I argue that the knowledge and input needed to make innovation happen is already available. Much resides within the corporate walls and even more can be found externally.
If we accept this, the key challenge is to know what you are looking for and once this is known another key challenge is to connect the dots. The first challenge relates to strategy and processes. This is difficult. The second challenge – connecting the dots – is also difficult, but we are now seeing how social media tools and services help make this happen.
Some examples:
Yammer has become a strong idea platform for many companies that engage employees in ideation and idea development. This is to a high degree led by Yammer’s ability to connect the missing dots within the company. Telefonica / O2 is a good case on this.
Twitter becomes quite useful once you get more than 5,000 followers. Larger companies that are serious about using social media for innovation efforts have several accounts with many followers. Check out these BASF accounts and imagine how they can use this for innovation.
LinkedIn is a well-known tool for connection the dots. As with Twitter, larger companies seem to build LinkedIn strategies and you can check out these PepsiCo accounts and start imagining how they can be used for innovation.
These are just the early days of using social media services and tools for innovation efforts. Let’s start sharing more knowledge on how to make this happen. Perhaps you can help by sharing your views or cases on this?
