Social Media for Corporate Innovators and Entrepreneurs: Add Power to Your Innovation Efforts

"How can my company use social media to bring out better innovation faster?"

Over the past year, I learned that this question is being asked by corporate innovators and entrepreneurs around the world.

Now, I am about to offer my perspective and some answers to this - and many other questions - about the intersection of social media and (open) innovation in my new book, Social Media for Corporate Innovators and Entrepreneurs: Add Power to Your Innovation Efforts.

The book explores issues such as:

* What are the benefits of using social media for innovation efforts?
* What are the challenges and how can you overcome them?
* How can the different social media platforms help bring out better innovation faster?
* How should companies approach social media for this purpose?
* How can innovation leaders get a better understanding of social media and start maximizing the value of their virtual networks?

The use of social media as part of the innovation process is still in its very early stages, but make no mistake, this trend is gaining momentum every day, and there is no turning back. As an example of this, I can cite a recent meeting with Ashish Chatterjee, who is the head of Connect+Develop, the open innovation initiative at P&G. We had a great talk and I really took notice when Ashish said he believes the Internet and social media are the key drivers for the future development of open innovation.

I agree. Social media has the potential to be a game changer for how companies innovate and companies need to pay full attention to the intersection of open innovation and social media if they want to out-innovate their competitors. This might be unchartered territory, but it is full of interesting opportunities.

I anticipate that within the next few years, we will begin to see more companies that have successfully traveled the learning curve that is involved in creating a successful, productive virtual innovation community. In the meantime, some companies that have progressed further than most others at this point are included in the case studies you'll find at the end of each chapter.

My book provides food for thought on this interesting topic. I hope you will like it!