The serendipity that executives desire to drive innovation occurs on social media.

In this LinkedIn Live, Simon Kemp mentions something that was a huge "aha moment" for me. Before I get into that, let me give you a little background.

We all worked from home for two years because of the Covid-19 pandemic. When it was time to "go back to the office," many people who had traded in long commutes for more quality time with friends and family resisted. Research showed that productivity gains during the period directly resulted from eliminating the commute. Innovation was a critical reason that Tim Cook at Apple and other CEOs mandated that people return to the office. Apple's Steve Jobs was a believer in this approach to innovation. Apple had invested $5 Billion in its new office space designed for innovation.

How do you design an office for innovation? The idea is that people nearby would "serendipitously" bump into coworkers or engage in conversations that would generate an innovative spark. Of course, many technology executives participated in creating billions, maybe trillions, in value in the office with this basic premise.

Of course, that was before digital and the massive adoption of social media, which is now ubiquitous. Millions of people engage in conversations on social media platforms daily.

Simon Kemp is a highly regarded advisor to some of the world's largest companies on digital behaviors. Kepios, the management consultancy he founded, aggregates data from many sources to create a comprehensive report on digital behaviors. The most recent information Digital 2022: October Global Snapshot Report, is available here. The report is published quarterly in partnership with We Are Social and Hootsuite.

Marketers and many others use the report to understand how people behave digitally. Last week, my partners and I at DLA Ignite hosted Simon in a special episode of The Digital Download, our weekly LinkedIn Live. At 45:33 in the Live, my colleague and business partner, Tim Hughes, asks a fascinating question about search. "Are people using social media for search?" Tim explained that people are using social media to search for products and services just as they might use Google or Amazon. As many of you know, Tim is a social media expert and one of the world's leading marketing influencers. He has written three books on the subject. His most recent book, Social Selling, 2nd Edition, is just released and is available on Amazon.

Simon's response is fascinating. He explains the difference between Google search and social search, sometimes called search engine optimization (SEO). As he explained, the key difference between the two is something Simon called "discovery." When people are searching on social media, they often discover something they weren't searching to find. When people search on Google, they get back precisely what Google's algorithm determines is the best response based on the search. Advertisers who have paid to be at the top of the page on some searches appear first, and then organic responses appear next.

Discovery accompanies social search. Millions of conversations occur all over LinkedIn, for example, every day. When you search on social media, you're likely to encounter people and conversations you weren't searching to find. I spend hours every day on LinkedIn, and I interact with content and people I don't know daily. Simon likened this to "discovery" to walking down the street and seeing something in a store window. You weren't searching for it, but you discovered it. You pop into the store, and you purchase it.

That was the "aha moment" for me. I immediately thought about this idea of serendipity leading to innovation. It wasn't the office that led to serendipitous innovation. It was the conversation. If you go to the office cafeteria and speak to no one, then there's zero chance for an innovative spark with you. However, if you're posting content and engaging in conversations on social media, there's a good chance you'll have a conversation. That conversation could be with a coworker, partner, customer, or someone you didn't even know existed. That conversation then leads to a Zoom call and a relationship.

The serendipity that executives desire to drive innovation occurs on social media.