In yet another example of how businesses are engaging Twitter, Threadless T-shirts has partnered with Twitter to crowdsource designs for a new line of “Twitter Tees.” Twitter users submit and vote on tweets to appear on Threadless Tees. Says Cam Balzer, vice president of marketing at Threadless parent company Skinny Corp, “The beauty of crowdsourcing is the audience really markets the products themselves.”

Threadless has set up a Web site specifically for the campaign, where anyone with a Twitter account can vote on which tweets should appear on the Tees. So far, the campaign has been a success. PR Week reports that within the first few hours, Threadless already had more than 200,000 votes.

As companies like Threadless are quickly discovering, Twitter provides an excellent avenue for crowdsourcing. For the uninitiated, crowdsourcing means asking an undefined, large group of people to complete a task that might have traditionally been performed by an employee. The iPhone App Store phenomenon is a perfect example of how crowdsourcing can lead to great results for companies, developers and consumers.

For businesses looking to secure feedback or input from customers, crowdsourcing can be an invaluable tool. And with the advent of Web 2.0, barriers to entry are extremely low.

Should your company crowdsource to achieve business objectives? Consider these benefits of crowdsourcing and whether they align with your goals:

Speed. Problems can be solved quickly, and often at a comparatively low cost.

Payment. Businesses pay the “crowd” by results – if they pay them at all. For many contributors to crowdsourcing projects, the simple kudos of having contributed to something important is reward enough.

Talent. A company has access to a wider pool of talent than their employees or contractors.

Insight. Businesses secure immediate feedback from customers.

Kinship. The crowd develops a personal relationship with the brand.

So how does crowdsourcing work? Check out this flowchart compliments of Wikipedia:

We will be interested to see whether other companies follow the lead of Threadless and crowdsource via Twitter.