Social Media - A Discontinuous Innovation

At one of the meetings recently, I was suggested to read a book "Inside The Tornado" written by Geoffrey Moore and it did challenge my intellect with all the real-life scenarios. 

While going through the second chapter, I came across a rather interesting term "Discontinuous Innovation" & I could immediately relate it to the present day Social Media.

The term as defined in the book - "Discontinuous Innovations are new products or services that require the end user and the marketplace to dramatically change their past behavior, with the promise of gaining equally dramatic new benefits"

Social Media has indeed provided us an opportunity to challenge the established norms of communication and marketing. It has rewarded innovators - internet companies, mobile devices and similarly marketing companies who could ride the social media wave. And with the advent of newer platforms like Google+ or tablets and other devices, there is a definite opportunity for further new benefits.

Till the end of the 20th century and until email became popular means of communication, we were content with the telephone & snail mails. And by the end of the century we saw a paradigm shift in the means of communication with massive influx of newer  channels like fax machines, cell phones, email. This was until we felt the need staying connected with news or happening over the world or sharing information at lesser clicks.

Photo Courtesy: FreeDigitalPhotos

The sequence of the events, saw evolution of Social channels, a medium which allows content or information to be shared over the internet. Starting from a forum to exchange ideas to 140 character limit of Twitter to the recent unveiling of Google+ social media platform.

The new service has indeed required us (the end users) to change our past behavior of exchanging content and has also helped multiple industries to gain dramatic newer benefits.

Thanks for reading through. I would be glad to hear your comments &/or exchange thoughts. We can share them through Twitter (@malharbarai), Facebook or even Google+.

And if you enjoyed reading, do "Tweet" or "Like" or "+1" it.

Check out my about.me profile!