Crowdsourcing and Social Media

Today, I want to discuss crowdsourcing and social media by, well, tapping into the crowd of this blog. Hero X defines social media crowdsourcing as "leveraging social media platforms to solicit ideas or feedback from a large audience," which brings many questions about crowdsourcing to mind. The first being, "Has crowdsourcing become standard practice in the world of social media, particularly with influencers?" Consider a normal scroll through your Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok feed: how many times does an influencer ask which option they should choose for their next challenge, outfit, or even their meal. They post and await enough responses to share that they went with the majority outfit for the rest of their day.

What is so unique about this? Once, crowdsourcing was somewhat exclusive to companies and researchers. In the same article, Hero X references Coca-Cola using crowdsourcing to determine their new flavor of soda by talking to their customer base on Twitter. Personally, what comes to mind when considering crowdsourcing I think of campaigns like this from Coca-Cola, or a marketing team putting out A/B testing. Now, it seems that it has been taken to a micro-level with influencer culture.

Now in a world where crowdsourcing has become a regular practice, does it still hold the same impact? As a marketing major, something we discuss regularly is the concept of decision fatigue. Medical News Today defines decision fatigue as "the idea that after making many decisions, a person’s ability to make additional decisions becomes worse." We make so many decision daily. What to wear, eat, or do with our fleeting moments of free time. We are even required to decide what to say each moment we are given a chance to speak. Some could say the supermarket is decision fatigue's strongest opponent. Any time we are faced with numerous options that satisfy essentially the same decision criteria, we tend to become overwhelmed or even exhausted. This is a condition imminent to any and all consumers.

As media consumption grows, so does the prevalence of decision fatigue. Victoria Coupe from Alto Marketing writes:

"As it turns out there is a limit to our cognitive capacity and we’re hitting that limit far earlier in the day due to the sheer volume of media we are consuming. As Scott Ely references in his talk; a recent study showed that the average American spends 11 hours a day consuming some kind of electronic media. Yikes. It’s no wonder we’re tired."

With this reality, how will micro-level crowdsourcing impact the way consumers handle everyday crowdsourcing decisions? If consumers are already tired of making decisions and hop on to social media to unwind, will they begin to resent those who use their platforms to generate polls and ask questions? Are they done with making decisions for the day? How will this direct attention from existing efforts on a macro-level with marketing or medical research?

Personally, I have noticed this fatigue and subsequent frustration with decision-making in my own social media practices. Influencers consistently ask for opinions on their page, and I can count on one hand the times I've actually engaged with these posts. And, when I come across actual polls that are asking for valued consumer opinions, I tend to decline. The popup that asks how I'm liking the app out of 5 stars is the last thing I want to participate in, though it would only take a few seconds of my time. It is simply that the mental effort of engaging in these polls or questions seems frustrating.

So readers, I pass my torch to you and ask the question I always do. What do you think? Are we noticing crowdsourcing moving from a macro to micro level practice? How much engagement do you tend to give in crowdsourcing efforts on social media? How do you feel about these efforts? Is micro-level crowdsourcing taking away attention from important research? Do you experience decision fatigue?

I must note, I recognize the hypocritical nature of this blog post. As I take a somewhat critical stance on the effectiveness of crowdsourcing and my personal experiences with it, I turn around and take a poll of my readers. However, that is the entire intent of this blog. And unless you are my professor reading these posts for my grade, or my mother quietly supporting me, you likely know that those who come across this page will be invited to join the conversation. But that is all it is—an invitation. You by no means have to engage in the discussion topics of these blogs. You have full permission (not that you need it) to be a fly on the wall and read the post and subsequent discussions stealthily. However, for those of you who do have thoughts or questions, comment. Continue the conversation and give your opinion, ask your questions, or document your thoughts!

Best,

Logie.