Jason Spector.com

HootSuite, my preferred Twitter client, recently upgraded their app with several new features, some UI tweaks and a few minor design changes. The long-awaited and highly-anticipated updates were the LinkedIn, Facebook and Ping.fm integrations as well as Twitter Lists. What prompted me to write this post, however, was a single subtle change that I imagine many users might not catch. But being the type of UX guy that I am, it drove me a little nuts. I’m referring to the updated character count of the twitter posts.

I recently had the pleasure of speaking with fellow Pittsburgher, twitter pal and social media maven Michelle Chmielewski, otherwise known as the The Observing Participant.

We discussed many topics about crowdsourcing and social media, but the focus was primarily on how successful crowdsourcing coincides with a healthy respect for the “Three C’s” – the Client, the Crowd and the Competition.

One of the benefits of working from home is that I don’t always have to work from home. I can pack up my laptop, plug in my iHeadPhones and head off to the nearest wifi hotspot. In most cases, that takes me down the street to the local (non-Starbucks) coffee shop. I usually spend some of my “working” time observing the shop’s space, staff, customers and how they all interact.

On this particular day, I was wondering how the shop could bring in more customers. Specifically, how could crowdsourcing and social media help drive up their customer base. The following is one idea and the grand plan to achieve it.

During one of my many Southwest flights commuting up and down the east coast, I came across this article in Spirit, the in-flight magazine. Before you pass judgement, I’d like to state for the record that the magazine’s really pretty good. Plus, there’s not much else to do while I’m listening to the safety features for the hundredth time and waiting impatiently to turn on my laptop.

Anyway, there was an article about what Coca-Cola’s CEO Muhtar Kent does to get focused and stay on top of things as he watches over a company of over 92,000 employees in 200 countries. To manage his time and perspective, he spends an hour a day on some key tasks:

Crowdsourcing, once an innovation by a few forward-thinking companies and organizations, has spread into a diverse industry of firms working in ideation, design, development, philanthropy, customer service, venture capital funding – you name it. Do a simple search for crowdsourcing and you’ll see how many have popped up in the few years.

Recently, a new player entered the arena – the companies themselves.