I’ve written and spoken extensively about the effectiveness of using social media for communications, branding and engagement. One thing that I’ve just recently discovered is that social media, especially Twitter , can also be a powerful tool for crowdsourcing as well.

Those of you who are following my Twitter feed will know that besides being a new media consultant for BFM 89.9, I've also taken on the unlikely role of editor for Cars.MY , an auto magazine published by MPH.

I say “unlikely” because I’m the furthest thing from being a car buff. Until recently, a car, to me was quite simply a device to get me from Point A to Point B. That’s it. Nothing more, nothing less.

But I’ve always thrived on challenges. Editing a tech magazine, a business periodical or a political journal would have been easy enough for me. A car magazine, on the other hand, now that’s knocking me out of my comfort zone!

Upon signing up for the task, I did some crowdsourcing the traditional way, by asking my circle of friends if they knew people who were involved in the auto industry or who were car fanatics. Sure enough, there were some and I got some very useful and handy tips from them. But it wasn’t enough.

So, I decided to tap onto the wisdom of crowds and ask my Twitter followers what they wanted to see in a car magazine. Quite rapidly, suggestions started to pour in. But more importantly, I got to know some really good contacts through this exercise.

Critical mass needed

Of course, in order to be able to crowdsource, you need to have a critical mass of people in your network. If you only have five people following your Twitter feed, well... there’s not much to crowdsource from, right?

Unlike some Twitterers, I don't have a huge following, not even in the thousands. But I do have slightly over 600 genuine followers (I proactively and regularly weed out spam followers). That's a sizeable enough network to do some crowdsourcing.

NONE Amongst the people in my network are people who know a lot about cars. One guy, whose Twitter handle is @mafiz, suggested that I include a column on “defensive driving”, a concept well known in the US but largely unheard of in Malaysia. It’s basically about best practices for safe driving. Since Malaysians are infamous for being lousy drivers, I felt this was a great idea and decided to incorporate it into the magazine.

He also introduced me to his car-crazy friend, @fazz27, who has just left his high-level telco job to join a car company. I told him I wanted to interview some car industry personalities so he passed me some useful contacts in the industry. I’m now following up on those leads.

A Twitter contact, @vernieman, who is also something of a car fanatic, introduced me to his friend @jAkuuZeeMan, who races with him in Sepang. It so happens @jAkuuZeeMan is a professional photographer. I quickly signed him on as the chief photographer for the magazine.

NONE When I tweeted that I will be incorporating tech stuff into the car magazine, a Twitter follower, @sinyc, whom I have never met but with whom I’ve had several exchanges with in the past, referred me to SYNC, an in-car entertainment connectivity system developed by the Ford Motor Company that allows drivers to operate MP3 players, Bluetooth-enabled phones and USB drives with simple voice commands.

But the most amazing thing to me was how some people whom I had never even interacted with on Twitter , took the initiative to help me in my quest to make a different kind of car magazine.

‘Looking for AR?’

One of my Twitter followers, @chanyip, apparently read a tweet I had made about possibly incorporating Augmented Reality into the magazine. He told one of his friends @cdtavijit, a lecturer at Multimedia University specialising in Augmented Reality, about it.

“I heard you looking for AR for your car mag? Can I help?” @cdtavijit tweeted.

NONE “DM me,” I replied, indicating I wanted him to “Direct Message” me. When you do that, you are able to hold conversations that do not appear in the public timeline of your Twitter feed. People usually do this when they want to exchange private information such as phone numbers.

We took our conversation onto Gmail and eventually SMS and phone calls (there’s a limit to how much you can converse 140 characters at a time via Twitter ). We will be meeting up soon to discuss the possibility of making Augmented Reality a reality for the magazine.

All in all, it’s been a very eye-opening and thrilling experience for me, crowdsourcing tips, ideas and contacts from my very own Twitter network. It’s a resource whose potential I was previously not aware of. The Internet never ceases to amaze me.

OON YEOH’s new book ‘Like Me, Follow Me’ has just been published by MPH. His car magazine for MPH will debut in November. You can connect with him via Facebook and Twitter .