Today I had the chance to attend the Forrester Research webinar hosted by Doug Williams (an analyst) entitled, "Social Co-Creation: Using Social Media To Drive Product Creation And Innovation". Based on research conducted with product strategists and consumers earlier this year, the session outlined a number of clear benefits (see enclosed graphic) and interesting stats that seem to indicate that the use of social innovation for product development and user engagement is set to explode. These include: 

From a Company Perspective (captured in Forrester's Global Consumer Product Strategy Research Panel Online Survey, Q2, 2010):

- Nearly 50% of companies surveyed are using social media tools to influence product strategy

- 83% of companies surveyed are engaged with some form of social media

- 69% have a dedicated social media person/function (however only 38% of these have established processes to ensure that the social media program/information can be easily shared with other internal functions)

- 74% of product strategists believe that their company could do more with social media to influence product strategy

From a Consumer Perspective (captured in Forrester's Technographics Survey, Q2, 2010)

- 61% of adults surveyed would consider providing input to help companies design and build new products or improve existing products.

- 56% of willing co-creators are interested in participating in the co-creation process regardless of what product, service, or brand it involves

The session also included a number of case studies (and applications of co-creation) featuring companies like Ford, Starbucks and Mercedes Benz.

The bottom line was clear - in the very near future social media is going to have a major impact on how companies innovate - particulary those developing consumer-facing products (high tech, consumer goods, CPG industries all come to mind).  The good news is that even the most savvy companies are still figuring out how to engage - the key is to embrace the opportunity and identify ways to test the possibilities of social innovation in your own company.

What are others seeing? I'd definitely welcome your input!!