How to Leverage Crowdsourced Content to Grow Your Audience?

To create a successful brand or business, it’s essential to leverage the power of crowdsourcing. You can find out what people want by using crowdsourced content as an initial source for your next project.

Crowdsourcing is a process where you share your content to gather information from the public. Isn’t it inconvenient? People will prefer to tweet Seth Godin’s 100-word posts—in the thousands!—then share yours, even if you spent all that time researching and composing it.

But there’s a solid explanation for this. Seth is a very successful businessman. He has over 17 best-selling books under his belt and shows no signs of stopping down. People enjoy his postings because they trust his perspective, even though some of them seem essential (and might have been written by you). However, it takes years of hard effort to achieve this level of accomplishment, trust, and viewership. What if you could hire Seth (or another expert in your field) to create content on your website? It would attract a lot more attention than your usual writing. And it’s doable. Ou may even go a step further and enlist the services of many professionals with significant followings that your target audience naturally trusts to generate content.  his is referred to as “crowdsourced material.” The term comes from the fact that you create the material from a crowd. N theory, the audience might be anybody, including industry influencers. Ince Kickstarter emerged as a platform for individuals and corporations to crowdsource capital for projects, crowdsourcing.

Since 2009, the amount collected via crowdsourcing has roughly increased every year:

It’s also not showing any signs of stopping down. Crowdfunding raised $16.2 billion in 2014, up 167 percent from the previous year, and it is expected to increase to $34.4 billion in 2015.  we’re not discussing crowdsourced product creation (a fascinating subject for another day). The heat we’re talking about is using the Internet’s connectedness and the efforts of a number of individuals to generate outstanding content that will help your company flourish.

The following are the three key advantages of crowdsourced content:

1. Reach a broader audience: People are more likely to share items in which they have an emotional investment.  hen they contribute to the material, the majority of them are eager to share it with their friends and family.  his may be a large audience in the case of influencers.
2. Connect with people: Whether you want to connect with an influencer or an audience member, working together to create a fantastic piece of content is a terrific approach to start a conversation and a connection.
3. Build your authority: The more individuals in your field that readers trust to associate with you, the more power you get.  s I previously said, gaining control takes time, and this st might help speed things up a little.

Isn’t crowdsourcing content the most significant thing ever? T offers a lot of benefits, but it also has some drawbacks. First and foremost, it is not simple. N this essay, I’ll teach you how to make successful crowdsourced material, and believe me when I say it’ll take you many hours to complete. Second, for two reasons, you can’t depend only on crowdsourced material. F you’re continuously crowdsourcing material, your website will lose its voice, which is essential for building a devoted audience.  furthermore, if you constantly beg for aid, you will run out of sources or upset the ones you do have. Crowdsourced posts can only be done once every several months. The crowdsourced piece, on the other hand, is a tremendous tool to have at your disposal. Later, I’ll teach you how to integrate it into your content strategy to get the most out of it. Let’s take a look at how you should go about developing crowdsourced content for the time being.

Choose from two different forms of crowdsourced material.

There are two forms of crowdsourced material in general.

The first method involves polling or surveying your target audience. Then you alr when have a large following, this is usually the best option.  ou may research their issues and produce an essay like “The X Biggest Mistakes Made by [Audience]” or “The X Biggest Problems Facing [Audience].”

Carol Tice does a fantastic job with it.  he strives to discover people who have relevant tales and blend them into pieces that appeal to her other readers on a daily basis:

When I can, I prefer to do this as well, but to a lesser extent.  or example, I used an example of a Maham comment to demonstrate a point in my piece on the 11 Things You Should Do After You Publish a Post.

The second sort of crowdsourced material involves posing a question to experts and then compiling their replies.  n “expert roundup” is how this is referred to.  t’s essentially the same as an interview, only you’re simply asking one (or a few) questions and presenting them to a group of individuals.  hile polling readers and users is a terrific approach to collect input and come up with new ideas, it won’t help your blog expand.  his second form of content, on the other hand, makes use of your experts’ expertise and readership to benefit your blog.  hat’s why I propose starting with crowdsourced material from experts for small and medium-sized sites that are primarily focused on growth.  hat’s what I’m going to concentrate on for the remainder of this post.  t’s crucial how you go about doing it.  ome crowdsourced pieces get very few shares, while others receive hundreds of thousands.  ‘d want you to succeed in the latter.  ‘ll walk you through the steps you should take to get the most out of an expert roundup.

Step 1: Select the appropriate question.

If you ask the incorrect question, you’ll be done before you’ve even begun.  eriously. If you ask your experts a terrible question, they will just ignore you.

• Guidelines for selecting a question include the following:

1. Choose a question that isn’t too basic.
2. Choose a question that isn’t too difficult.
3. Choose a question that does not have a clear solution.

It’s not worth addressing a query that’s too basic.  Do you believe firms should develop a blog?” for example.  hat’s a yes-or-no question, and almost everyone will answer yes, therefore it’s a waste of time.  t’s too much effort for an expert to answer a question that’s too intricate.  housands of words would be required to answer a question like “What is the best step-by-step approach to promote a blog post?” Finally, if the answer is self-evident to a specific expert, they’ll know that your primary purpose is to persuade them to bring you traffic, not to make a fantastic piece of content (which it should be).  or example, if you asked an email marketing specialist, “What is your favorite marketing channel?” the response would clearly be email marketing, so why would you ask?  our question should not be too basic, complex, or apparent, and it should be one that your target audience is interested in.  imple keyword research is the greatest method to come up with an excellent query.  ake a list of keywords in your niche before we begin—they might be rather wide.

Keywords for a nutrition website, for example, maybe:

• a balanced diet
• exercise
• cooking implements
• the most effective diet

Let’s explore where you may find ideas for your query now that you have your keywords (s).

• Quora is the first place to look for inspiration.

In the search box, type your first term.  o identify the most popular related subject, go to the left menu and choose “Topics.” You’ll discover a group with at least a few thousand followers if you choose a popular and wide keyword:

You’ll get a mix of current and previous relevant and popular content when you click on a subject.  ook for queries with a large number of “upvotes,” ideally a few hundred.  emember to seek for a question that can be addressed by someone offering their opinion, since this is the whole idea of having experts respond.

With 546 upvotes, the topic “How can I guarantee I’m eating healthy for university on a $30 a week budget?” is a popular one that people want to be addressed.  owever, this is a way too open-ended and sophisticated issue for an expert to answer.  nstead, you may question, “What is your favorite nutritious dish that costs less than $2 per serving?” For now, simply make a spreadsheet of the most common queries so you can come up with one later.  xamine as many keywords and groupings as possible.

• Reddit is a great place to get ideas.

Reddit, like usual, is an excellent place to check what people are most interested in.  f you’re unfamiliar with Reddit, it’s a social media platform where users may post questions and links to be voted on by the rest of the community.  e’ll be searching for queries that attract a lot of attention and a lot of upvotes.  egin by looking on the sidebar for your keyword:

The findings will come from a number of subreddit groups.  ou may either browse straight to that subreddit or select the subreddit to filter out results for that particular community.  ou’ll only get the most relevant results for your search if you choose to filter the results.  ook through them and make a list of the most frequently asked questions.

It’s evident from these data that inquiries concerning snack ideas are quite popular.

You might ask your experts the following questions based on their answers:

• What’s your go-to healthy snack while you’re on the road?
• What are the three simplest and cheapest snacks you can think of?

You’ll find postings on all pertinent issues if you head to the main subreddit (not just your keyword).  lick “sort by top” to display the most popular questions:

Do the same way you did previously, making a list of any questions you believe you might make into a good one for your specialists.

• Google Keyword Planner is the third source of inspiration.

Even though it’s a simple keyword research tool, it’s still quite beneficial for this purpose.  lick “Get suggestions” after entering your term.  hen, go to the “Keyword suggestions” page and start making a list of common keywords that may be used to answer questions:

“What do you believe is the most essential healthy eating habit?” you could question based on the above findings.  r “What’s your finest piece of healthy eating advice?” Overall, coming up with a solid question isn’t that tough.  ith any approach, you may identify a few excellent ones.  he challenging aspect is converting it into the appropriate sort of question with the appropriate level of difficulty.  ecause the more common the question you ask, the more interested your target audience will be in the response, you’re seeking for popular keywords and queries.  t will not only be an engaging post to read (leading to more subscribers), but it will also result in more sharing and traffic.

Step 2: Choose who you’ll approach.

The following step is equally as challenging as the first.  xperts should be targeted depending on the question(s) you wish to ask.  very month, I get hundreds of requests to join in expert roundups.  ome of them are asking me questions about nutrition and technology, areas in which I am not an expert.  bviously, I never respond to such inquiries.  owever, not all cases are so evident.  utrition specialists vary significantly from those who write about healthy food or exercise.  he influencers you pose your question(s) to must write about that issue on a regular basis.  ou’ll receive a poor response rate if you target the incorrect folks.

• Past participants are your best bets.

Not all experts like or participate in these roundups on a regular basis.  he good news is that, unless you’re in a very narrow market, other bloggers have already weeded out these individuals for you.  he goal is to discover specialists who engage in roundups on a regular basis.  egin by searching for “expert roundup +” on Google.

You may need to search for many keywords related to your issue, depending on your specialty.  or each phrase, read at least a few pages.  ake a list of all the experts who took part in each relevant roundup you come across.

If you’re looking for an expert in a certain field, such as marketing, you’ll have no issue locating hundreds.  f this is the case, scroll down to the comments section to discover which experts have commented (or shared).  hey’ll almost certainly remark on your roundup as well.

• Look for some new blood.

It’s a good idea to include a few low- to mid-level bloggers in addition to the usual suspects that appear in many roundups.  hey’ll be more inclined to join and eager to spread the article since they aren’t asked very frequently.  t also provides you the opportunity to hear different perspectives that your audience may not have heard previously.  ou’ll have to do some searching to unearth these hidden superstars.  here are three approaches you may take.

Method 1

Use the Influencer search on BuzzSumo. Enter a broad term that relates to your query.  n my case, I went for “healthy.” To include just bloggers and influencers, use the criteria provided below.

Influencers who aren’t well-known are what you’re searching for.  hey should still have a few thousand Twitter followers, at the very least (which you can see on the right).  dd as many high-quality experts as possible, then repeat for any new keywords.

Method 2

After that, we’ll utilize twtrland.  ake a free account and search for a certain phrase in the search field.

This tool is just for detecting Twitter influencers, which is ideal for this.  lthough a free account only displays 50 results per term, you should still be able to uncover 10-20 new influencers (try a few keywords).

Method 3

Last but not least, go to Alltop.  his website is a blog directory arranged by specialty.  nother advantage is that virtually all blogs were added by their proprietors, implying that they are actively marketing them (and more likely to participate).  o ensure you don’t miss any relevant blogs, look for your niche/topic in the menu.  f you can’t find anything, try searching for your keyword:

You’ll receive a page of related blogs in any case.  o access the sites, just click on their names.

I saved this option for last since it requires more effort.  ou’ll need to check whether your question is appropriate for these experts at this point, so read through a few posts to make sure.  lso, check at the amount of comments and/or social shares to determine whether they have a following.  on’t stop until you have a total of 50 high-quality specialists.  ore is always preferable.

• Look for their email addresses.

You’ll need to contact all of the bloggers/experts with your query at some time.  egin by looking at their websites to see whether they publish their email addresses.  hey most likely don’t.  oining their email lists is the quickest approach to get their email addresses.  ook for a registration form anywhere on their homepages or blog postings.  ne may be found on any decent blog.

Within the first few days of subscribing, you should get a few emails from their personal email addresses—perfect.  f you can’t locate an email address for whatever reason, use a Twitter or LinkedIn account instead.

• Increase your success rate by involving your expertise.

Would you want to get 20 or 30 answers if you sent 50 emails?  bviously, the answer is thirty.  hen it comes to doing an expert roundup, the most common error is sending cold emails.  I’m 20x more inclined to help if I know who’s delivering the pitch…” — Brian Dean The greater the expert, the more work you’ll have to put in to be on their radar.  ou must discover a technique to stand out sufficiently so people recognize you by your name or don’t mistake you for a stranger.

Here are a few methods for making contact in practically any niche:

• Offer intelligent comments: Unless each article receives a small number of comments, you’ll need to leave thoughtful remarks—ideally, towards the top of the commenting area of each post.   remember four or five names simply because they consistently leave thorough comments within an hour or two of an article being published on Quick Sprout.
• Mention them in articles: While you won’t be able to do this for everyone, you will be able to do it for select experts in your other blog entries.  end them a brief email letting them know you highlighted some of their work, or tag them on social media with a “@” or “+” sign, depending on the network.

• Submit their most significant work to Reddit (or another comparable platform): After it receives a few comments and upvotes, write them a brief email.  ell them you submitted it, and the threceiving influencer has a free minute; the nters would welcome a response.

The key to any of these strategies is to perform something beneficial or worthwhile for the expert and then inform them in a non-obtrusive/polite manner.  f you have additional significant abilities to give, don’t restrict yourself to simply these three tactics.

Step 3: Make sure your pitch is excellent.

If this is your first time, the first two stages will most likely take many hours.  ith practice, contact your specialists using the email address if this is the first time you have collected (it’s OK if this takes a few days).  o give you a sense of what to anticipate, even the most popular bloggers receive just 50-60% response rates when they publish expert roundups.  t will be at least a little lower if you have an unknown blog (but it should be over 30 percent if you follow everything here).

The following are the most crucial things to remember while emailing:

• make it as brief as possible
• clarify the question
• don’t come across as desperate
• be kind and honest

I’ll offer you a template to work with, but you should always take the ideas here and make your own.  hat way, your email will stand out from the others.

Subject: [website] expert roundup

Hello, (name):

Your site is one of my favorites.  hen I want to learn about [particular subject they write about – get this correct!], you’re my go-to resource.  ‘m putting up an expert roundup, and you’re one of the first people that sprang to me as someone I’d want to add.  ere’s what I’d like to ask you:

[question]

It would be fantastic to respond with a 50-100 word response.  ‘ve asked X more experts to contribute to the paper.  Experts 1-3 have already agreed – this is optional].  ‘ll write you a fantastic personalized bio to include with your answer.

[date – at least a week] is the deadline for a response.   really hope you will be able to help.

Thanks,

[Name]

Include a link to a Google form that you develop as an alternative to collecting replies.

You are free to insert as many fields as you like.  owever, just include what is required; otherwise, some experts may see the forms and conclude that it is too much labor.

I suggest including the following:

• Name – so you know who’s on the other end of the line
• Only use email if you don’t already know everyone’s email address.
• Inquiry – Obviously, your question must be included.
• Specific requests – inquire as to whether they’d want to promote anything or connect to a specific location.

People’s responses will be transmitted to a Google Sheet, which you may utilize just like any other spreadsheet:

This will save you time by eliminating the need to switch back and forth between emails.  mportant: As soon as someone responds and answers the question, send them another email thanking them for their help and informing them that the article will be published.

Step 4: Create an article that stands out from the crowd.

You may now write your article after you have received your answers, which should be at least 10-20.  et’s begin with the headline.  he guidelines for writing a powerful headline are the same as they are for any other piece, although it’s a lot simpler here.

The reason it’s simpler is because your alternatives are restricted.  ou’ve already got:

• Several experts have weighed in.
• The fact that they are professionals
• The subject of your query

That doesn’t leave much space for a maneuver.

My title might be something like “22 Nutrition Experts Reveal the Best Healthy Snack for Traveling,” if my query was “What is your favorite healthy snack for traveling?” First, write an introduction to the issue, then describe the findings if possible (depending on the question):

After that, all you have to do is present the answers appealingly.  here are no hard and fast rules as long as you follow them consistently.

Here’s an illustration:

Get images of your specialists from their About pages or Twitter accounts.

You should include two or three words in your bio that explain:

• who they are – not all readers will be familiar with everyone.
• a special mention – express something noteworthy about them (get from their About page)
• any special offers – if you’d like to promote a book or a product

Don’t be sluggish in this area.   decent presentation will have a significant impact on the number of shares and traffic you get.  f you have a large number of experts (20+) and want to go the additional mile, categorize them.  o complete your content production, include click-to-tweet buttons throughout the piece.  irst, install the TweetDis plugin on your computer.  hen, choose a reasonable quotation from each expert’s response in the WordPress menu and click the shortcut button.

Choose “hint” from the dropdown arrow beside “Add” in the options:

When you’re finished, your text should seem like this to your readers:

You’ll receive a lot more tweets from your readers if you choose an excellent statement for each influencer.

Step 5: Use your promotion to its full potential.

The entire goal of an expert roundup is to capitalize on your experts’ authority, so let’s start there.

• Thank you emails should be sent out.

Send an email to each influencer as soon as the piece is published, thanking them for contributing, referring them to the article, and asking them to share it.  ere’s an example of a template you may use: The expert roundup has been published!

Hello, [name],

Thank you again for being one of the X outstanding experts that provided [their opinion on – for example, their favorite snack].  he roundup may now be found at:

URL

If you’d want me to make any adjustments to your area, please let me know.  f you like it, I’d love it if you could share it with your audience.  f it’s simpler, I made a custom Twitter link with the title and link already filled in:

http://ctt.ec/Tab7Y

Please let me know if I can ever assist you in sharing your work, and I’ll be pleased to do so.

Thank you very much,

[name]

You’ll need ClickToTweet to create that personalized Twitter link.  reate an account, then fill out the following form with your Twitter information:

You’ll obtain the HTML code for the link when you click “Generate New Link.” Then, simply copy the URL from there and paste it into the email.

• Send a few more emails to your list.

Even if you don’t yet have an extensive email list, this is a terrific piece of information that people will like.  llow experts to share and comment first, then promote your work to your mailing list a few hours later.

• Contact readers of other recent articles on the same subject who have left comments.

If you have the time, you may use this excellent technique to grow your audience by adding highly aYous to locate additional recent publications on a comparable subject.  nyone who has lef if you have the timet a comment on these articles is likely still interested in the topic, and because you have a much superior piece, they will be delighted to learn about it.  ou may reach out to them and inform them about the story.  ou may also gently encourage them to leave a remark or subscribe to your email list.  o begin, Google the subject of your piece.  on’t be vague:

To limit the results to the previous week, go to “Search tools” and adjust “Any time” to “Past week.” Then, scroll down to the comment areas after clicking on these links.  ou may not discover any comments who connect to their websites depending on your subject (you can use their contact form).  ven if you don’t, checking this takes you to discover someone, send them an email that looks something like this:

Hello, [name],

I saw you recently commented on [article title] on [website].   wanted to send you a brief note to let you know of another story I think you’ll like.   gathered X specialists and persuaded them to expose [subject].  ere’s the link if you want to have a look:

[URL]

Please let me know what you think.  lso, sign up for email updates if you’re interested in more articles like this.

Cheers,

[Your name here]

Alternatively, if the site utilizes Facebook or Disqus comments, consider leaving a (non-spammy) remark with a link to your roundup.

• Share it on Facebook and Twitter.

Like any other article, this roundup should be promoted using your social media strategy.  his implies that you’ll be able to see it in the following weeks.  ou may also tag your experts on social media if they haven’t published the piece yet like I previously stated:

You should only tag a few experts each time you share the content to avoid bugging the same folks again and over.  dditionally, choose a related subreddit and publish your message there.  xpert roundups usually perform well in most subreddits, which might bring a few hundred more people to the topic.

Step 6: Scale and repeat.

I warned you at the outset that outstanding crowdsourced material isn’t simple to come by.  owever, it has the potential to provide excellent outcomes for expanding blogs.  f expert roundups are effective in your area, I advocate doing them on a regular basis: two to four times a year.  chedule them in your content schedule since, as you’ve seen, putting them together may take three to four weeks.  f your first roundup generates a lot of traffic or connections, you may be inclined to do them more often.  owever, if you do them too often, you’ll either have to keep using the same individuals (many will get upset after a few requests), or you’ll have to use lower-quality specialists (which won’t yield the same results).  ou’ll need to contact additional experts if you want to build up your expert roundups.  f you put together an article with 50, 60, or more experts on a particularly intriguing topic, it may boost your traffic for a long time.  ou’ll almost certainly want assistance in doing so.  onsider employing a virtual assistant to help you with the more superficial aspects of this procedure.  how them this post and ask them to locate influencers and get in touch with them.  hey may also be able to handle some of the legwork (writing profiles, leaving comments) so that you can finish your post without having to labor on it for weeks or months.

Conclusion

Borrow authority if you don’t have it.   merely shown how to do it.  s more marketers and businesses realize the enormous possibilities of crowdsourced content, it will only grow in popularity.  ost influencers get hundreds of requests to contribute to expert roundups every month, but they often pick just a handful to participate in.  f you follow the steps I’ve set out for you, you will be one of them.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you leverage crowdsourcing?

A: Using a crowdsourcing platform is the process of soliciting, and obtaining supplies or information from a large group of people.  his type of project involves using online tools for asking questions, such as surveys and polls to collect input on all aspects -from product design to content creation-of what you are trying to develop.

How can I make crowdsourcing better?

A: To make crowdsourcing better, you must be willing to give up what you are asking for.  on’t ask a question that is too hard or doesn’t have precise requirements,s and try not to put more than one request on the same post.

How does crowdsourcing influence marketing strategy?

A: Crowdsourcing has a direct impact on marketing strategy by helping to provide new perspectives and ideas.  t alsodirectly impactsconnections with customers in areas they may not have been able to previously reach, which benefits them through increased market share.