Intuit on Crowdsourcing | Social Media Case Study

Social Media Case Studies in Customer Driven Innovation:

The Intuit wiki has great insight into the realm of crowdsourcing innovation:

Every day, millions of people make all kinds of voluntary contributions to companies – from  to  – that create tremendous value for those firms’ customers and, consequently, for their shareholders. When I first encountered this idea, several years ago, it struck me as unfathomable: Volunteerism was for charities, not for red-blooded, profit-making firms.

The article continues:

OK, I’m not saying you can or should transform your company into a Google or a Skype whose business model is primarily based on user contributions. But you should understand the power of the phenomenon and, as I have, learn from the growing number of companies in traditional industries – firms like Honda, Procter & Gamble, Best Buy, and Hyatt – that are tapping user contributions to, , , , , and more. Contribution-driven results like those are achievable for pretty much any business.

For more case studies and examples of UCS check out Chris Brogan’s social media case studies or the Intuit wiki.

Congrats to Intuit for being a market leader and deliver real customer value. Given its proactive policy Intuits executives will have massive customer insight that no competitor will have an answer to, unless they chose to follow Intuit. Thoughts?  How long will it take for executives to become advocates of crowdsourcing? How are you using crowdsourcing to connect with customers and deliver better products?