Searching for Web 2.0 & Social Media Innovators

by Jenna Dudevoir on July 30th, 2010

There's a lot of talk and research out there on the value of social media for marketing, branding, and PR. Amongst the 700+ people I follow on Twitter I'd wager that 90% of the tweets touch on this to some degree (of course, I do happen to follow a number of people in this space). But what about the use of social media for innovation efforts? Certainly with these technologies there are more ways  to connect and collaborate with employees, customers, partners, supply chains, etc. than ever before.

That go us thinking here at Kalypso.

Over the last nine months we've been conducting a large research initiative to understand how organizations today are using Web 2.0, social media and social computing to fuel the innovation engine. We're currently wrapping up the findings in a report that will be published early September 2010.

Meanwhile, another part of this initiative has been to develop the first-ever awards program to celebrate the companies leading the pack in this area. Enter the Spike Awards (Spike = Social Product Innovation Knowledge Excellence). The Spike Awards recognize the best use of social media and social computing to improve innovation, product development, and product management.

If your company - or a company you've seen in action - uses social media to generate new product ideas, test concepts or even track buzz for products, we want to know about it. Tell us how the company is going beyond the promise of social media to demonstrate strategic value in driving innovation and you/they may have the honor of taking home a first annual Spike Award.

Nominations will be accepted now through September 3, 2010 at http://spikeawards.com/nominate.php. Awards will be given in four industry categories - Technology, Life Sciences, Consumer Goods, Manufacturing - and one People's Choice award that will be determined by online votes September 13 through October 1. All of the details you need to enter can be found at http://spikeawards.com.

Winners will be announced October 19 at PDMA's Annual Global Conference on Product Innovation Management. Submit your nomination today and throw your hat into the ring. Meanwhile, follow all the latest Spike Awards happenings at http://facebook.com/spikeawards and http://twitter.com/spikeawards.

Topics: Blog, Consumer Goods, Innovation, Life Sciences, Manufacturing, Product Development, Product Innovation, Social Computing, Social Media, Social Product Innovation, Spike, Spike Awards