Activating Connected Innovation via social media

ACTIVATING CONNECTED INNOVATION VIA SOCIAL MEDIA

Chicago Section IFT Presentation February 8, 2010Donald Smith, General Mills R&DTwitter: @djsmith4

"We are working around the clock to restore Eggo store inventories to normal levels as quickly as possible," Kellogg's spokeswoman Kris Charles wrote in an e-mail to ABC News. "In the meantime, we're allocating available product to customers based on historical percentage of business. We estimate that store freezer inventory shortfalls will continue on Eggo products through the first half of 2010."

Overview

What is Social Media?

Social Media Framework – Groundswell

Engaging consumers via Social Media

Activating Connected Innovation via

Social Media

2-step Jump Start

WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ILQrUrEWe8

Elements of Social Media

Who I am

What I’m doing

Who I knowPowerful search

Social media is a new communication model

Social Elementsin action

Networking

Conversations

Faster Learning

Holistic view

It’s where your consumers are

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4 out of 5 U.S. adults use social technologyForrester, Social Technographics, survey 2009

2/3 of the global internet population visit social networksNielsen, Global Faces and Networked Places, 2009

Time spent on social networks is growing at 3x the overall internet rate, accounting for 10% of all internet timeNielsen, Global Faces and Networked Places, 2009

Visiting social sites is now the 4th most popular online activity, ahead of personal emailNielsen, Global Faces and Networked Places, 2009

Business Context: Consumers are online speaking their minds and influencing others.

Online is where our consumers

are.

Expressing what is on their minds.

Influencing the messaging around

our products.

SOCIAL MEDIA FRAMEWORKGROUNDSWELL

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A Simple Four-Step Approach

PeopleAssess your people’s social technology abilities

ObjectivesDecide what you want to accomplish

StrategyPlan for how relationship with customers will change

TechnologyDecide what social technologies to use

Groundswell Strategies

Talking – Using social media to talk about subjects that matter to the brand or deliver the brand message

Listening – Using social media to monitor consumer discussions; Get closer to your consumers

Energizing – Activating the community to take action: share, talk, review, etc.

Support – Using social media to support and service consumers; Help them accomplish goals or solve problems

Embracing – Actively collaborating with consumers using social media

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A Social Brand in Action

Whole Foods example: Talking

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List of different voices (local stores) on Twitter

• Multiple voices, organized and localized

• Supplements master brand• Promotes community on a more

personal level

Whole Foods example: Listening in action

Using social media to monitor social discussionsGain consumer insightsGather new ideasGet alerts faster than traditional channelsIdentify trending needs as they are happening

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Whole Foods example: Energizing

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Multiple promotions on customer-focused topics (“Your Health: Boost your Omega 3’s”) that coordinate to sales on foods high in Omega 3’s.

Facebook Whole Foods’ blog

Home page promo

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Whole Foods example: Supporting

Using social media to support consumers and help fix issues• Identify problems with products•Responding to one = a response to many

Whole Foods example: Embracing

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Finding common passions with their consumers and collaborating with them through social media.

Facebook pages

Whole Foods’ “Values” page on corp. siteCo-branded (with Whole Foods) foundation page

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ENGAGING CONSUMERS VIA SOCIAL MEDIA

Networks drive awareness.

New Products

Research - Consumer Networks

"We have a mandate at General Mills to move as much of our qualitative research online as possible in the

coming months and years.”

Research Networks

30-50 recruited consumers

Unlimited passionate fans

6-8 weeks evergreen community

paid for participation nominal

Cost per network Campaign cost only

ACTIVATING CONNECTED INNOVATION VIA SOCIAL MEDIA

The Case for Connections

MIT research shows that… “40% of creative teams productivity is

directly explained by the amount of communication they have with others to discover, gather, and internalize information.”

“Employees with the most extensive digital networks are 7% more productive than their colleagues.”

“Employees with the most cohesive face-to-face networks are 30% more productive.”

Pentland, A. 2009. How Social Networks Network Best. Harvard Business Review, Feb, p 37.Aral, Brynjolfsson & Van Alstyne. 2007. Productivity Effects of Information Diffusion in Networks.

3 Legged Stool of Innovation

Bigger Ideas

Leverage smart people outside of org

chart

Faster learning

New Skills required to support Open Innovation

• Networking

• Communication

• Holistic view

2-STEP JUMP START

2 step jump start

Digitize your profile and connections LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook

Listen to your brand buzz Search.twitter.com #hash tags Facebook pages

Connect with me:

Twitter: @djsmith4LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/donaldjsmithmplsEmail: donald.smith@generalmills.com

Credits:

Video - Did You Know Series

Thanks to CSIFT!