Maria Rose
The relationship between social media and business innovation, poses questions relating to both how businesses interact with the consumer – and how they work with each other. It also leads to issues of marketing process, work patterns, personal skills and understanding of technology – it’s a tricky affair. The connection between them is strong – but is it always a great relationship?
Whilst innovation may not yet be married to social media there is certainly a very significant relationship between the two and there may be even be a sharing of rings and sound of distant bells.
So is it a really beautiful relationship? Will it last? And where is it heading?
The recent Social Media Week in London, organised by We Are Like Minds, offered an interesting view of how social media is affecting businesses structure and innovations. The excellent afternoon seminar featured contributions from Chris Moss (former CMO of Virgin Atlantic), leading innovation guru Paul Sloane, James Moffat (founder of digital agency Organic Development) – and Yann Gourvennec, Global Director of Digital & Social Media for Orange Group.
A key message that flowed throughout all the presentations was the need for businesses to explore different solutions and connections. Chris Moffat, who introduced a range of innovative services and products whilst at Virgin Atlantic and Orange, pointed out that many new ideas and innovations were actually about simple changes to the way things were viewed and trying something new that may not be a giant technical leap forwards. In the same way, the inspiring Paul Sloane used a series of thought models and team exercises to demonstrate how many different approaches and opportunities can be easily uncovered. As with many areas of entrepreneurship – innovation is often about tapping into different suppliers and ways of doing things and social media is an ideal tool to help achieve this.
Innovation authors such as Scott Berkun and Stefan Lindegaard have also examined social media and its impact upon innovation. Lindegaard believes social media provides three main benefits to the development of innovative products; it helps simplify messaging, can promote internal conversation and aid external collaboration. Berkun – points out that most of the best innovation methods and processes predate social media but that new channels may help, to gain new insights, share knowledge and spread ideas.
As with other issues in marketing it is often the leadership, culture , processes and individual behaviour and skills that will determine results. And in the areas of social media these issues may often be more problematic than the increasingly simple mechanics of setting up the Twitter feed, Facebook page – or installing group software. As Yann Gourvennec pointed out collaborating is not new – but the easy ability to connect horizontally across a large organisaiton means that the potential opportunities (and dangers…) are amplified to a much, much bigger scale. He commented, as does business strategist Morten T Hansen in his excellent work on Collaboration, that un-focused and random connecting (through social media or face to face) – is not good for anyone and can be very wasteful of costs and time.
The danger is therefore that whilst the tools are smart, social media may allow marketers to spend a lot time building networks and connections that are not actually valuable – or contributing to innovation efforts. One of the advantages often cited by social media experts is the abundance of data, metrics, measures and statistics available.
However, paralysis through analysis is an easy but unwanted side effect – and the weight of reporting data does not always equate to genuine business insight. As Gourvennec said; “Loads of data does not mean loads of information”. Building on this, an interesting point raised by James Moffat is that the nimble speed boat sized SME’s and start-ups can have just as much difficulty as establishing the right social media plans, profiles, channels, tools and ROI – as large oil tanker like organisations steering cautiously from traditional to digital seas.
One thing is clear though. Despite its faults social media is not going away and neither is the importance of collaborating and innovating. In a recent edition of Harvard Business Review, the excellent Nilofer Merchant argued that the ‘social era of business’ is about more than the rise of social media tools (you can see our previous article about this here). Whilst acknowledging their importance she notes this era is also about new trends in business methods and culture. A modern organisation set up today is looser, more flexible, flatter and more adaptable to change – and being better connected with social media is just one, though important, part of that.
Research published by Capgemini in 2011 pointed out that 84% of CEO’s they surveyed viewed innovation as being driven by collaboration. And research by Forrester revealed that marketers saw a lack of internal collaboration as being the key blockage to any kind of innovation – something that social collaboration tools can help address. Conversely, companies such as Lego, General Electric and Proctor and Gamble all place partnerships and networks, both across their organisations and outside of it, at the heart of their innovation efforts.
So where does this leave the relationship between social media and innovation? Social Media Week perhaps raised more good questions than simple answers. My take out was that there is no silver bullet, simple solution and magical formula that can be copied and pasted. Each business has to establish its own approach to how they use social media – and how it works for them, with their markets and customers. It’s a question of test and learn, fail cheap and win well.
Finally, social media can be a fine and powerful tool for marketers who want to innovate – but the business fundementals of building value, nurturing customers and being open to new ideas remain the same.
Thanks to Adam Street Club and We Are Like Minds for a great afternoon and credit for the great content from all the contributors. For further articles and research by Andrew Armour on collaboration and innovation, please visit andrewarmour.com or Benchstone.
RECOMMENDED LINKS AND FURTHER INFORMATION
- In Turbulent Times You Need Open Innovation – by Andrew Armour
- Marketing And The Evolution of Collaboration – Free White Paper
- Nilofer Merchant on Social Era of Business – Full Article / Podcast
- Social Media Statistics – The Social Skinny
Andrew Armour
Andrew Armour is the founder of Benchstone Limited and a specialist in marketing partnerships, collaborations and innovation. For over twenty years he has been managing critical marketing & innovation programmes, licensing and media content deals for companies such Walt Disney, TVNZ, America’s Cup, OfficeMax and Yell.com. He currently provides consulting, management, workshop and training services. His email is andrew@benchstone.co.uk
Shaz Manelli
