Innovation Perspectives - Harnessing Your "Social Teens"

This is the third of several 'Innovation Perspectives' articles we will publish this week from multiple authors to get different perspectives on 'What is the role of social media in innovation? (Either inside or outside the organization)'. Here is the next perspective in the series:

by Michael Soerensen

Use the power of the Social Media "teens" in your organization!

Everybody is struggling with innovation collaboration - especially how to make employees, customers, etc. chip in... One way of bypassing this for good, is to identify the savvy social media experts within your company, and equip them with tools for innovation and ideation. And you don't need to search for long - just call your Human Resource (HR) department and get a list of employees under 30 years of age, and you will have instant access to specialists brought up on facebook, messenger, linkedin, myspace, etc.!

This group knows what works - and what doesn't - when it comes to sharing and communicating knowledge - which is the core element of innovation. Think about this - If just 10% of employees' traffic/time spent on social media within the company perimeter was spent on collaborating instead, you could increase your innovation effort drastically!

You need ideation, collaboration and innovation, so why not just "copy" methods and tools that work? ...and let the ambassadors be the young guns that use social media like never before. A quick self-assessment on this is to simply analyze your own 'consumption' of Linkedin, Facebook, myspace, etc. on a daily basis, and ask yourself "Why do I use these tools and what am I gaining from them?"

Innovation and ideation tools are out there using exactly the same techniques as the big social media networks - and here is my take on the key elements that you should look for:

• simple web-based intuitive interface
  
• accessible from 'anywhere'
  
• simple input methods - don't get too advanced in asking for knowledge!
  
• personalization opportunities

When you have found your tool, and recruited your ambassadors internally - copy this externally! Seek amongst your customers within the same group, and invite them to collaborate.

If I were responsible for innovation in a company, I wouldn't wait one second in starting this process, as the benefits are so obvious and so easily accessible! And the nice part is that you don't need to call for external social media expertise - you have experts sitting right next to you!

Stefan Lindegaard quoted me on this subject as well in this article, with some interesting perspectives - Can Social Media Tools Hinder Innovation?



You can check out all of the 'Innovation Perspectives' articles from the different contributing authors on 'How should firms develop the organizational structure, culture, and incentives (e.g., for teams) to encourage successful innovation?' by clicking the link in this sentence.

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Michael Soerensen is CMO at Nosco.dk, a danish company, creators of the SaaS innovation platform; Idea Exchange. Michael is a serial entrepreneur, and after great successes and learnful failures he is now truly at home with his buddies at Nosco.