Innovation Week in Review – March 18, 2011

Posted on March 18, 2011 by Gary R Schirr

Crowdsourcing a new course

I decided to experiment with crowdsourcing a new course I am proposing on social media marketing. So I used my usual Tuesday blog article to summarize my thoughts on the course and ask for ideas:

CrowdsourcingCourse What a response! I received polished and practiced syllabi from dynamic scholars from Chile ( @andressilvaa ) , Canada ( @kozinets ), Massachusetts ( @dstevenwhite ) and Vermont ( @ejyoung67 ). And I received wonderful suggestions from  knowledgeable faculty and businesspersons including @chuckmartin1, @AlanSee,  @CraigEYaris, @aboyer,  @ckburgess, @johncass, and @joebobhester ! (Apologies to helpful friends I did not list!) My final proposal, needless to say, is much stronger than it would have been and I have great ideas and some reading to do.

One surprising point upon reflection. I had intended this as a crowdsourcing exercise, but I think that anyone familiar with the people who helped would conclude that it ended up being a classic exercise in von Hippel’s lead user process!

Other Co-creation

Oracle Integrates Crowdsourcing Into CRM — Crowdsourcing — InformationWeek http://t.co/5pyA0nk

 The experience-centric organization http://dld.bz/SqWq

Democratizing design: why Eric von Hippel would love Firebug: http://t.co/lOHnRaI

Listen to the Voice of the employee! http://t.co/FIvuDI1 via @jhenning

Innovation

Now to utilize social media!Open Innovation at the Crossroads http://bit.ly/hoIuRM RT @innovate

No Vision = No Innovation. What’s wrong with NASA is a harbinger for your business. http://bit.ly/h3pRVV RT @ovoinnovation

Continue reading →

Posted in Customer Research Methods, Innovation Week | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Perfect Social Media Marketing Course!

Posted on March 15, 2011 by Gary R Schirr

I am putting together a proposal for a social media marketing course to be taught as a hybrid – online and in person. I have already benefited from great / generous help and suggestions from the members of my SM “family” including @dstevenwhite  @chuckmartin1  @andressilvaa  @AlanSee @joebobhester @CraigEYaris @aboyer and others.  Of course none of them are responsible for the oversights, errors and silliness evident in the tentative plan, which follows.

My preliminary thoughts on the SMM Course follow. Please comment, twitter (ProfessorGary) or email me (garyschirr@gmail.com) with any corrections, suggestions or thoughts.

Only pre-req is Principles of Marketing. It is suggested that students ultimately take the offered courses in Internet Marketing and Integrated Marketing Communications.

Objective: To understand the principles of social media marketing, how SMM differs from standard marketing and internet marketing, and to be able to use social media to support the mission of a professional, business or non-profit organization.

Social Media Marketing is not Internet Marketing. In internet marketing promotional tools such as direct selling, coupons, advertisements are brought online and established success measures include SEO, click-throughs, etc. Social Media Marketing is really social networking online: reaching out and advancing real relationships with customers, prospects, and stakeholders. Promotional tools used in SMM are often jarring and counter-productive.

The “big four” for professional  Social Media Marketing (per @michellegolden) are:

  1. Facebook
  2. LinkedIn
  3. Twitter
  4. Blog

Course Topics

  1. Networking – what it means and how it is done
  2. Networking vs. Marketing: conflicts and synergy
  3. Using the “Big Four”
  4. Other important social media (presentations by student teams)
  5. Measures of influence – Google analytics, Klout, etc. What do they really measure? Do they really matter?
  6. Organizational Applications of SMM
  7. Setting organizational goals and tracking them

Continue reading →

Posted in Social Media Marketing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Innovation Week Review – March 11, 2011

Posted on March 11, 2011 by Gary R Schirr

A review of the most interesting tweets, articles, posts and thoughts on innovation, co-creation and social media that I saw this week….

Is email DEAD? My students hate email: they txt whenever I turn my back and post on FB if their computer is open, but they check email once a day to see if their professor has sent something. It seems that email to them is as passé as voicemail (Does anyone under 27 listen to a voicemail?) So my question of the week was: HOW DEAD is email?? (5-10 years out…) Dead as buggy whips, landline phones, MySpace, pony express? Thoughts?

Interestingly the folks at #HigherEdChat ( @EffectiveBizDev ) picked a similar question for their weekly chat. They didn’t seem to post a transcript but from my recollection they noted that students used Facebook and texting more, but thought that email still had an important role in marketing universities to students and parents. [I suspect it may help with parents, but not with the students…]

 Summarizing the discussion that I generated

Most disagreed with the notion that email was “dying.” @Idennison said: Disagree; email did not result in the death of regular mail. I believe that email will be around for a long, long time. From beautiful Christchurch, NZ, scene of the recent devastation @marcelinnz reported: @ProfessorGary after the earthquakes we had here , we relied on email to communicate around the world.

@EeeGeee(aka @EffectiveBizDev) argued that it may email usage may be a rite of passage: As a college student I ignored promotional emails, but used it to contact profs, etc. Now, I live for email! I get valuable info from email blasts, newsletters, etc. and stay in contact w/ a lot of potential clients via email. @wileyccoyote supported the @NathanRKing observation that “Email has been consistent as social networks fade in and fade out of our lives.” @NathanRKing also noted that Social Networks depend on email to send notifications to users about direct messages, replies and more. @LynnHuber added: As long as FB, etc has the authority to ban people email will never die. The alternatives are too fragile. @aalabdulkarim agreed: Emails will not die – I can’t imagine an alternative.

And of course for business: Maybe I’m not using my imagination, but I still don’t see email dying out. What replaces it that corporate world will use? @shanerhyne

@MarkTamis reframed the issue: Email is not the issue as such, it is how to deal with events – synchronous and/or asynchronous and how to prioritize, filter, based on desired outcome. @ovoinnovation added: Email isn’t dead, just fills a less important, less immediate niche in our communications.

I guess I would acknowledge that email will continue sort of like post office – it is still there but virtually no one still sends personal letters. And of course business will not intermingle with FB, but more collaborative messaging will spread to biz as well. Most importantly, to people who grew up with SM email seems formal and spam-my.  

Finally: Are emails heading to voicemail-like extinction? Maybe good. UglyEmail Emails make you scream by @WareMalcombCMO

I continue to worry that the clout of Klout threatens Twitter – Beware of inadequate measures taken seriously! KloutTweet  (last week’s lead off) A couple views:

  1. The full story in a picture!… Klout losing clout? The Problem with #Klout: Infographic AThousandWords RT @markwschaefer @michellegolden
  2. Alternative to Klout?  Ooh, analytics. How I love thee…. Diggin’ @hootsuite‘s new reporting capes. Informed me. Happy client. KloutTweet via @jennyereynolds

Innovation articles or postings of interest this week:  

  • Let Customers Destroy Internal Innovation Blockers CustomersLead via @gijsvanwulfen
  • The “silo” problem: If solved at #GM, try a hospital or university! GM’s Ewanick tackles country silos Silos by @DavidAaker

Co-creation and effectuation

Continue reading →

Posted in Customer Research Methods, Innovation Week, Social Media Marketing | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Catch the Wave

Posted on March 8, 2011 by Gary R Schirr

Can users help with the technology trajectory???

In an excellent blog post that I have cited before SonyiPod , David Aaker asked the interesting question: Why Wasn’t the iPod a Sony Brand? His conclusion was that Apple timed the technology:

“The answer is timing. Apple got the timing right by entering the market when the technology came together. Of course, the Apple design flare, its brand, and its iTunes store were all important, but the timing was the key.”

Last weekend, inspired by Watson’s Jeopardy win I pulled out Kurweil’s “The Singularity is Near” – his take on the eventual triumph of machines over man. On page 3 famed inventor Kurweil notes that:

“I realized that most inventions fail not because the R&D department can’t get them to work but because the timing is wrong. Inventing is a lot like surfing: you have to anticipate and catch the wave at just the right moment.”

I shared that  quote with David Aaker and he said: “I love the catch the wave metaphor. It suggests also that there needs to be a way to predict when the wave will occur.”

How do you catch the wave? For those of us who study co-creation and user engagement:

Continue reading →

Posted in Co-creation or User collaboration, Customer Research Methods, experiential innovation, Experiment, Ideation | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Innovation Week – March 4, 2011

Posted on March 4, 2011 by Gary R Schirr

A review of the most interesting tweets, articles, posts and thoughts on innovation, co-creation and social media that I saw this week….

@CharlieSheen NEEDS a Klout score! I loved this tweet and blog title from the chief product officer of Klout. Charlie would seem to need: (1) counseling, (2) a 12-step program, (3) guidance to “true north” or to simply get sober but a Klout score…Then his life will have meaning… “@CharlieSheen Needs a Klout score WheresCharlie RT @ckburgess @PhilipHotchkiss”

This led me to reminisce that: If we had only had Klout scores for Jesus and the Beatles in 1966, we would have known who was “bigger”!

The CPO tweeted me “@ProfessorGary you know that Headline was a tongue in cheek reference to a Mashable story reported yesterday afternoon right? 😉 from @PhilipHotchkiss “

Well… the article was referenced in the Klout blog…but still…I think the over-the-top headline while humorous did catch some of the silly earnestness being paid to an inadequate measure… As @maniactive tweeted “@ProfessorGary According to Klout, I am most influenced by people I have never heard of.”

I continue to worry that the clout of Klout threaten Twitter – Beware of inadequate measures taken seriously! KloutsClout  (last week’s lead off)

Innovation articles or postings of interest this week:  

#Revolt of the Creative Class – New post NewClass by @richard_florida  @TheAtlantic RT @Jabaldaia @Digitaltonto I don’t find this real convincing but I try to read Florida’s stuff…

Why Creativity Matters (and what to learn from LEGO trends and Jazz Music!) — ItMatters via @CKBurgess @maxmeilleur

Why Creativity Matters Most – http://is.gd/aIcpsY #creativity RT @ckburgess

Continue reading →

Posted in Co-creation or User collaboration, Innovation Week | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Effectuation in Action: Consulting as Search

Posted on March 1, 2011 by Gary R Schirr

I have written several articles about Sarasvathy’s conception of effectuation by entrepreneurs. Effectuation is a theory of entrepreneurial activity based on experiential learning by organizations.

Effectuation is a prescription for innovating when the risk is unknown and unknowable. Effectuation comprises four principles presented in contrast to the causal model of marketing strategy (Sarasvathy 2001): 

  1. Affordable loss rather than expected returns,
  2. Strategic Alliances rather than competitive analysis,
  3. Exploitation of contingencies rather than exploitation of preexisting knowledge, and
  4. Controlling an unpredictable future rather than predicting an uncertain one.

In other words: just do it! Get in the ring and start fighting… But how does a budding entrepreneur actually use this procedure? How can you enter a market on a shoestring, effect its development, and develop a product? Many people find it hard to visualize how effectuation can be put into action.

How to effectuate?

Continue reading →

Posted in Co-creation or User collaboration, experiential innovation, Experiment | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Innovation Week Review February 25, 2011

Posted on February 25, 2011 by Gary R Schirr

A review of the most interesting tweets, articles, posts and thoughts on innovation, co-creation and social media that I saw this week….

First: Thank you for the recent increase in traffic to this site! If you missed any of them these three recent posts were popular (below or at links):

  1. Catch a wave – Do the lessons of innovation in surfing apply generally? CatchAWave
  2. Do users have a role in more innovative product or service development – Summary of a tweet discussion LeadUsers
  3. Does the clout of Klout threaten Twitter – Beware of inadequate measures taken seriously! KloutClout

This blog usually updates on Tuesdays and Fridays: Consider subscribing (upper right by email or RSS) to avoid missing new posts.

Countdown to the singurality?

Ray Kurzweil and others have been talking about a target date of about 2050 when computers/machines pass humans in all meaningful skills and abilities. Did we see step two of the singularity on Jeopardy where Watson, an IBM computer, handily beat the human competition?

CrazyFlipperFingers Why I Lost to Watson

ComeOnHAL We Lost on Jeopardy

Watson Doesn’t Know It Won on ‘Jeopardy!’ JustAMachine

Kurzweil: Why IBM’s Jeopardy Victory Matters Singularity via @pcmag

Innovation articles or postings of interest this week:  

Scarcity: The mother of innovation? SkunkWorks #HBR

Continue reading →

Posted in Co-creation or User collaboration, Innovation Week, Social Media Marketing | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Catch a Wave: Innovate life surfers!

Posted on February 22, 2011 by Gary R Schirr

 

According to John Hagel at Edge Perspectives, executives can benefit from six lessons derived from studying innovation in big wave surfing.

  1. find the relevant edge. 
  2. attract motivated groups of people to these edges to work together around challenging performance issues. 
  3. recognize that the people who are likely to be attracted to the edge are big risk-takers.
  4. recognize that the edge fosters not just risk-taking, but very different cultures that are also “edgy”. 
  5. find ways to appropriate insights from adjacent disciplines and even more remote areas of activity.  
  6. bring users and developers of technology closely together at the edge. 

Check out the article (now a couple years old) at:

http://edgeperspectives.typepad.com/edge_perspectives/2008/01/innovating-on-t.html

Hagel cites von Hippel’s two books. After his original work showing user innovation in B2B markets like scientific instruments, von Hippel did a number of studies on open source software and then extreme sport enthusiasts. Perhaps all lead users try to “catch a wave”!

Posted in Co-creation or User collaboration, experiential innovation, Experiment, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Innovation Week 2/19/2011: Users in innovation?

Posted on February 19, 2011 by Gary R Schirr

Do users have a role in more innovative product/service development??

Friday Question: @FastCompany had an article urging firms not to focus on lead users, but to actually lead users to the products they need. There is a significant literature and many firms that use a variety of market-driven approaches to innovation such as co-creation, effectuation, and probe-and-learn. So the question was: Does innovation require you to lead users or engage lead users?

The FastCompany article: User-Led Innovation Can’t Create Breakthroughs; Ask Apple & Ikea – LEADusers via @fastcodesign @fastcompany

Great Entrepreneurs might disagree with @FastCompany: How Great Entrepreneurs Think: Effectuate via @incmagazine Great entreprneurs follow effectuation…

Effectuation stresses learning from users by getting a product in the marketplace. Limit losses but keep probing for the “Sweet Spot”. More on effectuation: “The #Entrepreneurs Brain” #Effectuation discussed @nytimes freakonomics blog: MoreEffectuate . RT @Elgar_Business @effectuation

This topic generated an interesting online discussion. Some highlights (as usual my editoral comments in italics)

Highpoints of an online discussion with @GrahamHill: Before the sale? User engagement… or effectuation to determine product and biz model… [I suggested that entrepreneurs or firms may start by consulting or doing custom work in a target market or by launching “just good enough products”] They may also be efforts to move hasten exchange or use in order to facilitate early co-creation. Is early involvement taking real options in expectation of future valuable outputs & outcomes? Innovation really starts with engagement or co-creation, but neither is likely without a ref product… Maybe we need more precision in terms. Perhaps collaboration precedes involvement precedes engagement as trust is built up…

Noted service innovation scholar @per_kristensson said:   I think that there seldom is one best way (no miracle medicines) but it always depend on the situation. My take is that firms should consider using both technology- & market-driven strategies, not just one of them? Another famous scholar, @DrGustafsson, noted that: it really depends on degree of radical – very radical (with met. we use now) would say lead user

Continue reading →

Posted in experiential innovation, Experiment, Ideation, Innovation Week, NSD Process, Process Innovation, Service Design, Social Media Marketing, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Will Klout kill twitter?

Posted on February 16, 2011 by Gary R Schirr

I am eager to be on top of social media trends. Accordingly I sign up for influence measuring sites as I see them including Klout, PeerIndex, and Twitter Grader. I am skeptical of all of them and do not put much stock in the scores.

For personal purposes I generally compare myself to twitterers who I admire such as @ckburgess, @kentfhuffman, @davidaaker, @chuckmartin1 and my other twitter friends: as long as I am in their range I figure I am doing OK. I am well aware that I am no Justin Bieber (Klout 100) or Barack Obama (K 90) for online influence…

My concern is that parties are taking these fledging measures seriously and making marketing target and even hiring decisions based on them. See a recent WSJ article about the importance businesses are assigning to Klout scores: GetKlout  In reality, I am not worried that my tenure committee will pass me over for Justin B. or Britney S., but I am worried about how the growing influence of the influence-measurers might impact the SM communities. If twitterers believe that their online status or even employability may be affected by their twitter behavior they may well adjust how they act.

Continue reading →

Posted in Social Media Marketing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 18 Comments