Have you ever been faced with a decision and you didn’t know where to turn for advice? Increasingly, I’m finding that I am one of millions who is turning to the wisdom of crowds for help. Wisdom of crowds is based on the concept that if two heads are better than one, millions of heads are better than two. By using the collective experiences of others, my odds of weeding out the bad experiences and selecting a good experience improve significantly. It beats throwing a dart or depending on blind luck.
SXSW, a major interactive, music and film conference, is using this approach in an innovative way. By using a panel picker application that asks the “crowd” to render an opinion on proposed presentation topics, the organizers are improving the chance that the panels ultimately selected for the conference will be appealing. To see how it works, click here and you can give my submission a thumbs up.
I find myself going to many different sites that either incorporate the wisdom of crowds into their functionality, or sites built specifically around this concept. Here are some of my favorites:
- Yelp.com: This gives good summaries of restaurants with ratings and comments. It includes a location-based service in the mobile version for finding places when I’m traveling. Other similar apps are Zagat.com and Around Me.
- TripAdvisor.com: I’ve used this site for planning where to stay in places I’ve never been to before. The reader comments and ratings are useful, especially when picking a vacation spot that won’t disappoint the family.
- Amazon.com: One of the pioneers in using purchase behavior to drive a recommendation engine. It suggests books that others have read who like the same books I do.
- Angie’s List: This site takes the mystery out of hiring a local service provider, whether it’s someone to fix your back or your back porch. Driven entirely by user reviews, the recommendations are candid and useful, and sure beat a random pick from the Yellow Pages (remember them?).
What are you favorite sites? Please add them to the the list above.
As a marketer, knowing that decisions to buy from you are increasingly being made based on opinions shared on these sites is critical. Refocusing your company to deliver a great customer experience consistently is a must. And developing the organizational capability to listen to, respond to and improve based on comments will be a core competency required for the 21st century.
John Ellett is CEO of nFusion Group, LLC, a digitally-focused marketing agency based in Austin, TX. He has a passion for encouraging and supporting marketing leaders who have the courage to be change agents in their organizations.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m not sure there is such a thing as “wisdom of crowds.” I’m also not sure your references support the concept.
The bottom line of human nature is personal motive, preferences and self-preservation — these are the basic drivers that influence our decision-making.
In the case of SXSW, what is being conducted is simply a poll of sorts that will be carefully considered against their very specific event goals. It’s also a cheap way to solicit ideas that perhaps hadn’t come up within SXSW’s own brainstorming exercise, as well as a way of appealing to their consumer base by suggesting they have influence over what is presented.
Successful businesses are lead by leaders, not crowds.
In the case of Angie’s List, Amazon, etc. … This is more of a feedback poll being conducted by the reader. And again, influenced by personal motives/preferences.
I’ve used craigslist on many occasions and would recommend it. And yet I know that craigslist has been used to perpetrate criminal activity.
The old saying is that there’s wisdom in obtaining the counsel of others, but this doesn’t mean that those “others” are wise, just that seeking the counsel is wise. And for one main reason – the exercise of humility.
But that’s a subject for another day.
Wow, just read my comment above — a good example of why one should not write blog responses at 4:30am.
That should be “Joseph Steel” and, “Successful businesses are led by leaders, not crowds.”