for the upcoming summer season. Polling or surveying fans and followers is the fastest way to structure an active conversation on a topic that you encourage.

Whether you’re collecting user feedback, running crowdsourcing contests or polling your audience, you’ll benefit greatly from making these types of campaigns recurring fixtures in your business’s social media strategy.

While participation may not be where you’d like it for the first attempt, by repeating the programs on a regular basis, you’ll condition your community to anticipate what’s coming next and this will cause a steady increase in participation. So don’t give up in the beginning. Trust that you have a clear understanding of the behaviors you’re trying to solicit and that your community is eager to participate.

Resources

In this video interview you can learn how to turn your customers into raving fans and you can also read here how to use Twitter to connect with local customers.

Are you connecting with your crowd? What ideas or suggestions do you have? Leave your comments in the box below.

Photo from iStockPhoto.

In the short run, an increase from 1,000 to 10,000 fans might look great to your boss or client, but when the fans start dropping off at a rate of 100 or 200 per week, and nobody answers the questions you put on your wall, you may not look like quite the hero anymore.

This article will reveal some effective tactics to gain quality Facebook fans and introduce the concept of engaging influencers.

While the actual worth of a single Facebook fan may be in debate, there’s no question that some fans are worth more than others. In addition, when quantity becomes a priority, there is a risk of driving low-quality fans by using general tactics that attract the masses.

However, there are ways to modify fan-getting marketing tactics to drive a more relevant consumer base and as a result increase the quality (and worth) of your fans over time.

One Key Strategy: Targeted Outreach

In my experience, new fans obtained will be at least 3 times as likely to stick around and participate over time if they’re secured through a targeted outreach.

For an example of how this strategy might work in practice, look at two fan-getting tactics: giveaways and limited availability offers.

Giveaways and limited availability offers are both great ways to quickly gain Facebook followers. I have seen Facebook Fan Pages jump tens of thousands of fans overnight from a simple giveaway campaign.

In January 2010, for instance, Einstein Bros. did a free bagel giveaway on Facebook that the company claims increased their Facebook fan base from under 5,000 fans to nearly 400,000 in less than one week.

From 5,000 to 400,000 in one week. Einstein Bros. Bagels takes off on Facebook.

However, there is a catch. General fan-getting giveaway tactics do not inherently attract the right people to your page. In fact, they may attract the complete opposite of whom you want to reach.

You Need a Filter Between Your Brand Message and Your Ideal Audience

The goal of a fan-getting Facebook promotion should be to use up as few resources as possible, while reaching the highest amount of relevant consumers along the way. The outcome, if executed properly, is more fans, longer stay times, and a higher level of quality participation and sharing over a longer period of time.

Without a filter, a promotion will inevitably reach the unfiltered masses of the web. Online giveaways that are not targeted properly nor protected with the correct barriers to entry will lead to a rush of people just out looking for something free. And, while some genuine consumers may be found in this group, the likelihood of your promotion capturing a high percentage of relevant consumers will be low.

Use Influencers

Influencers will vary based on your business. But, in short, influencers include relevant bloggers, popular individuals on Twitter, moderators of groups, and anyone else who has an extended and attentive online audience that fits within your target consumer group.

Influencers can also include those who are already in your direct fan network. I recommend looking at your existing fan base on Facebook and Twitter as an outlet for potential influencers. Active participants on your Facebook wall who have a large social network can be great influencers for your brand.

Tip: Look at the comments on your wall over the past month or two. Are there any individuals who continuously pop into the conversation and give positive feedback? If so, start with this group of fans. They are more likely to get excited by a direct offer and turn around and share your message with their social network.

Create an Exclusive Promotion For Influencers

In order to reach the largest percentage of relevant consumers through promotional efforts, create a mechanism by which an offer can be seeded to relevant influencers and not to the general public. Furthermore, implement a barrier that will prevent the general public from gaining access to the offer, at least for a certain amount of time.

One example of a mechanism is a digital gift card with an exclusive code.  Each influencer is presented a card with limited usage that they can seed out to their network and readership. The code is then redeemable on your Facebook page until it has expired.

CLEAN Perfume sent these cards out to beauty bloggers for their "Influencer Giveaway"

Tip: Create a digital gift card that an influencer can embed right on their blog, profile page or website. Encourage the influencer to link the card directly to your Facebook fan page so that readers can easily get to your giveaway page. The easier you make it for an influencer to participate, the better chance you will have of getting them onboard.

Make it easy for influencers to spread the message!

Not only do you get the public filter by using this method, but people are more likely to act on the offer when it has been presented by a trusted influencer source and not the brand directly. By the time the code does find its way out to the freebie hunters, it has already expired, or is close to expiring, and you’ve succeeded in reaching a larger percentage of relevant consumers.

Of course, this is just one example of integrating influencers and barriers to entry into your Facebook promotion. The proper method, in the end, will be determined by your brand, target audience and target influencers.

In the constant quest to increase return and decrease spend, don’t underestimate the power of influencers in your Facebook promotional efforts.

Have you used other mechanisms to reach influencers as a conduit for sharing a giveaway or limited availability offer? Please share it in the comments box below.

In this interview I talk with Scott Monty—head of social media for Ford Motor Company—and the man in charge of Ford’s social media presence and initiatives like TheFordStory.com.

When you think of Ford, you might think “old American car company.” However, under the direction of Scott Monty, Ford has become one of the leading big businesses in America using social media to connect directly with consumers. And it certainly seems that Ford is on the right track to success, recently reporting 1 billion dollars in profit!

In this video, you’ll learn how Ford uses TweetUps to help Ford executives connect with customers across America and how Ford is humanizing its brand. Scott also provides advice to other businesses that are looking to capitalize on social media. Scott also has a little fun, as you’ll see…

VIEW VIDEO HERE NOW:

What did you think about the video? How has your opinion of Ford changed in recent years?