Recessive times call for creative measures, and small business owners excel at finding unusual ways to get the job done for not a lot of money. If you're looking to launch a new product, rebrand your company or find a new logo, tapping in to the opinions and passion of your customer base -- a strategy known as crowdsourcing -- is a great and inexpensive way to build both your brand and your customers' loyalty.

As with any new small business marketing initiative, there's a bit of a learning curve. Don’t worry it's not hard, and we've got some great examples you can model your efforts after, which means you won’t have to reinvent the wheel. Small Business Computing has the details.

More ecommerce businesses are using the crowd (i.e., their customers, Facebook fans and/or employees) to help them develop new products and build brand loyalty -- and the strategy seems to be working, at least for some online businesses. But is crowdsourcing a viable marketing and/or product development strategy for every small business? And how do you successfully harness the power of the crowd? Small Business Computing spoke to several ecommerce businesses that tried crowdsourcing to find out.

Read the complete crowdsourcing article

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