Allow me to pose the question again, but this time as a multiple choice question: How is your company using social media?
- As a hip way to fill business cards and e-mail signatures with nifty
and 
icons - To communicate to employees and customers
- To transform and broadcast media monologues into social media dialogues (Wikipedia)
- As a powerful platform to drive new, innovative products into the market
Take a moment to select the answer that best describes your organization. And be honest – no one’s watching. Go ahead… I’ll wait.
If you answered “D” and you really, really mean it, allow me to lay down the gauntlet to put your company to the test. My good, wicked-smart friends at Kalypso have issued a challenge for all of you product development companies out there… a competition, in fact. Allow me to introduce you to the first annual Spike Awards to recognize the best use of social media and social computing to improve innovation, product development and product management. Spike Awards will be given to companies in four categories: Technology, Life Sciences, CPG, and Manufacturing. Nominees will be measured on the quality of their responses and how creative their social media solution was in solving the business problem. So, put your money where your mouth is and submit your entry today – nominations must be in by Friday, September 3, 2010.
Winners will be announced on October 19th at PDMA’s Annual Global Conference on Product Innovation Management. This conference always delivers meaty content and presents incredible networking opportunities. And with the presentation of the Spike Award winners, setting the example of how social media can be used to drive innovation into the pipeline, this conference should not be missed! See you there!
