Power of social media
In the current digital arena, social networks have touched the lives of almost every human being on earth, allowing us to share life’s novelties with friends and loved ones. However, social networks are not restricted to sharing and commenting on pictures, but giving rise to innovation among individuals to help make our world a better place.
Social media can be an excellent way to reach out to both existing and potential customers and take advantage of their creativity. There are two ways to involve your network in developing new products and services:
- Crowdsourcing – asking your network to brainstorm solutions to a particular problem your company is experiencing, either on their own or in groups. The community collects, develops and ranks the contributions to reveal the strongest performers.
- Open innovation – allowing people to submit their own competitive ideas and inventions for your company to harness.
With so many minds able to network together, open innovation allow people to work together on a massive scale. Sites such as Facebook and Twitter have already become immensely popular for setting up robust platforms for online communities and many enterprises are using them as an effective medium to innovate. However, today there are very good examples of social networks where niche communities not only find work, but also hire a development team, innovate their business, and collaborate from different corners of the world.
Rise of new entrants
The world of social media might be crowded, but that’s certainly not stopping new players entering the market. The success of Pinterest and Instagram has shown that it’s possible for relative newcomers to make a big impact. And while Facebook may boast close to a billion users, many alternatives are aimed at a more exclusive audience. The drop in organic reach has been apocalyptic for many businesses. Why? There’s too much content on Facebook and the company is forced to ratchet down the reach. We’ll have to either spend a lot more money on Hollywood-quality content, a lot more money on advertising or both. This will force some businesses to reconsider Facebook as a viable channel and enable a migration to less noisy venues.
Source: SocialMediaToday
Future of open innovation
Innovation and idea generation are no longer confined to the boundaries of office buildings now that niche social networks create room for like-minded people to come together and give their input to deal with particular challenges. Idea sharing on a global scale leads to innovative solutions in a shorter period of time. Businesses now also rely on niche social networks for innovative ideas to increase their sales, establish brand value and convert prospective customers into loyal ones.
Without a doubt, social networks posses incredible potential for innovation among individuals from all walks of life. Businesses, non-profit organizations and governments also realize the efficacy of social networks in making this world a better place, which is why they are all using niche social networks to connect with people of similar interests and innovate solutions to deal with specific challenges.
Sources:
Arno Ch. (2012), The rise of niche social networks. http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/rise-niche-social-networks
Kind C. (2015), 28 Social Media Marketing Predictions for 2015 From the Pros. http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-media-marketing-predictions-for-2015
NIBusinessInfo (2015), Online business networking and social networking. https://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/content/using-social-media-support-innovation
Singh M. (2016), How innovation develops among individuals in niche social networks. http://www.innovationmanagement.se/2016/02/11/how-innovation-develops-among-individuals-in-niche-social-networks
