A growing number of companies are tapping into social media channels, including online communities and forums and through use of tools such as Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter to engage with customers and business partners and create a conduit for new product, service, and customer experience ideas.

Given the rising interest that CIOs have in improving customer experience, driving innovation, and, of course, fulfilling their commitment to delivering genuine business value to the organization, I thought it might be useful to share a few examples of companies in different industries that are exploiting social media interactions with customers to generate fresh ideas.

There's an article on Fastcompany.com by Jens Martin Skibsted and Rasmus Bech Hansen in which they argue that user-led innovation can't lead to breakthroughs. The co-authors, who are Danish designers and entrepreneurs, say that customer-centric innovation doesn't work and that great brands lead users and not the other way around, citing Apple and IKEA as examples.

Skibsted and Hansen make an interesting case. For instance, they claim that design leaders at IKEA have informed them that they've tried incorporating customer-led innovation and it just didn't work. Instead, both companies are intent on creating great products that customers will love.