"GroundSwell"

I just finished reading "Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies" by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff.

It took a while, a good book causes me to stop and ponder how I can use the ideas I get while reading.

There's a lot of emphasis on convincing management to support these new technologies, which caused me to ask "Do they have any choice?" Seems that soon any company that stays in business will have to be listening to the groundswell (word of mouth).. it can't be shut off.

What do you think? Can a company survive if they refuse to listen to the conversation?

Tags: customers, groundsell, listening, media, mouth, of, social, to, word

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Permalink Reply by Warren Sukernek on May 19, 2008 at 11:19am: Great interview, Jeff. I have also been a fan of Groundswell---using a lot of the techniques like POST and Social Technographics, with clients since they were released (pre-book). In fact, at the recent WOMM-U conference, we ended up speaking quite a bit about Groundswell at my roundtable sessions. Here is a slideshare link to the notes, http://snurl.com/29m73. And Josh Bernoff has a podcast on Grokdotcom.com, http://snurl.com/29m7a; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Mike & Marcy Cunningham on May 19, 2008 at 11:21am: What? Speak up?

Just enter me, I'm a book collector.

Get Your Name On!

Mike; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Rob Boostrom on May 19, 2008 at 11:28am: I see this discussion as an extension of market orientation. You need to understand what your customers are saying and be careful to balance between responding to requests and leading your customers to solutions they never would have imagined through product innovations.

It's also important to know who you won't listen to. You have to know who your customers really are. It's the difference between being market led and being market driven.

Marketers need to understand how the voice of the customer is being expressed and take action to serve their markets based on what they learn. Social technologies are a growing piece to that puzzle.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jackie Huba on May 19, 2008 at 11:33am: FYI - we just did an interview with Josh Bernoff, the co-author of Groundswell, on the Church of the Customer blog. Read it here.

We are also giving away 5 copies of Groundswell. Just post a thought to this forum post by Friday May 23 and we'll randomly draw from the participants.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Warren Whitlock on May 27, 2008 at 10:20am: Did you give away the 5 copies of Groundswell?

I've got another book you are sure to be interested in when we wrap this up; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Carrie Matuga on May 19, 2008 at 11:39am: I think this is a wonderful book with excellent support in the form of statistics for why companies cannot afford to ignore SM. The one thing I wish I saw more of was examples of SM that are smaller companies -- not necessarily the Dell's, JetBlue's, or Pizza Hut's of the world.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Bill Powell on May 19, 2008 at 11:46am: I agree that there should be some publication out there for us Small Fry types who live and die on WoM.. There are for sure lessons to be taken from the big boys, but much of that is on a scale I can't touch.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Bill Powell on May 19, 2008 at 11:45am: I listened to the NPR interview that mentioned Groundswell, and I had considered picking it up. The company I work for is smaller with a ravenous group of users that can be a quite helpful and at other times amazingly frustrating. We thrive on conversation with our customers and they help to direct us to changing our tools to match their needs. It is an amazing symbiotic relationship.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Howard Brodwin on May 19, 2008 at 12:06pm: I believe companies today do not have a choice - they HAVE to listen to the groundswell. The bigger question for them is when, how and where do they respond? Do they respond immediately to every comment that's made in the blogosphere? Do they react to negative chatter with an overarching apology or solution? Do they use the same medium to open a broad dialogue at the grassroots level, or do they find another way to reach out and create more of a one-on-one conversation?

If you genuinely engage with your brand evangelists and make them feel a part of the process in shaping the brand, you stand a much better chance of avoiding negative groundswell.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by BJ Cook on May 28, 2008 at 1:59am: Hi Howard,

I found your message pretty provocative in terms of what it truly was getting at, "how and where do they respond?" I can't speak for other individuals within roles where they are constantly engaging with customers, partners, employees, but I can shed some light on how I approach these invaluable conversations. At the end of the day they are all conversations, whether you respond to a blog with a comment, track down the person's email and send them a message or shooting them an Inmail via LinkedIn. There are so many channels open to cultivate conversations with your community that it can get overwhelming at times. Thankfully, I don't sleep much and my Blackberry buzzes when someone is talking about us :)

I try to respond to every mention that I can because I see anyone talking about our brand as crucial to letting me know how our product can be improved for them, which in turn will only benefit the next person. I've met some great people and will continue each of the conversations because if they are putting the time in to talk about us, why wouldn't I want to listen and engage with them?

I consider myself an evangelist for our customers, user, partners, employees and will continue to drive their desires home while we work towards building something that is truly valuable to their everyday life. It's great to have access to a product like ours which I consider a great conversation platform.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Warren Whitlock on May 28, 2008 at 8:40am: BJ

You hit the nail on it's proverbial head.

They are all conversations.. whether they start out negative or positive... each is an opportunity to connect further with the human beings that are stakeholders.

Talking to the people that love you is easy enough.. and for the others, I keep in mind how I would have liked to respond to the teenager who said "I hate you"... once you can do that with love, you can handle just about anything.

Quantity doesn't replace quality, but more genuine conversations with a positive attitude is almost always the best bet; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Dave on May 19, 2008 at 12:15pm: How could you not listen to the conversation? As more and more companies place themselves more fully online, it behooves them to keep their ears to the rail. Without the global conversation, specifically as it related to your niche or product, you have no way to know how to evolve and how to grow.; ▶ Reply to This