How Social Media Can Drive Product Innovation
There are various ways digital marketers can use Social Media for Product Innovation.
What is Product Innovation?
Product innovation is the process of coming up with new ideas or improving existing products. This can be done through research and development, marketing, and customer feedback. It’s important for businesses to constantly innovating in order to stay ahead of the competition. Product innovation can help businesses improve their bottom line and attract new customers.
What is social media Digital Marketing?
Social media marketing is the process of using online platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to build relationships and interact with potential and current customers. It’s a way to connect with people who might be interested in your product or service, and it’s a way to stay top-of-mind for those who are already customers. The goal of social media marketing is usually to drive leads or sales, but it can also be used for building brand awareness or generating engagement.
How Social Media Can Drive Product Innovation?
Social media can be a powerful tool for product innovation. By connecting with customers and understanding their needs and desires, companies can develop products that are more likely to succeed. Social media also provides a platform for companies to get feedback from customers in real time, which can help to improve the product before it goes to market. In addition, social media can be used to generate buzz about a new product, which can help to drive sales.
How does social media increase innovation?
Co-creation Activities
Motivate consumers to participate in co-creation activities by introducing an upvoting system for ideas related to which functions to include in the planned product. The company will be able to hear some innovative ideas from a vast pool of consumers. The upvoting system will not only give recognition to the owner of the concept. But also, help the company evaluate the most popular ideas. Consumers will also share their expectations, suggestions for the design, and feedback on others’ opinions.
Open Innovation
Open innovation (extreme model) allows anyone with a desire to join to provide their feedback on the proposed design.
Share the design process with the external environment. For example, consumers and industry experts. Let them involve directly in the innovation process and provide the company with multiple benefits. Consumers will share their suggestions to improve the design, and feedback on the proposed options. As well as any alterations they wish to have, and much more. Open innovation helps the company to perfect the product at the design level. And also learn what to expect related to consumer reactions when the product hits the market.
By open innovation, a company will not only access the diverse knowledge pool of the consumers. But also perfect the design to match the customer’s expectation. It will help increase the value and functionality of the planned product line.
Customer Opinions
You can create a poll on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook. It helps to know about the customer’s honest opinions about the planned product. You can also offer free/discounted vouchers for winners among survey participants by a draw.
Creating a poll will help the company to gain data about age groups, gender, and geographical regions of their target market. While also receiving feedback about the design. User interviews play a crucial role in product development. It provides a company with insights into pain points and consumer mindsets. As well as access to user expectations during any product design process.
There are more benefits of open innovation and co-creation. It saves a considerable amount of R&D costs by not having to conduct traditional user interviews. Open innovation creates a loyal customer base for anyone who actively participated in the open innovation process. They will grow fond of the product by having the opportunity to be a part of the innovation process. It will also be an indirect marketing tool. Because participants would like to “brag” about their role in the product when it hits the market.
Customer Ideas
Invite consumers to participate in a contest. Ask them to send design suggestions by uploading an image of the design proposal to the company’s Facebook profile or group. Or else, write a post, and tag the company profiles. Choose the best inspirations. Invite consumers to provide design suggestions that will give the company with design ideas. It will also provide an insight into what kind of design gets the most social interactions (likes, comments)
In the present social media era, consumers as social media users like to be recognized among the community and increase their following. Therefore, the company will be able to use this approach as a way to build relationships with consumers. By inviting them to participate in the innovation process promote the brand. At the same time, also minimize promotional and R&D costs.
Customer Votes
The company can use Social Media platforms to allow consumers and interested parties to vote for the best design. They can upload the pictures of the designs as a story or a post. And then, they use a poll tool to open the image for voting.
The company will be able to use majority votes to make their choice while saving a massive amount of costs. But more than that, the company will know the consumer’s decision. And also, gain access to the target market while creating excitement among consumers.
There are a lot of different ways that digital marketers can use social media to help with product innovation. For example, social media can be used to crowdsource ideas for new products, to get feedback on prototypes and test products, and even to launch new products. Additionally, social media can be used to create buzz around new products, and to connect with potential customers and get them excited about what you’re offering.
If you are still curious about how to use Social Media for Product Innovation, read this article by Falcon.io
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I enjoy non-fictional writing and I leverage my educational and professional background in Business, Public Relations, Human Rights and Linguistics to enrich my writing endeavors.
