Rachel Erwin
MASC 671
PR in a Digital Environment
March 13, 2009
groundswell
winning in a world transformed by social technologies
Written by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff
Groundswell, winning in a world transformed by social technologies was published
in 2008 and written by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff. The two market researchers,
employed by Forrester Research, took note of the noise that was being made in the
online world. The goal of the book was to offer enlightenment of the effects of
technology in the in the business world.
The book is broken into three sections to help readers have a better understanding
of the groundswell actually is. The first section tells what groundswell actually
means and what tools are used in the groundswell, which offers a better
understanding of the groundswell. The second section of the book explains the best
ways to utilize the groundswell. And the third section of the book offers how to use
the groundswell to your advantage to strengthen your business.
The collaboration of hundreds of client interactions and thousands of hours of
analysis was used to create this book. The overall goal of the book is to better
prepare professionals and executives in a world that is constantly changing around
them. The groundswell isn’t going anywhere so with the help of this book marketing
professionals can better understand the world of technology and they will be able to
successfully navigate through it.
Part I: understanding the groundswell
Chapter 1: why the groundswell – and why now?
Digg This: The founder of Digg Kevin Rose woke up on May 2, 2007 wondering what
he would find on his home page. Two days before a blogger had broken the
encryption code for high-definition DVDs allowing DVDs to be copied by anyone
with the right skill set. Numerous lawyers to reached out to Kevin, who created the
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social news platform Digg, in an effort to control his readers. Kevin issued a
statement to his users requesting that they refrain from posting the encryption
code. However they didn’t yield his warning and in fact they kept posting the
encryption code. On May 1st Kevin realized he couldn’t control what was being said
on the web, so he posted his own response with the encryption code saying “Digg
This”.
The moral of the story, “You can’t take something off the Internet. That’s like trying
to take pee out of a swimming pool.” – Grant Robertson
The evolution of the Internet and the tools accessible through the Internet has put
the power into the hands of people. Corporations, compliance departments and
lawyers, don’t control the Internet; the people who are accessing it control it.
People now turn online to access information about a company and it’s products. If
consumers are not pleased with your company they will turn to the Internet to voice
their opinion. This can be referred to as the groundswell effect. You can’t stop a
groundswell from happening; however, you can work to understand it.
Forrester defines the groundswell as: A social trend in which people use
technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from
traditional institutions like corporations.
The groundswell effect is happening now because of the collision of three major
forces these forces being people, technology and economics. People inherently look
to one another for information. The Internet has made it possible for them to look to
one another online. Technology is constantly changing and adapting making it easier
for people to connect and find the resources they need online. Because everyone is
accessing information online, online traffic is increasing. People are beginning to
advertise online because people are turning there to get information instead of
newspapers, magazines and the 5:00 news.
Your brand is what people say it is. This means at anytime of the day someone may
be online destroying your company’s brand. It may be in a forum or on a blog but
out there someone may be destroying the brand that you have put so many
resources into. The better companies understand the groundswell the more they
can use it to their advantage.
Chapter 2 – jujitsu and the technologies of groundswell
Groundswell is not the enemy. If it’s understood and used correctly it can be a great
tool to your company and used strategically against your competitors to gain a
competitive advantage in the market.
Jujitsu is a Japanese martial art that in theory allows you to harness the power of
your opponent for your own advantage. The practice was designed to help you
defeat your opponent without using any weapons. Engaging in the groundswell
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similar to jujitsu allows you to understand how these “opponents” or really social
media tools can be used to your company’s benefit. Technologies are always
changing, rapidly changing, but technologies are not the point. Technology will help
to build stronger relationships with consumers.
The groundswell characteristics and tools are as follows:
People creating, which are blogs, user-generated, content and podcasts.
People collaborating, wikis and open source.
People reacting to each other in forums, rating and reviews.
People organizing content in tags.
Accelerating consumption in rss and widgets.
Each of these tools is able to enable relationships with consumers if used correctly
and able to threaten institutional power if used incorrectly.
New technology should only be implemented when are able to see that a specific
tool will build or strengthen relationships with your customers. In order to decided
if a new tool should be incorporated into your business practices Li and Bernoff say
you need to ask yourself the flowing five questions.
#1. Does it enable people to connect with each other in new ways?
#2. Is it effortless to sign up for?
#3. Does it shift power from institutions to people?
#4. Does the community generate enough content to sustain itself?
#5. Is it an open platform to invite partnerships?
The two ingredients of a groundswell are technology and people. The book moves
from talking about the tools to people in the following chapters.
Chapter 3 – the social technographics profile
Case Study AFOLs: Adult Fans of Legos is a group of adult Lego fans that are older
than 30 years old. They attribute to more than 5% of the company’s annual sales
and they can usually be found online. They enjoy showcasing their Lego creations,
commenting on new Lego products and sharing their enthusiasm for Lego products
with one another. AFOLs are compiled of many people but each person contributes
something unique. Some people are contributors, some are commenters and some
are simply people who simply spectate on the Lego community. But each person
contributes to the dynamic of the group and that’s what makes the community and
the consumer Lego relationship so vibrant.
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It’s important to understand the ways people participate online because a strategy
that targets only one specific group will fail. Forrestar research created the term
social technographics for the research they conducted to see where people were the
most active and what people where the most active where. Social refers to peopleto-people activities in the groundswell and technographics refers to their surveying
methodology.
The social technographics profile is broken down into six groups:
#1. Creators: Creators are the publishers and content developers. They are at the
top of the pyramid. They publish content on blogs, post podcasts and create
websites.
#2. Critics: Critics are the ones reacting to online content. They are posting
comments, participating in forums, they rate and review items or edit wikis. They
are not crafting new material simply commenting on material that is already online.
#3. Collectors: Collectors are saving URLs or compiling information on del.icio.us to
review. They are active with RSS feeds and organize content from the creators and
the critics to use later on.
#4. Joiners: Joiners are very active on social networking websites. They participate
in sites like MySpace, Meetup.com and Facebook. Joiners are often perceived to be
younger however, almost 25% of the adult population participates in a social
networking website.
#5. Spectators: Spectators are reading online and gaining information but unlike
creators and critics they are not commenting on it they are simply reading. The
spectator group makes up the largest group of online participants because it
requires little to no effort.
#6. Inactives: Inactives are better known as nonparticipants. These are people that
may use the web to shop or find a new restaurant but will not review a blog to see
what purses are in style for that season or navigate through a forum to find a new
local restaurant.
In order to use the groundswell strategically you have to understand where your
demographic is online. If you are creating a new brand of coffee that you want to
target to college age students between the ages of 17 – 23 you need to know where
your demographic is online. If research shows that your target demographic is only
using social networking tools then you will need to utilize Facebook and MySpace to
reach them with your product and your key messages. Social technographics can be
done for anyone, men and women, young and old, in the United States or in another
country. But before embarking on a social media plan it’s important to do your due
diligence and see where people are online.
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There are many reasons people tap into the groundswell and use social media tools
and in order to understand who is online you also need to understand why they are
online. Several of the reasons people chose to be online are ruled by emotions.
People have an innate desire to connect one with another. The emotional reasons
for tapping into the groundswell are as follows:
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Keeping up friendships – People are able to connect to past and current
friends online. They are able to reestablish past friendships and work on
current ones.
Making new friends – It’s easier now than ever to meet people online for
friendships or relationships.
Succumbing to social pressure from existing friends – Many people join
online communities because their friends are already using them and
encouraging them to participate. After getting email reminders from friends
you are more likely to jump on bored.
Paying it forward – If you are online and find a comment or a posting
beneficial to you than you are more inclined to post a comment in the hopes
of benefiting someone else down the road.
The altruistic impulse – Many people participate online just because they
think that they should.
The prurient impulse – People are easily amused by other people and often
find other people’s behaviors fascinating so they watch them first hand
online.
The creative impulse – Not everyone is a painter or a musician however
being online allows you to create things through a variety of channels. You
can post pictures on Flickr or create a video on YouTube.
The validation impulse – People often talk because they like to hear
themselves. The same rule applies online where people write on a blog or
add content to a Wiki because they want someone else to reassure them that
their work is good.
The affinity impulse – People are passionate about things being online allows
them to connect with other enthusiasts about the same things they are
passionate about. Whether it’s football or Legos people are able to connect
with people who share the same excitement.
The key to the groundswell is not trying to manipulate people’s motivations but to
leverage their motivations and to get them to participate with you online. But the
biggest challenge isn’t getting involved in the groundswell, it’s understanding if the
groundswell will meet your business goals.
Part II – tapping the groundswell
Chapter 4 – strategies for the groundswell
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Imagine you are representing a client whose direct competitor is Sears. They call
you and say Sears has an online forum that allows them to instantly connect with
their customers and gain feedback on their stores and product offerings. They tell
you that they need a forum just like Sears. If you ask your client what their objective
is for their forum they will most likely not have one. If you ask them how the forum
will contribute to their business goals it will be unlikely that they will be able to tell
you.
People know that they need to be online but they don’t know what exactly they need
to be doing online. They are overwhelmed with all of the tools at their disposal and
they don’t know which ones to begin using to help grow their business. Everyone
needs to step back and say “What are my objectives?”.
Groundswell has a four step planning process that called POST. POST is people,
objectives, strategy and technology.
People: Who are you customers? What are you customers ready for? Are you
customers online? You need to understand whom you are trying to reach and what
the best way to reach them is. This is the “who” of the plan.
Objectives: What exactly are the goals you are trying to meet? Is groundswell the
best way to meet your goals? Is it your customers you are trying to reach or is it
your employees? Outlining your objectives allows you to see what you are really
trying to accomplish with your plan. This is the “why” of the plan.
Strategy: What is it that you are trying to get from your customers? Are you trying to
increase brand awareness or are you trying to get input on a new product?
Strategizing helps you see the focus of social media tools. This is the “what” of the
plan.
Technology: Know which tools that you will use to build your plan around. This is
the “how” and the “where” of the plan.
Li and Bernoff say that there are five major objectives that companies should have
when using the groundswell. Each company should have at least one or more of
these objectives before investing in the groundswell.
#1. Listening – You want to gain information from your consumers. Maybe you want
to see how they view your products in comparison with other products or maybe
you want to gain insight on developing a new product.
#2. Talking – This is engaging customers in two-way conversations about your
company or your products.
#3. Energizing – Energizing is finding enthusiastic customers and exciting them into
using word of mouth marketing.
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#4. Supporting – You want your customers to grow and want to help them establish
communities with one another.
#5. Embracing – Is getting your customers involved in your business. It involves
integrating them into the works of your business particularly in the area of product
development.
Its important to remember that business doesn’t interact that people do. Businesses
are letting the reigns go and giving over the control to consumers. To create a
successful groundswell strategy it needs to be thoughtful and remember these
suggestions outlined by Li and Bernoff:
 Create a plan that starts small but has room to grow.
 Think through the consequences of your strategy.
 Put somebody important in charge of your plan. Don’t let someone who
doesn’t understand the business in charge.
 Use great care in selecting your technology and agency partners.
Chapter 5 – listening to the groundswell
Case Study M.D. Anderson Cancer Treatment Center: Lynn Perry is a current patient
at the M.D. Anderson Cancer center where he is undergoing treatment for prostate
cancer. Perry’s cancer is terminal and his doctors have predicted that he only has 6
more months to live. While he believes his care at the center is superior he has a
major qualm with the care he is receiving, he waits too long to receive it. He says
that the center advocates being on time for appointments however; when he arrives
he ends up waiting an hour to two hours before a doctor sees him. His point is
simply that his time is more valuable than the doctors or the other staff at the M.D.
Anderson center. The M.D. Center believes that they are doing an excellent job at
meeting their expectations by offering them care that is a cut above the rest. But
they have several unhappy patients on their hands. They aren’t really listening to
their patients. Yes their patients want the best care they can get, but they also want
doctors and nurses who are respectful of their time.
Your brand is what your customers say it is. The groundswell is where your
customers are communicating with one another and they are essentially deciding
what your brand is. At the end of the day a brand belongs to the customers using it
not companies.
In order to find out what your customers really want or how they really feel you
have to listen to the groundswell.
Many people believe that companies don’t listen to their customers and they don’t
actually care about their customers opinions. But that’s not true, successful
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companies are always soliciting their customers for feedback and the groundswell
allows them to directly reach their customers.
The groundswell lets you interact with your company, your competitors, and each
other during a normal 8-hour workday. Customer insight is right at your fingertips.
Consumers in the groundswell are leaving opinions both positive and negative all
over you just have to be proactive enough to listen to find them and listen to them.
There are two listening strategies that help companies listen to the groundswell.
#1. Set up your own private community: Communispace is an example of a website
that allows you to set up a private community for your participants. A private
community is like a focus group that continues to grow and offer valuable
information as long as the community is being operated. The major advantage of
starting a community is that you can ask your customers whatever you want. You
can directly ask them if they are happy with the care they are receiving from M.D.
Anderson Center and you can ask them what will make them happier.
#2. Begin brand monitoring: Brand monitoring can be done in house or a company
can choose to hire an outside firm to help monitor the brand. It involves listening to
what is out there on the Internet and analyzing the buzz. Brand monitoring allows
you to see how customers really relate your products and if they aren’t relating it
allows you to see what piece of the puzzle you are missing.
Listening is becoming one of the most deserted skills in the world of business.
Businesses are neglecting to listen to their customers and aren’t tailoring products
to their customer’s wants and needs. Listening to the groundswell should open
doors for the listeners.
Li and Bernoff say there are six reasons to listen to the groundswell:
#1. Find out what your brand stands for: As a business you know what you think
your brand stands for, after all you have invested in building that brand. But what if
your customer thinks your brand is something very different. This allows you to see
the gaps between your perceptions and your customer’s reality.
#2. Understand how buzz is shifting: Groundswell listening allows you to see what
people are really talking about. You might be under the impression that customers
are talking about your new product line, however customers might only be talking
about the high price points of your new product line.
#3. Save research money; increase research responsiveness: Companies don’t have
to conduct focus groups, or send out expensive surveys. They can inexpensively
conduct their own research by listening online. By establishing communities with
loyal customers responses from their almost guaranteed unlike when you send out a
survey and you have to wonder if anyone will fill it out.
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#4. Find the sources of influence in your market: The groundswell allows you to see
influentials in your product’s community.
#5. Manage PR crises: If you are already engaged in the groundswell if customers
turn against you on a blog or on YouTube you are already there to combat the
situation before it gets out of hand.
#6. Generate new products and marketing ideas: You are able to see what’s working
with your customers and what isn’t. If you have your own line of coffee beans you
are able to reach out to your customers directly and see what they want. Their list of
wants and ideas may help you expand your product offering.
Listening to the groundswell will inevitably change an organization. Once you
beginning listening and then acting on your new knowledge the dynamic of your
company has changed. It shifts the power from management to the customers. The
groundswell will reveal what you did wrong and it will also reveal what you did
right. But a tool so powerful that’s right at your fingertips can’t be ignored.
Chapter 6: talking with the groundswell
Case Study Engadget: Steve Ogborn is just an average father of three living in
Suburbia and working a white-collar job. Steve follows Engadget a blog about
technology that showcases the latest devices and trends on the technology front. On
a morning like any other morning Steve visits the blog and watches a video
“iSmoke”. The video shows a man dressed in a lab coat dropping an iPhone into a
blender and blending it. At first Steve can’t believe someone would be dumb enough
to blend an iPhone into dust but then he thinks that it must be some blender. Steve
visits the blender website, www.willitblend.com to check it out. Steve’s kids love
smoothies and their current blender just isn’t cutting it. The price for the blender is
$399. At first Steve is shocked by the price but then he remembers the YouTube
video with the iPhone and decides that the blender is worth its heft price tag. The
marketing director at Blendtec, the blender manufacturer, launched their whole
marketing campaign by using YouTube videos to highlight to demonstrate the
strength of the blender. The technique of using social media tools to advertise and
connect with customers is called talking with the groundswell.
Talking with the groundswell is different than marketing.
 Advertising through commercials is not talking it’s shouting.
 Advertising is about getting to the masses, it’s the number of people shouted
out and the number of times they heard the shout
 In marketing there is a marketing funnel, the end of the funnel where you
pour a liquid in is the message you are trying to shout out at your customers
 The middle of the funnel is all of the things that the customer must consider
before making a purchase, product awareness, consideration, product
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preference, action and loyalty and what comes out at the other end of the
funnel is hopefully a purchase
Talking with the groundswell allows people to get into the middle of the
funnel where buyers are deciding whether or not something is a good
purchase for them and persuade them to purchase using social media tools.
Like Blendtec a YouTube videos allow potential purchasers to see what the
product really does. The groundswell allows you to talk the whole way
through instead of shouting in one end and hoping a purchase comes out the
other end.
The Marketing Funnel
Customers in the middle of the funnel are engaged in conversations on blogs, in
discussion forums and in social networks. Social media tools are revving up wordof-mouth marketing and becoming more important than traditional forms of
marketing and public relations. Marketing and PR practioners alike have to go back
to the drawing board and integrate these tools into their plans.
Li and Bernoff say there are four major techniques for talking with the groundswell:
#1. Post a viral video: Putting videos online allow people to share the products with
their friends.
#2. Engage in social networks and user-generated content sites: Create personalities
on social networking pages like MySpace or Facebook.
#3. Join the blogosphere: Write blogs internally and then contribute to other blogs in
the community.
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#4. Create a community: Communities are one of the best ways to engage your
customers because it gives them a forum for them to express their opinions and the
community adds value to the product.
This chapter goes on to discuss each of these tools and offers advice on when to use
them and how to successfully use them within your organization.
The second way to talk with the groundswell is through social networking pages.
When a brand should be using social networks:
 Use a Social Technographics profile to verify that your customers in using
social networks.
 Move forward if people love your brand. Examples of loved brands on social
networking sites include Apple, Victoria’s Secret, Adidas, Jeep and Target
 See what’s out there already. Do environmental scanning and see if your
competitors are out there using these tools.
 Create a presence that encourages interaction.
The third way to talk with the groundswell is through blogging.
Li and Bernoff’s tips for successful blogging:
#1. Start by listening. Monitor blogs before jumping on board.
#2. Determine a goal for the blog. To you want to use the blog to announce new
products or do you want to humanize your organization. Choose a goal so you can
understand where the focus of your blog needs to be.
#3. Estimate the ROI. What do you think the pay off on the blog will be? How much
will the blog cost to start and maintain?
#4. Develop a plan. Decide who will contribute, how often, what content will be on
the blog, how will you address comments?
#5. Rehearse. Draft blog posts for people to review before starting a blog. This
allows you to explore topics and acts as training for the person writing the blog.
#6. Develop an editorial process. Will anyone review the blog?
#7. Design the blog and its connection to your site. Will the blog be linked to your
organization’s website? Will the blog be linked to the homepage of your
organization’s website? How will people find your blog?
#8. Develop a marketing plan so people can find the blog. Will you send out a press
release to announce your blog? Will you buy words on search engines?
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#9. Remember blogging is more than writing. Blogs have comments so there is an
actual dialogue going on between you and you readers. Make sure to engage in the
comments because that’s where the conversation starts.
#10. Be honest. A blog should be a genuine opinion of the person writing it. Readers
expect true honest and open conversation.
The final way to talk with the groundswell is by establishing an online community.
But when do communities make sense to use?
1st Determine if your market really is a community already or if there is potential for
creating a community. If you work for a company that manufacture tires you may
decide that there is no place for an online community, however if you work for a
baseball team you know that you will be able to create a community of baseball fans.
2nd Remember that if your target audience is a group of joiners, they may already
belong to a community. If you are trying to create a community for young stay at
home moms you have to acknowledge that they may already be in a community. You
will have to find a way to bring them to your community, partner with an already
established community or there may not be room for another community.
3rd If you decide you can form an online community ask yourself what you are going
to get out of it. To have an effective community you will have to support and
maintain it, decide if it is worth it to you.
Which of the four talking mediums is best for you?
Viral videos  best for awareness issues
Social networks  best for word-of-mouth problems
Blogs  best for companies with complex products and services
Communities  best for companies whose customers are dependant on one another
Groundswell means stimulating conversation. If you can master learning to talk,
listen and respond then you will be in the middle of the problem.
Chapter 7: energizing the groundswell
eBags case study: Jim Noble is a computer engineer who is a constantly on the go. He
travels all over the country working with clients. He is an eBag advocate because of
the positive experience he had with eBags. Jim was travelling to New York when a
zipper on his laptop bag broke. He sent the bag to eBags who returned the bag and
issued him a new one the next day. However it doesn’t stop there. Jim made a
comment on the website about the zipper and suggested how it could be fixed. The
Hong Kong manufacturer took Jim’s suggestion to heart and started manufacturing
the laptop with with new and improved zippers. Everywhere Jim goes he tells
people about his experience with eBags. How could a company not want more brand
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ambassadors out there spreading the their affinity for their brand? They do. And by
energizing the groundswell they can find these customers.
Energizing the groundswell is word-of-mouth marketing. Word-of-mouth marketing
simply means you find a product you really like, you tell people two people you like
the product, they try it then they tell two people and so on and so forth. Energizing
the groundswell means finding these brand advocates online. These people are
more than likely engaged online in blogs or forums.
Word-of-mouth marketing is successful because:
It’s believable.
It’s self-reinforcing.
It’s self-spreading.
Word-of-mouth marketing can’t be faked but it can be encouraged.
Energizing the groundswell means tapping into the power of word of mouth by
connecting with and turning on your most committed customers online.
Li and Bernoff have three techniques for energizing enthusiasts”
#1. Tap into customers’ enthusiasm with ratings and reviews. This tactic works best
in retail but it allows your customers to write comments and vote on the products.
Customers are able to leave both negative and positive feedback.
#2. Create a community to energize your customers: Create a community where
truly passionate customers can go to express their passion for the product.
#3. Participate in and energize online communities of your brand enthusiasts. Join
the conversation with your online enthusiasts.
How you energize depends on how you want relationships to change. If you want to
bring your enthusiasts together then create a community. Carnival Cruise Lines
developed a website, www.carnivalconnections.com that allowed people to connect
with current or past friends to plan a vacation together.
Energizing your customers is often times difficult internally because you are shifting
the power into your customer’s hands. You can’t always control what your
customers will say. Li and Bernoff offer 5 steps for applying techniques of energizing
to your organization.
#1. Figure out if you want to energize the groundswell
 It will only work if you have a company or a product that customers may be
enthusiastic about or could be enthusiastic about, toilets is an example of
something that consumers in all likelihood won’t be excited about.
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People may not want to talk about your products so don’t assume that they
do and prematurely start a community for them to get together to discuss it.
Do you really want to hear from your customers? Do you care what your
customers are saying about you? If the answer is yes then you should work to
energize them.
#2. Check the social technographics profile of your customers
 Is your product something technologically savvy or is it on the opposite end
of the spectrum? Decide if your product is something that people will be
likely to discuss online or not.
 Are you customers online or are they inactive? If they aren’t online there is
no way to energize them online.
 Do the appropriate research to see if you can energize the groundswell
online
#3. Ask yourself, “What is my customer’s problem?”
 In the case of Jim Noble and eBags was Jim’s frustration with his product or
was it his travel schedule?
 Really assess what your customers issues are, if Jim was really frustrated
with an aspect of Traveling eBags could have paired with an online travel
concierge to make life easy.
 Listen to what your enthused customers are really talking about
#4. Pick a strategy that fits your customers’ social technographics profile and
problems
 If it is a retail issue rankings and reviews may be better suited for addressing
the problems
 If it is a product that people feel connected to like Starbucks an online
community will be better suited
#5. Don’t start unless you can stick around for the long haul
 Communities are a big commitment they require constant work and constant
adjustment
 You will damage the relationship you have with your energized communities
if you start a community then abandon it or if your community doesn’t
deliver what you promised. You may end up doing more harm than good.
Energizing can transform your company. It allows you to see that not all customers
are equal; some are simply more energetic than others. Once you see how your most
enthusiastic customers are you often end up embracing them.
Chapter 8 – helping the groundswell support itself
CarePages Case Study: TJ and Michelle Howley are a young married couple who
recently gave birth to twins. Michelle’s water burst unexpectedly and she was taken
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to the hospital. Michelle was only 22 weeks along and the goal was to make it to
over 24 weeks. Michelle was ordered to stay in the hospital under supervised care
so they could delay her delivering. Imagine all of the phone calls TJ and Michelle
were receiving from family and friends wanting to know how she and her twins
were doing? Not surprisingly TJ and Michelle were physically and emotionally
exhausted. Luckily the Massachusetts General Hospital had been listening to the
groundswell and had established the CarePages blog. Patients at the hospital were
allowed to set up their own blogs so they could write about their experiences
without having to call them. The blog allows you to send out email updates once you
post a blog and friends and family can post their comments and thoughts on the
page. Michelle gave birth to two healthy twin boys after 25 weeks of pregnancy. She
was able to keep in touch through the trying three weeks through the CarePages
blog. Michelle said she would have never been able to make it without the
CarePages.
Groundswell is a great support system because allows people to connect with one
another making everyone’s lives a little easier.
There are two trends in corporate America that have changed corporate support:
#1. Almost all companies have a website and they can now direct their customers
there for support.
#2. More and more companies are outsourcing labor overseas so when a customer
calls to ask about their life insurance policy people may be speaking to a customer
service representative in India.
These two trends have caused groundswell support because people are more
trusting of one another than they are of a website or of a person in another country.
Companies should establish support forums where customers can go to post their
questions and get answers from company workers as well as other customers with
the same issues. Companies that have complex products like computers should start
forums for their customers to communicate directly with them.
Passion forums supported by an organization allow for people to connect and
become energized. CBS had a show called Jericho that was cancelled after only 7
episodes. The show had such a huge following online and they enthused viewers had
created their own fan forum. The fans collaborated together and decided to send
CBS peanuts in honor of a character on the show. Together they sent CBS over
50,000 lbs of peanuts. CBS took note and reached out to their fans on their support
forum, they decided to make another season of the show. But because they were
supporting their fans they were able to ask their fans for a favor in return. CBS
asked them to recruit more viewers so the show could continue to grow.
If a support forum is managed properly it can make customers, happier, save you
money and generate power product insights. But before you create an online forum
or community you need to ask three things.
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#1. What problem is your support activity trying to solve?
#2. Groundswell support needs participation? How is your company going to
participate in the community?
#3. Why build a forum or a community if there is already one online and you can
join it?
Li and Bernoff offer some practical advice for starting a community if a community
doesn’t exist already.
 Start small, but plan for a larger presence.
 Reach out to your most active customers.
 Plan to drive traffic to your community.
 Build in a reputation management system.
 Let your customers lead you.
The most important thing to remember about supporting the groundswell is that
people expect you to listen and respond to them. The Jericho fans wanted CBS to
listen to them so they sent in 50,000 lbs of peanuts. If you start a community or join
a community customers expect you to listen to what they have to say and they
expect you to act on what they are saying. If your company is not ready to take those
two steps, then they are not ready to support the groundswell.
Chapter 9 – embracing the groundswell
Del Monte Foods Case Study: Del Monte Foods offers groceries products including
dog food. In an effort to better market their dog food products they conducted
consumer research through an online forum to see what their customers really
wanted in a dog food product. What they found were customers like George who
loves his dog, Pooch. Pooch and George go on hikes and runs and enjoy hanging out
outdoors in the warm weather. Pooch likes to wear clothes and go everywhere with
George. The online surveys revealed that dog lovers give their pets human qualities
and they want their dogs to have food the resembles human food. Del Monte
introduced a line of pet treats that resembled people food. They realized that
product development is a difficult area so why not get their customers involved?
You’ll make a better product that customers will be more inclined to purchase.
Embracing the groundswell means getting customers involved in product
development and product enhancement. It means getting customers involved on the
way you create and improve product offerings.
The groundswell allows you to innovate faster and more powerfully. It does this
because customers are quick to tell you what they think. If customers have an issue
with a product they will often let you know about that issue faster than if they were
100% satisfied with the product. When customers are in the loop innovations
happen quicker because you can be continuously making improvements.
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There are two things to remember when embracing your customers.
#1. No matter what type of business you have a fast food chain or a computer repair
service, if you have customers than they can help you. They can offer you
suggestions or advice. They can tell you how to improve your product to make it
more user friendly. Or they can tell you that they don’t’ like the colors. No matter
what they have to say, positive or negative, they can help you make a better product
and run a better business.
#2. Remember that embracing your customers takes a balance between skill and
humility. Apple is an example of a company that makes products and has a loyal
customer base but doesn’t ever solicit customer feedback.
PART III – the groundswell transforms
Chapter 10 – how connecting with the groundswell transforms your company
Case Study Dove’s “Evolution”: Rob Master a, marketing executive with Unilever is
known for his creative thinking. In 2004 he took a look at the brand Dove and knew
that it needed to go a different route in an effort to not be weeded out by the
competition. He worked to launch Dove’s Campaign For Real Beauty. The campaign
focused on advertising with normal women as opposed to airbrushed models like
their competitors were using. This campaign used traditional advertisements on
commercials, billboards and print advertisements. Rob’s next step was product
positioning on reality TV. The cast of The Apprentice worked to create a new
advertising campaign for the company. Then in 2005 he pushed the envelope using
web-based video advertising that drove customers to the website. In 2006 Rob
finally launched the Dove Evolution campaign. It was simply a video taking an
airbrushed model and reserving the airbrushed effect to show that beauty isn’t what
the media tells us it is, it’s natural. In 2004 this campaign would not have been
successful but in a little over three years Dove was able to launch an advertising
campaign that was solely online. The groundswell transformed the company’s
marketing and advertising department.
There are three things to take from the Dove Evolution case that will help a
company transform.
#1. Take small steps that have a big impact. Lay the foundation for something
greater down the road but don’t jump in all at once.
#2. Have a vision and a plan. Rob had a three-year plan and an outlook for Dove’s
future. He knew where he wanted to see the company be down the road.
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#3. Build leaders into the plan. A plan can’t survive without leaders. In Dove’s case
Rob was the leader of the campaign but he still need other leaders on board to make
it a reality.
Three essential steps to organization transformation:
#1. Take it step by step. Organizational shifts take time and practice. Don’t expect to
launch something on a Tuesday and expect your organization to be transformed by
a Thursday.
#2. Each of the stepping-stone leads in a natural progression towards the next step.
Each stone you lay out and support will support the next one and so on and so forth.
#3. You have to have executive support. If your executives don’t back the groundswell
it will never transform your company.
At the end of this chapter Li and Bernoff share tips on how to prepare your
organization for a groundswell transformation:
 First, start small.
 Second, educate your executives.
 Third, get the right people to run your strategy.
 Fourth, get your agency and technology partners in sync.
 Fifth, plan for the next step and for the long term.
Chapter 11 – the groundswell inside your company
The groundswell effect doesn’t have to be used just to engage external audiences. It
can also be used to get your internal audience engaged. Your internal audience,
better known as your employees can also be energized and supported through
groundswell efforts.
Internally the groundswell touches the same objectives as the external groundswell
it advocates listening, talking, energizing, supporting and embracing your
employees. Companies can use blogs, support forums and wikis to help the
groundswell grow and engage employees.
Just like the external groundswell and internal groundswell only works when
management is willing to listen and make changes. If management doesn’t really
care what its employees think or have to say then there is no point creating a forum
for employees to go and interact.
The most important part of this chapter is at the end where it discusses how culture
and relationships trump technologies. The secret to a true internal groundswell is a
strong and dynamic internal culture. The relationships that employees have with
management will inevitably shape the culture of the company if those two are out of
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sync then the integrating new technology won’t make employees more engaged or
any happier.
Before you start your internal groundswell evaluate yourself internally. If you see
gaps fix those gaps before embarking on a mission to integrate new technology
because technology won’t fix a broken relationship.
Chapter 12 – the future of the groundswell
Jason Korman Case Study: Jason makes wine, all sorts of wine. In 2003 Jason started
a winery in South Africa. To get create buzz around wine is to be featured in a wine
specific publication. But Jason had a different strategy; he tapped into the
groundswell instead of seeking press coverage. In 2005 he sent his wine to 185
prominent bloggers in the United Kingdom and Ireland, which resulted in 305 blog
posts. He partnered with an American blogger to penetrate the world of marketing
online. Together the two created a Flickr account, YouTube Videos, a Facebook
group and they transformed the company from a $1 million wine business to a $10
million wine business in just two years. Jason now lives in the groundswell; it’s his
marketing department.
Li and Bernoff’s prediction is that in as little as three years we will all be living in the
groundswell. We will access all of our information online through phones or
computers. They say the groundswell is not a trend it will become a way of life.
The principles of groundswell thinking:
 Never forget that the groundswell is about person-to-person activity.
 Be a good listener.
 Be patient.
 Be opportunistic.
 Be Flexible.
 Be collaborative.
 Be Humble.
This book was published in 2008 so even in terms of the groundswell it’s somewhat
outdated but to see what is going on now in the groundswell you can follow their
blog at http://blogs.forrester.com/groundswell/.
Please contact me if you have any questions at rachel.l.erwin@gmail.com.
Cheers.
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