So many high profile crowdsourcing initiatives happen in North America, you might imagine that the movement is a western thing, or a mostly American thing. Not so. Just like crowdsourcing can’t be pigeon-holed into a single purpose like finding research or tech solutions, or task production, or only uncovering product or service ideas – it’s also not a single continent thing.

In the last month, we’ve announced two European partnerships. Our latest alliance is with InnoCrowding Group. They’re a leading service provider in crowd-based innovation in Europe, with particular strength in Italy.

Many of the government organizations, corporations, universities and civic groups that come to us are from across Europe, Latin America, and other regions. They are looking to draw wisdom, production or funding from crowds of employees, partners, or the public, often in languages other than English, with crowdsourcing models that are more collaborative and community-centric than commonplace in North America.

We are choosing allies who can assist not just in translation, but localization with different cultures so we continue to get right how to engage participants, motivate them with incentives and rewards, and enable collaboration that fosters human connections and productivity. We have lots to learn about crowd behaviours abroad and, with our partners, we’re up for it.

What do you see as the vitals to making crowdsourcing work anywhere? Will participation be driven by mobile access, rise in social online behaviours, governments’ investment in leading innovation? Share your thoughts.

The community manager in me hates it when people talk about launching a crowdsourcing community as though it is something that’s disposable. I much prefer when people are worried about keeping their community engaged and rewarded. It shows that you are willing to invest in the people that are investing their time in your product or brand. To achieve a a community where people stay and contribute, here are methods I’ve proven to be effective:

5. Trickle the rewards. Members need to be getting something out of the community on a regular basis. If your crowdsourcing community is focused on one big goal (Check out our Netflix scorecard as a good example), think about how you can divvy up the reward so that people don’t get discouraged or lose interest long before the goal is met. .

4. Give incentives for diverse contributions. Different kinds of members need to feel like their contributions are just as important as the next person’s. Consider rewarding active members, friendly members, members who refer others to the community, members who consistently leave insightful comments. It’s also worth rewarding straight up “quantity” i.e. most contributions and “quality” i.e. highest voted contribution.

3. Say little. Make it meaningful. Make your site’s purpose evident and your calls to action clear.  Simply display what’s new to returning visitors and they’ll be more likely to put in more time. Leave room for contributors to have their say, versus having to spend time reading about yours.

2. A little hand-holding goes a long way. Show people what they can be doing. A really  intuitive site is a big part of this, but make it ultra easy with a get-started wizard that coaches new members or a personal reach out from the community manager. Make it your mission to have new members stay versus recruiting another new member… your membership will grow faster!

1. Now tell us about you. Make it your business to highlight everyone in the community – even the “lurkers.” Encouraging sharing of interesting personal or professional facts on profile pages, introducing members with similar interests and suggesting ways for members to contribute are all easy ways to make members feel valued and promote belonging.

Photo by Rasmin