Feature
While Spigit (news, site) is no stranger to using crowdsourcing techniques within organizations to propagate ideas and spur employees to share and engage -- think: internal suggestion box on steroids -- their launch of SpigitEngage for Facebook has put them squarely in the sights of something, or rather, someone, much larger: YOU.
Facebook Gets Ideas
With the recent announcement of SpigitEngage for Facebook, Spigit takes its innovation software to the masses and intends to help companies capitalize on its social media communication. Although crowdsourcing projects aren’t new, the gold rush begins as more companies analyze their marketing strategies and realize that the exchange of information between business and consumer, often performed in a social context, such as Facebook Fanpages, can mean much more -- one that results in a monetary exchange as well.
The beauty of social media is that it takes what we like to do naturally (talk about ourselves) and provides a limitless forum to feed that desire. Spigit wisely piggybacks on this existing technology, as well as behavior patterns among users, essentially allowing Facebook to act as a public think tank.
This collective consciousness has been present since Facebook’s debut, but mining it, aggregating data and channeling it for a specific, actionable purpose is where businesses can skillfully drive the success of their social media campaigns.
Giving Consumers a Voice
Businesses aren’t the only ones to benefit; for consumers who are deeply invested in a company’s technology or product, providing them an outlet to voice their opinion on future projects is a welcome change. With this in mind, Spigit has incorporated their proprietary ranking technology, “RepURank”, to enable vocal fans to become more influential based on their contributions and also allows businesses to reward loyal contributors. This means that creative marketing campaigns such as idea generated campaigns, contests or games can become much more interactive and, as Spigit likes to point out, actually fun.
At the end of the day, the concept is quite familiar: taking what could easily be perceived as passive communication or one-off ideas and allowing them to evolve and gain momentum by positioning them to individuals who share a common denominator. It’s not a revolutionary notion, but it’s how revolutions start, and we’ll be eagerly watching this idea mature.
