An interesting article in the New York Times describes how Markus Frind, founder of PlentyofFish.com, is able to run a $10,000,000/year business on his own out of his apartment in Vancouver, British Columbia, while putting in only 10 hours of work per week. How does he do it? Frind has created new software that allows him to offload the majority of the work onto his customers, who do it – believe it or not – free of charge, with some volunteers evaluating more than 100,000 images in a year.

The eagerness of consumers to get involved provides a large opportunity for social networking sites such as Facebook. For example, to reap the benefits of complimentary consumer involvement, new Facebook applications targeting selected individuals (based on their profile information) can get consumers more involved in the product development process. The already available demographic information can save companies an enormous amount of time that would have otherwise been spent surveying consumers to find the right demographic, provided these users are willing to make their information available. Given the willingness of many Facebook users to allow various applications access to their personal information, it seems these companies should not have a hard time finding eager and willing consumers to contribute their thoughts and opinions. In fact, MySpace is currently in talks with market research firm Passenger regarding the creation of private communities within MySpace that will foster market research. 

The great opportunities that Web 2.0 offers , such as harnessing the collective manpower of satisfied and willing consumer volunteers, does have an ugly flip side, however. For as many delighted customers that exist out there, there are always a few disgruntled ones who are not afraid of making their voices heard. Dell found out the hard way when a frustrated customer posted his negative customer service experience on his daily blog which started a downward spiral that involved many other dissatisfied Dell customers and eventually led to Dell’s stock plummeting 45%. 

Frind suggests that his customers are willing to put in the hours, free of charge, because “Lots of people feel like they want to give back to the site because it’s free.” Thus, in order for firm’s to take advantage of this trend, they must give off a positive image in that their product/service should be perceived as beneficial for the community.  Whether the quality of this ’free’ labor is up to par may be questionable, however, companies should not overlook this potential source of complimentary work.