Social media content and product co-creation: an emerging paradigm

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to conceptualise and discuss the possible insights that can be generated for product development by analysing the user-generated content available from various social media platforms. Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews the role of user generated content in developing products and its features (e.g. appearance and shape). It delineates the directions in which the relationship between social media content and customer oriented concepts evolve while developing successful new products. Findings – The review and arguments presented in this paper suggest that the social media approach adds more value than the traditional approaches for obtaining insights about the products. Availability of users’ opinions and information about existing products provide insights for the improvement in the product design process. Co-creation and self-construal are important components that are based on customer engagement and customer behaviour, respectively, in the product design and development. Practical implications – As social media creates new ways of communication with users, businesses can include users into the product development process to improve and refine their products or for making the next generation of products. Originality/value – This paper suggests a new approach in getting useful insights about the products from user-generated contents. This way of using social media helps businesses to move forward from the traditional product development paradigms.