Guest Blog Post: Michele McConomy on Social Innovation & UCLA Social Business Course

Infographic on how Social Media are being used, and how everything is changed by them. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I am very excited about Spigit coming to present. In part because of the two amazing women, Michele McConomy and Janice Ragar who will be attending and presenting. Educating people about social media / social business is new — especially at the university level. And I really appreciate every single one of my guest speakers and their willingness to take time out of their schedule to participate and contribute!

I also am excited about their content – they will showcase two cases studies on how social innovation has changed how Citibank‘s employees are working together to make a better company and how JCPenny’s has innovated change by participating with their customers. So we’ll get a look at not only external social collaboration and innovation, but also internal social collaboration!

Part of the course is about theory and strategy, but the other part is when students are wondering, “When I go back to work, how to I take the theory and the strategy and make it work in my own organization? What software do I need to make it scalable and affordable?” That’s why companies like Spigit have been invited to participate. I want students to walk away with actionable insights and wisdom. Thanks to Janice Ragar and Michele McConomy -the students are going to get a real treat. Here’s some videos from Spigit, if you want to get a sneak peak of the types of things the company does!

It’s my honor to have a guest blog post by Michele:

The promise of so much to so many in so short a time is essentially what social media has given to the world.  And this promise offers so much. By enabling us to think differently about how we approach not only conversations and connections, we have also been able to think differently about how we innovate. Being able to harness the ability to engage crowds to share ideas and perspective in a dynamic, collaborative environment is a real opportunity.  But how do you leverage social media to innovate?  Through the use of social media tools and platforms, the opportunity is to reach everyone, include everybody, and fundamentally convert these real conversations and dialogues into value for the organization.  Using social innovation technologies like the Spigit platform, organizations have been able to transform social dialogue and conversations into actionable ideas.

Innovation is constantly highlighted as a fundamental priority to every organization’s business, but the question still remains on how to do it and on how to do it right.  Many books have been written and processes born, but no matter how many books you read or processes you implement, there is no one-size-fits-all innovation prescription.  Creating opportunities through social media to generate conversations and to also derive value through idea generation is a real opportunity that is still in its infancy.   It is about generating engagement and value through social media to connect communities of employees, customers, and partners to drive innovation and increase productivity, while turning data and discussions into actionable intelligence. Companies are just starting to realize the true value in developing a social innovation capability within the organization, and now is the time to create that competitive advantage.

Social innovation, through the use of social media and social technologies, is really about creating a 21^st century organization that engages crowds, drives value, and defines the brand through innovation.  Leveraging the power of Web 2.0 and enterprise social networking technology, the Spigit platform creates opportunities for people to share and collaborate on real issues and opportunities to participate in the process of innovation.  Being able to generate ideas that lead to new products and services is just one of the many benefits organizations experience when enabling social innovation inside and outside the enterprise.  Creating a program to enable the social innovation experience in the enterprise is where your competitive advantage starts. But where should you focus your efforts?  Here are 10 suggestions to get you started on your social innovation journey…

1. Engage Everyone
2. Create Options and Opportunities
3. Recognize Uniquely Talented Individuals
4. Create Perspective
5. Make It a Fun Experience
6. Know Where Your Best Ideas Come From
7. Flatten Hierarchy
8. Focus on Value-Driven Collaboration
9. Make Everyone Feel Like a Superhero
10. Take Action on Ideas

As you can see, it is about engagement and value.  Creating engagement is about enabling a holistic and exciting experience, not another task or check-the-box item.  Generating value is proving that through engagement, we have the ability to glean insights and ideas that will take the company further.  With the Spigit platform, we’ve been able to create an experience that not only is engaging for the person that’s participating, but also insightful for the organization. It is what we call the 360° experience. This 360° experience is about looking at all ways a person engages.  Understanding behaviors and motivators is the most important element in creating a truly engaging and valuable social experience. It also helps to accelerate and evolve the process of innovation within the enterprise.

Social media and social enterprise technologies have created a new way of approaching innovation. It’s not about implementing an overnight process, but it is about enabling organizations to fundamentally change the way they work over time to inspire creativity, to encourage participation and involvement, and to enable processes that will help to nurture and develop ideas from inception through to implementation.  Social media has created the opportunity to leverage the power of people in ways that accelerate, develop, and push conversations to actionable ideas.  Creating those new and exciting experiences to engage people is important to driving a social innovation program.   The real question is, how will you harness the power of your social media programs to create valuable opportunities for your company?

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Come join other luminaries at www.bjsbrewhouse.com April 27th after the first day of classes at the @UCLAEXTENSION course 

Thanks to @spigit @michelemcconomy @jrag2009 for sponsoring it!!