Social Media and Innovation: Opportunities and Challenges for Organizations

Innovation plays a significant role in helping organizations differentiate themselves in the marketplace by establishing a competitive advantage. While digital platforms, specifically social media, offer a variety of new possibilities throughout organizations, research on the nexus of social media and business has focused mostly on those applications of social media that increase sales and profitability. One issue that has not been adequately studied is the potential of social media to promote innovation. Therefore, this study aimed to provide an overview of how organizations can integrate social media in their innovation processes and address the related challenges and opportunities. The analysis contributes to the academic literature and helps practitioners by providing an overview of social media sources and available data collection and analysis tools and by exploring the various ways in which social media can support innovation. Finally, five main recommendations are offered for how best to integrate social media into the innovation process.