Airbnb CEO Asks Twitter What His Company Should Launch in 2017 He's received more than 1,000 ideas so far. Here are some of them.

By Lydia Belanger

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Richard Bord / Contributor | Getty Images

Consultants, focus groups and research only have so much power when it comes to meeting customers' demands. Thanks to social media, companies now have a direct line of communication with the people who use their products and services.

Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky spent Christmas night on Twitter after he posed a question to his followers: "If Airbnb could launch anything in 2017, what would it be?" The tweet transformed into a thread of brainstorming, troubleshooting and partnership-building for the home-sharing marketplace.

Related: The Smarter Way to Humanize Your Company's Use of Twitter

Some followers pointed out gaps in the booking specifications.

Chesky engaged with many of the respondents.

He was one step ahead of some users. His Twitter brainstorm session doubled as a way to gather ideas and promote forthcoming projects.

Product Hunt founder Ryan Hoover reached out with an idea to collect the suggestions generated. Chesky said "sure" and replied with his email address.

Other respondents proposed new platforms or user categories.

Some suggestions were a bit more ambitious, but Chesky took them seriously.

Chesky is not the only executive to solicit feedback via Twitter. Elon Musk often shares and workshops ideas this way. In September, he tweeted at government agencies for help with an investigation into a SpaceX rocket explosion.

Related: Jack Dorsey Explains Why Elon Musk Has One of the Best Twitter Accounts

Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey highlighted Chesky's use of his company's product, quote-tweeting Chesky's thread and giving it more exposure and momentum.

Less than 24 hours after his initial callout, Chesky tweeted that the experiment had exceeded his expectations a hundredfold.

Lydia Belanger is a former associate editor at Entrepreneur. Follow her on Twitter: @LydiaBelanger.

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