Groundswell is an overview of the real thing
June 7, 2009 by Mary Ellen
My stack of reading remains at an all-time high in spite of the progress I’ve made during my recovery. (As a result of a broken humerus bone, and given the challenge of typing with one hand, I’ve added a number of fiction and non-fiction books to the completed list.) In the coming days I’ll review some of those resources for you.
I’m exploring social media strategies in preparation for a class I’m presenting as well as better usage for myself and my clients.. One of the first books I tackled was Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies by Charlene Li, Josh Bernoff.
An easy, fast read, Groundswell would be most helpful for someone in a corporate environment or dealing with corporate clients new to social media. Why? It’s structured, comprehensive, and offers statistics, graphs, and case studies from large companies. For those who are looking for a solid foundation/explanation of social media, Li and Bernoff, Forrester Research analysts, provide it.
As a prep or research text, Groundswell fits nicely. Its messages urge companies to become consumer-directed. (NOTE: Since when is this new?) What makes the strategy meaningful is the call for concentration on relationships, not technologies.
So when evaluating a new technology, ask yourself the following questions: Does it enable people to connect with each other in new ways? The groundswell is about making connections. If a tool makes those connections more interesting, more varied, or more frequent, it has good potential for adoption-because that’s what the groundswell is looking for. Furthermore, such technologies spread virally, as existing participants recruit new people to join them.
I was particularly intrigued by the discussion of branding from Ricardo Guimaraes, founder of Thymus Branding in San Paulo, Brazil.
After running a big Brazilian ad agency for a long time, Guimaraes started his consultancy to spread a new way of thinking. He says brands belong to customers, not companies. In his words:
The value of a brand belongs to the market, and not to the company. The company in this sense is a tool to create value for the brand … Brand in this sense lives outside the company, not in the company. When I say that the management is not prepared for dealing with the brand, it is because in their mind-set they are managing a closed structure that is the company. The brand is an open structure-they don’t know how to manage an open structure.
Li and Bernoff coined an acronym, POST, to describe the integration of social media: people, objectives, technologies and strategies. In spite of few small business examples in the book, it offers an overview of social media for someone who wants to study it.
Solve problems, exploit opportunities. Start small. Pick strategic battles. Tap into customers’ enthusiasm with ratings and reviews. Above all, join the conversation. Become part of the Groundswell and use it in a meaningful way to move your company forward.
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