Executive Summary

Idea Portals
How great ideas can transform your business

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Today’s businesses are no longer limited to one-way, traditional channels.  Thanks to the emergence of Web 2.0 and social media, companies are now overwhelmed with options for exchanging information and ideas. But some businesses have discovered an advantage in the form of idea portals.  These online community tools allow businesses to seek, capture, review, rank, and leverage audience (external and internal) insights and ideas that have potential for real and rapid impact to the bottom line.

The advantages of idea portals are that they:

• Are real-time - providing a direct channel between the company and its customers, employees, and partners.
• Level the playing field, eliminating hierarchies between the consumer and the brand.
• Greatly expand reach. 
• Are cost effective.
• Integrate with existing systems, tools, and campaigns.
• Are efficient.
• Expand diversity.

The 12 best practices for developing and implementing idea portals:

1. Decide: is it private or public.
2. Anticipate the audiences. What do they need?
3. Start with observation. What is being said and by whom.
4. Establish a bill of rights.
5. Have thick skin. Be willing to hear the positive and negative.
6. Keep it authentic.
7. Let your members know what is happening with their ideas.
8. Make it easy to use.
9. Take an iterative approach.
10. Integrate with other business units, efforts, and systems.
11. Staff your ideas portal.
12. Measure the results.