What Motivates Participation in Crowdsourcing?

Crowdsourcing is becoming an increasingly popular way for organizations to obtain data and opinions from a large pool of diverse contributors. What motivates participation in crowdsourcing may surprise you.

It’s easy to assume that extrinsic motivators such as prizes, incentives, and recognition are a primary motivator. However, intrinsic motivators such as feeling part of something bigger, value alignment, and the fun of the challenge are primary motivators.

By understanding the motivations of participants, you can better design and implement your crowdsourcing activities.

Benefits of Participation in Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing is an excellent way to tap into the collective intelligence of a large group of people. It delivers benefits for both the organization and the participants. By asking customers to contribute their opinions, organizations can develop a better understanding of their pain points. While you are sure to have detailed demographic profiles, wants and needs are nuanced—and there are sure to be areas of opportunity you are unaware of. Or that you are aware of but have a limited understanding of.

Crowdsourcing is an effective method of innovation for startups, established organizations, non-profits, and government agencies alike. It often inspires products and services that you and your in-house team wouldn’t have considered. Or it guides you on how to evolve your next generation of products and services.

It can be utilized to:

• Generate new ideas.
• Solve complex problems.
• Collect data quickly and efficiently.
• Leverage collective perspectives and expertise.
• Optimize resources including time and budget.
• Gain detailed feedback from customers and communities.
• Deliver more effective and efficient products and services.

Now, let’s dive into what inspires participants to contribute.

#1 Solidarity

Solidarity is an important concept in the world of crowdsourcing. When given the opportunity to share their feedback, insights, and expertise—participants feel like they are part of something bigger.

Solidarity is the idea that each individual or group involved in a shared project can contribute, benefit, and maybe even take ownership of the results. It encourages collaboration, communication, and mutual respect among project participants. This can lead to faster and more successful outcomes for both the participants and the organization.

When solidarity is present, each participant can offer their unique expertise and skills, creating a stronger and more unified whole. This in turn can lead to the development of innovative solutions and the growth of the entire crowdsourcing network. With a structured system in place, the contributions of each participant become an invaluable part of the collective success.

#2 Positive Challenge

There are a variety of crowdsourcing objectives. Sometimes you want to gather data or feedback, sometimes you want insights on what direction to go next, and sometimes you have a designated problem to solve. When you have a problem to solve, crowdsourcing provides a positive challenge and facilitates and innovative solution-finding process.

Crowdsourcing empowers your organization to tap into the participants’ collective knowledge, resources, and creativity to identify innovative solutions to problems. Participating in a crowd-sourced challenge is an exciting and rewarding way for your crowd to engage with your innovative ideas and technologies.

Source your crowdsourcing participants from your:

• Existing consumers
• Local area community members
• Local or global demographics
• Industry peers
• Subject matter experts

#3 Peer Learning Opportunity

Peer learning offers many benefits to participants and organizations alike. It’s a collaborative opportunity that when facilitated properly delivers a high level of engagement.

While your organizational objective is to learn, participants may be inspired and intrigued by the opportunity to gain insights they may not currently have access to.

For example, learning about how to utilize virtual reality for non-entertainment purposes. Maybe for meditation, exposure therapy, or the multitude of training applications.  Or simply learning what innovations you are exploring.

Whether they are an existing customer, or they aren’t familiar with your organization, participants will walk away knowing your brand and brand objectives better than before.

#4 Fun

Time is our most valuable resource, so be mindful of creating an efficient process. While schedules have never been busier, participants often make the time because participation is fun! If not fun, meaningful to them in some way.

Crowdsourcing empowers participants to create or contribute to innovative solutions that they, and your target community, will benefit from. The collective wisdom shared and generated will motivate and inspire both the participants and your internal team members.

#5 Value Alignment

Crowdsourcing initiatives that are value-driven motivate participants by providing the opportunity to contribute to meaningful change.

Consumers have never been more invested in supporting brands and businesses that are aligned with their personal values. External consumers are more conscious than ever about how, why, and where they spend their money. Your internal team members have higher levels of motivation, productivity, and retention when they are aligned with your organizational objectives.

While not every crowdsourcing initiative will be directly related to a value-driven objective, if your overall values are aligned, your participation rates will be higher. Potentially your outcomes too.

#6 Prizes, Incentives, and Recognition

We saved prizes, incentives, and recognition for last as rewards aren’t the primary motivation for most of your participants. In fact, some studies show that rewards were irrelevant to encouraging participation. That being said, rewards are an excellent way to thank participants for their contributions.

A few ideas include:

• Exclusive or priority access to the final product or service generated.
• The opportunity to beta test for free or for a greatly discounted price.
• Gift cards, cash, swag, perks, raffle, or free products and services.
• Listing participant names on your website as a public thank you.

Conclusion

Crowdsourcing can be a powerful tool for achieving a variety of organizational objectives. By understanding what motivates people to participate in crowdsourcing, you can better understand the benefits and challenges of this approach.

If you would like to explore creating a collective process to generate ideas, solve problems, and develop solutions—IdeaScale is here to help!

Our crowdsourcing platform empowers you to reach participants in powerful new ways. Once your crowdsourcing is complete, we can provide an innovation maturity assessment and a strategic and measurable action plan.

Reach out today to explore our technology with a free demo!