IdeaScale is a place where a user submits an idea, others vote on the ideas submitted by others and the best idea gets bubbled up. In this way you can ensure that you are in close relationship with your customers. IdeaScale is used by all types of organizations ranging from government agencies to non-profits; essentially companies of all sizes.

We’ll take a quick peek at getting your IdeaScale community setup.

Overview

IdeaScale is a simple but effective web application which can be used by any type of organization, even just the one-man “team”. IdeaScale works in the following way.

User submits ideas : Your customers use your product or service everyday. Let them engage you when they’re most inspired — giving you the best quality ideas. Find answers to questions before you even thought to ask.

Others vote on ideas : It’s not easy getting your customer’s time. Your busiest ones generally provide the best ideas. Encourage them to vote on the ideas they are most passionate about.

Best idea bubbles up : A community forms around your brand and each of its ideas. The most valuable ideas are brought forward.

Pricing

IdeaScale comes in three versions. You can use IdeaScale for free with some restrictions or go for other pricing options such as basic and corporate. Let’s have a detailed look on each pricing and what they have for you.

Free:

• Unlimited number of ideas, users, comments.
• You can create only one community.
• Only one moderator can be assigned.
• Twitter/ Email Integration.

Basic:

• Unlimited number of ideas, users, comments.
• You can create only one community.
• Only one moderator can be assigned.
• Twitter/ Email Integration.
• You can upload your company logo

Corporate:

• Unlimited number of ideas, users, comments.
• You can create only one community.
• Only one moderator can be assigned.
• Twitter/ Email Integration.
• You can upload your company logo.
• CSS customization.
• File attachment.
• Custom fields.
• Email broadcast functionality.

IdeaScale Usage

Step 1

First, you need a account. To create an account at IdeaScale, fill in your Email address, password, license (in this case it will be a Free Account) and human verification. Click Get Started.

Step 2

On successful account creation, you will be redirected to your dashboard. From your dashboard you can create communities, manage your users and configure your community. Initially you have to create communities for other tabs to appear. Click on the Create New Feedback Community. to create Feedback community.

Step 3

Fill out the basic information and give your company name. Once you give your company name, other fields will be automatically filled, but still you can modify it if you want. Your feedback community will have the same address as in the IdeaScale URL.

Step 4

Your feedback community will have to go into certain category. Fill out the categories, only one category per line. For instance if your feedback community is for a website, then add the category as website. Click Next after filling categories.

Step 5

Select the community type, choosing between the 4 different types. Each community description is given below.

Product Development: Best used for collecting ideas related to a specific product or service. Poker chip style voting is employed which limits the number of votes that are allocated to each user – thus more thought is considered when voting for each idea.

Blog: This type of community is best suited for your blog. Useful for a group of trusted users, where feedback on each and every idea is encouraged. Trust in your users is high, thus moderation of ideas/comments/users is kept to a minimum (can be changed later).

Suggestion Box: This is best when hiding the identity of the user is crucial to the idea collection process. Simple up/down voting is used, and login/authentication is not required to vote or submit new ideas.

Private: This type of community is used when the security of your ideas are the utmost importance. Login/authentication is required to view ideas (ie, no one can view ideas unless the use logs in
to the community).

Select a community that suits you.

Step 6

Thats it. You have created a community and will now be able add themes, custom fields, email preference and configure some security features under the settings tab.

Step 7

Now you need your users to start publishing ideas. You can invite users to your feedback community through email or importing user files. These options will be found under user tab.

Step 8

Under report you can find various reports such as number of ideas, best ideas etc.

Now go to your assigned IdeaScale URL, to see the various ideas posted by your users.

Final Thoughts

Traditional online research methods haven’t been so effective in fostering a sense of community among customers. In addition, its no secret that your customers are talking about your organization all over the social web: on sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, etc. IdeaScale was built to channel these discussions to both increase engagement and provide focused, effective feedback for your organization.