The potential for crowdsourcing to drive sustainability is too strong for it to be seen just as another digital marketing tool.

Social media has been a lifeline for those affected by Hurricane Sandy. Matthew Yeomans examines its role in wider disaster relief work.

We’ve seen Nissan launch a comprehensive crowdsourced car-building campaign, American beer brand Sam Adams crowdsource a new draft beer via Facebook, and makeup maestros Bobbi Brown bring back old lipstick shade favorites based on crowdsourced feedback. Now, the universally-recognised McDonald’s is tapping into social crowdsourcing success, with its Germany-centric ‘Mein Burger’ (My Burger) campaign.

Brands and companies using Facebook for feedback is not news – every day fans are asked to rate items, or are encouraged to chat about new launches. But how often do brands take these comments on board in creating new products? Japanese carmaker Nissan aims to do exactly that in its ‘Project 370Z’, which will see the brand’s Facebook fans crowd-source a special one-off, track-ready, 370Z using off-the-shelf performance parts and accessories.

Once upon a time, charities looking to raise colossal sums of money quickly would turn to fundraising kingpins like Elton John or Bob Geldof, who would round up their rich and famous musical pals and encourage the general populous to congregate in a city park, get drunk and wave at the cameras beaming the event live into millions of homes around the country. But what about now?

As I type, the LinkedIn (LNKD for you day-traders out there) IPO still has yet to open for its inaugural day of trading and already tech and finance journalists are buzzing about what this will mean for investors, every-day business managers and the entire social media IPO pipeline, some of it silly speculation, some of it precious nuggets of insights.

Ah, if it were only that easy. In truth, companies are still playing lip service to the practice of “social co-creation,” or using social media to tap your customer base for innovative ideas, new research has found.

Gap, the slumping clothing chain, has been feeling the heat these past few days after introducing a new corporate logo on its homepage, one that critics grumble looks like a logo for a bank, or worse, a medical supply chain. When hundreds of disapproving comments piled up on its Facebook wall, on Twitter and in blogs, Gap responded by turning the flap into an exercise in crowdsourcing. It now wants to solicit design ideas from you. Could this mean curtains for high-priced creative boutiques?

The Pepsi Refresh Project has been one of the most successful corporate CSR initiatives in recent memory, pledging millions to worthy causes and raising awareness for thousands more. But this morning it got slammed by its first wave of bad PR: allegations in The New York Times that well-funded Lefty operatives are stuffing the online ballot box for their pet causes

With the London Underground hit by a strike today, BBC London has launched a crowdsourcing experiment to keep travelers informed of the latest travel news.