????4. 擁抱社交媒體，但不要跟風，簡單地把它們當作營銷的平臺。正如作家兼麻省理工學院（MIT）研究員的格蘭特?麥克拉肯最近在《哈佛商業評論》（Harvard Business Review）博客中所述，可以把它們視為產品和服務理念的免費調研平臺。不要一出現（Pinterest和Tumblr這樣）的新型大眾社交平臺，馬上就本能地作出反應：“我們馬上開通一個公司帳戶來進行市場營銷！”沒錯，有時候，努力保持與時俱進很可貴。但它也可能導致時間和資源的浪費。倒不如讓員工花些時間用這些網站尋找當下的靈感。讓員工看看Pinterest上有沒有什么有待發現的文化趨勢、審美趨勢、甚至行為趨勢可以給我們現有的項目提供一些幫助。這樣的練習可以能成為專注而有益的研發活動，最終產生切合時代的新點子，從而真正用好社交媒體。最妙的一點是，它基本上不用掏錢。

????當然，這些建議僅僅是拋磚引玉，若要契合貴公司的目標，肯定還要進行調整和改變。因為如果不這樣做的話根本就不可能真正具備創新者的思維。

????多琳?羅倫佐是國際化創新公司青蛙設計（Frog）的總裁，該公司的母公司愛瑞森特集團（Aricent Group）的執行副總裁和總經理。多琳負責推動青蛙設計公司的企業戰略并監督其全球運作。在為這家公司效力的14年里，她在公司重組中起到了重要作用，使其從一家傳統的小型設計公司變成了世界上最著名的國際化創新公司之一，與眾多的財富500強客戶進行了廣泛合作。她還是2011-2012世界經濟論壇（World Economic Forum）新興技術全球議程委員會（Global Agenda Council on Emerging Technologies）的成員。

??? 譯者：老榆木

????4. Embrace social media as something other than me-too publicity platforms. Instead, consider social sites as free research for product and service ideas, as author and MIT research affiliate Grant McCracken suggested recently in a Harvard Business Review blog post. Avoid having the typical, knee-jerk reaction to every new, popular social platform--from Pinterest to Tumblr, which is "let's immediately get a company account and use this for marketing!" Yes, sometimes this can be valuable, in an attempt to show you're staying current. As tempting as this is, it can lead to wasting time and resources . Rather, truly stay current by devoting staff energy to using these sites for timely inspiration instead. Ask staff to see if there are cultural, aesthetic, or even behavioral trends waiting to be discovered on Pinterest, for instance, that could feed into a project that's in place. An exercise like this could be focused and useful R&D-related activity that can lead to new, timely ideas—and make wise use of social media. Best of all, it's generally free.

????These tips are just starting points, of course--and are certainly meant to be edited and altered in any way that fits your company's goals. Because if you didn't attempt to do so, would you be thinking like a true innovator?