Groundswell: customers and companies mutual benefits

As anyone can guess, any organization’s success greatly hinges on its customers satisfaction, needs and feedback. In chapter 9 of Groundswell, Bernoff and Li provide many cases such as Del Monte’s product insights from dog owner communication, salesforce.com’s Idea Exchange, Crédit Mutuel’s customers’ ideas and Loblaw’s feedback that continuously improves its grocery products.

There are many other examples that I have come across were customer feedback fuels enormous growth and success.

Infosurv is an online customer survey research company based out of Atlanta. According to Infosurv, “Customer feedback surveys can help your organization optimize the relationship with your customers and clients. Utilizing a professionally designed and administered customer feedback survey can, measure customer satisfaction levels, improve customer retention, gauge interest in new products and service offerings, pinpoint areas for improvement and get actionable feedback at an affordable price.”

There are more ways than just feedback for companies to improve with help from their customers. People generally have opinions and ideas about things they use or are passionate about. When companies ask their customers what these opinions and ideas are, there is usually a large response.

For example, Doritos launched a contest this year for anyone to develop their own commercial that would potentially air during the Super Bowl. In this case, Doritos involved their customers in marketing development, and in return got a great commercial out of it and lots of publicity.

Last year World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) decided to use fans to determine a matchup. The fans were asked to vote, and did, on who would challenge John Cena for a January Pay-Per-View event.

Jonathan Zerden, WWE senior director, Internet technology said, “We use customer feedback to impact our story lines and for marketing. It enables us to surround the customer with 360 degrees of marketing,” said Zerden. “We get to see how they interact with mobile platforms, how they interact with us, how they interact with their arena, and how they interact with their cable company.”

Getting a clear picture of what customers want is essential to staying competitive and being better that the “other guy.” In the WWE case, their product was the Pay-Per-View matchup event, and their fans were primary in the design of this product.

If the McCain administration was effectively using the Internet they could use “listening” strategies to see what their target audience thought about their brand, which, in the case of the presidential campaign, was John McCain. The McCain administration could have used Bernoff and Li’s strategy of brand monitoring to gain insight.

By participating in the groundswell and closely monitoring what people talking about or reacting to, you can tailor your message to reach your target audience in the most effective way. In McCain’s article on The Daily Beast Rob Kubasko, a Republican online strategist and designer, states, “But we have to understand what drives success. In some ways we continue to put the cart before the horse. Technology does not drive success. Message (especially a well crafted one) drives success.”

Groundswell: online questions and answers

Chapter 8 in “Groundswell” provided me with many examples and case studies of what different question and answer forums can do for companies, consumers, and even die-hard television show fans.

Recently I purchased an Apple iPhone, and I have had trouble setting up my university email on the phone. As the chapter states, sometimes people have questions that are too detailed to find answers online. This was my situation. I first went online to Auburn University’s Website and to AT&T’s Website to research how to set up my email. I found specific directions and followed them, but I still was unable to get my email working on my iPhone.

I reluctantly called Apple’s technical support hotline, and listened through the multitudes of recorded directions. Once again nothing answered my question, so I had to wait to speak with a representative. This is when I got extremely frustrated. I am not a super tech-savvy person, but I do know more than most people when it comes to computers and electronics. And although I had not had my iPhone for very long, I know how to do pretty much everything on the phone. The representatives must approach the people they are speaking with as if the know nothing about the device. The representative assisting me had me do a number of things with the phone that I had already tried, or that I knew would not help. This resulted in an hour of troubleshooting that was essentially a waste of time. My issue was never resolved, and I know now there is nothing more I can do besides bring my phone physically into an Apple store for maintenance.

What I am getting at with this story is that, although I didn’t find the answer to my question online, it was still easier and more time productive than listening to recordings on a hotline or troubleshooting via telephone. Online question and answer forums give the customers more control. If someone has a complex question, then that person knows what they have already done to try and solve it and what information to rule out in searching for the answer.

Besides question and answer forums for companies and consumers, another part of this chapter that caught my attention was “forums for supporting passions.” The television series “Jericho” on CBS had producers that were conscience of the groundswell. These producers not only set up a fan forum at and a wiki on cbs.com, but they also participated in the comments and answers. This is another case that, in my opinion, empowers fans, and as a result, makes the producers seem human and reachable. When the fans expressed their duress with the shows cancellation, they were granted more episodes. However, the fans were not the only people who benefited from the online communication. The relationship the producers had established with the fans allowed the producers to ask the fans to “rally around the show” and generate more viewers. Everyone wins. I particularly liked this story. Because I am interested in the marketing and advertising aspects of PR, I hope to work with an organization that has good two-way communication like these producers and fans. And if I don’t work for an organization that has this, maybe I can introduce it.

Groundswell: Energizing A.K.A. Word-of–Mouth

In Chapter 7, “Energizing the Groundswell,” the authors focus on word-of-mouth marketing and how to use it in the groundswell. Word-of-mouth works because it is believable, it’s self-reinforcing, and it’s self-spreading. However, there is one claim in this chapter that I do not agree with.

On page 131, Bernoff and Li state that word-of-mouth marketing “can’t be faked, but it can be encouraged.” I understand this statement, but because of information I recently learned in a marketing class, I don’t think it is absolutely true. 

In my marketing class, we spent an entire day learning about undercover marketing. This is sneaky marketing and morally questionable to say the least. We watched a “Dateline” episode dedicated to exposing undercover marketing. In one case “Dateline” covered, a video game company hired a group of about 10 young adults to be their undercover marketers. The group was trained on how to play the video game, and most importantly, trained on how to “sell” it to others. They would “sell” the game by word-of-mouth, not by asking people to buy it. 

How did they do this? The undercover marketers were strategically placed in public, crowded places (like Starbucks, subways, etc.). They would open their laptop, begin playing the game, and then strike up conversations with strangers around them. They would soon start telling the strangers how much they loved the game, that they just bought it, where they bought it and that it has worked perfectly. Eventually, many of the strangers the marketers were talking to would even ask to play and, of course, were allowed. 

This undercover marketing is not only done in person, but actually, most of it is done online. “Dateline” covered cases in which companies were exposed paying people to hype video games, movies, clothes, etc. in online chat rooms or blogs. In Chapter 7, Bernoff and Li give the ebags case study that embodies excellent by-the-book word-of-mouth marketing; however, with all the other undercover marketers out there it is hard to trust what is real. 

I know that in the future I would not want to be part of any undercover marketing, but I would like to be involved with an organization that has a excellent reputation through word-of-mouth. I would like to work in marketing (in addition to event planning as stated in previous blogs) one day, and I don’t believe undercover marking is morally correct. Therefore, I could see myself dealing with customers who would be talking about my brand, and energizing these customers to connect with others and spread positive messages.

Groundswell: the real world and Chapter 6

After reading the Chapter 6 of “Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies,” by Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li, I had a moment of awareness that this is a real phenomenon that I must understand and utilize in order to succeed in public relations. And further more I need to be able to relate this information to the real world if it is ever going to be useful.

Many of the cases listed in this chapter were interesting, and they were also great examples of the extreme power of the Internet. I found a particular quote by Digg member Grant Robertson to be amusing and simultaneously truthful. According to Robertson, “You can’t take something off the Internet. That’s like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool,” (5). This was not surprising to me, but I was surprised by the way Kevin Rose embraced this concept when his website, Digg, came under fire on May 1, 2007.

When a blogger on Digg posted the encryption for the new high-definition DVD format that allowed people to copy HD-DVDs, the movie industry ordered a cease-and-desist.  Digg consented. However, I found the statement surprising that Rose later released on his website. Speaking to Digg bloggers, Rose said, “We hear you, and effective immediately we won’t delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be,” (6). Rose embraced the concept of free flowing information and proved, as Groundswell authors Bernoff and Li write; people are the most powerful force on the Internet, not lawyers or entrepreneurs.

Another idea that this chapter introduced me to that I found interesting is the “Streisand effect.”  This is a term for intense publicity that follows people’s attempts to remove content from the Internet. I enjoyed reading the real-life examples Bernoff and Li listed in this portion of the chapter, and I also found these examples to be helpful in comprehending the meaning of “the groundswell.” I have always heard people say that once something is on the Internet, there is no getting it back. And now when I think about it, I hear about celebrities’ inappropriate photos or videos that have leaked on the Internet, not when they leak, but when the celebrities fight to have them removed. For example, I vividly remember watching an entertainment news story on Barbra Streisand’s angry struggle to have the pictures of her house removed from the Internet. I’m sure that I never would have heard about those pictures otherwise. Looking at this concept as an actual “effect” is something I have never thought of before, but I agree with.

Finally, after reflecting on all this information, I have come to two conclusions. First, if I ever find myself working for a company that is attempting to “tame” a flood of Internet information (such as AACS LA in the chapter), I know that the flood cannot be stopped, and I must flow with it proactively. Secondly, I have realized the positive possibilities of Internet networking websites (as Bob Lutz did in the chapter). Although I do not know exactly how to “master groundswell thinking” yet, I do know that it is necessary to keep up with current public relations.

Groundswell: Listening to Meghan McCain

In Chapter 5 of “Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies,” Bernoff and Li elaborate on the strategy of listening to the groundswell. As the authors have mentioned in previous chapters, listening is a crucial part of the groundswell. And Chapter 5 explains the main idea that the only way to find out what your customers think is through “current, continuous insight on demand,” (79).

“Listening,” or in other words market research, is a huge part of many companies’ budget. As Bernoff and Li explain, brands belong to customers not companies, and it is the customers who depict the brands’ image and, ultimately, success.

After reading this chapter, a recent blog I read online came to mind. On The Daily Beast, the former republican presidential candidate’s daughter wrote about her thoughts on the GOP’s lack of effective Internet use. This particular blog by Meghan McCain has generated a lot of press. The following excerpt from the blog will give you the general idea:

“We live in an era where most individuals my age get their political news from The Daily Show and SNL’s Weekend Update. I know this aggravates the old school political operatives to no end, but it’s true. The Obama administration understands that my generation spends most of its day on a laptop or a BlackBerry, and that using the web is easy way to communicate their ideas to their constituents. Making a website, Facebook group, or YouTube video entertaining and enticing is where grassroots campaigning begins. President Obama currently has around five-and-a-half million supporters on Facebook; my father has around five-hundred thousand.”

McCain obviously understands the concept of the groundswell, as Bernoff and Li explain it, and the importance of keeping up with it. She makes a number of good points in the article, but I found one that particular relates to this chapter in Groundswell. In the above passage McCain states how using the web is an easy way to communicate ideas to constituents.

If the McCain administration was effectively using the Internet they could use “listening” strategies to see what their target audience thought about their brand, which, in the case of the presidential campaign, was John McCain. The McCain administration could have used Bernoff and Li’s strategy of brand monitoring to gain insight.

By participating in the groundswell and closely monitoring what people talking about or reacting to, you can tailor your message to reach your target audience in the most effective way. In McCain’s article on The Daily Beast Rob Kubasko, a Republican online strategist and designer, states, “But we have to understand what drives success. In some ways we continue to put the cart before the horse. Technology does not drive success. Message (especially a well crafted one) drives success.”

Groundswell: Imagine…Lovely Atlanta Weddings

“Technology is shifting so quickly—chasing it is like trying to jump on a speeding merry-go-round. The resulting dizziness is what causes groundswell approach-avoidance syndrome” (67). I found this analogy that Bernoff and Li use in Chapter 4 to be very on point. Although I am not a CEO of a company or even employed yet, I can see how business people fall victim to “groundswell-avoidance syndrome.”

Bernoff and Li explain that when people know they or their company need to get involved with the groundswell, but become nervous or overwhelmed as to how, they develop “groundswell approach-avoidance syndrome.” I can see how this would be a very easy syndrome to adopt, but after reading this chapter and thinking of hypothetical situations, I feel I could successfully develop strategies for tapping the groundswell.

The “POST method” for people, objectives, strategy and technology, is the technique Bernoff and Li consider the groundswell planning process. Once you have used this method to analyze your particular situation, you must pick one of five primary objectives that best illustrates the goals of your company or organization. Finally, Bernoff and Li list four helpful suggestions to successfully execute your strategy.

I was reading through this chapter and taking in the instructions, and I began to think of a hypothetical situation. Then I would ask myself what I would do in that situation. As I have stated in other blogs, I would love to work in wedding planning one day.  I began to picture myself working for a wedding planning company in Atlanta, Ga. Let’s just call it Lovely Atlanta Weddings. Lovely Atlanta Weddings is a young company only a few years old. It has a good corporate structure, uses marketing methods well (banner ads, search ads, email) and everything is working well internally. It is making decent profits, but is looking for new ways to attract clients. Their main competition has a MySpace page where previous, current, and prospective customers exchange information. This page is doing very well, and Lovely Atlanta Wedding has taken note.

Making up this hypothetical situation, I was able to think about what I would do for Lovely Atlanta Weddings. Using the “POST method” we can look at what we already know about our current situation. We share the same young target audience as our competition, and we know our competition’s MySpace page is doing very well in terms of information exchange. We know our customers are willing to join social network sites, post personal information, ask questions and comment on other’s posts (we know this from following our competitor’s MySpace page). Our main goal is to attract new clients by spreading messages about our company. Thinking about this, we can conclude that Lovely Atlanta Weddings’ main objective, as listed by Bernoff and Li, is “Talking.”

“Talking” means that we want to “use the groundswell to spread messages about [our] company.” It also means that Lovely Atlanta Weddings currently uses marketing well but is “ready to extend these marketing initiatives to a more interactive channel” (68). Lovely Atlanta Weddings should start their own blog on their website, a question and answer board, and/or even their own social network site. Because we know our target audience is willing to be active in social network sites, we know that there could realistically be participation. This site would allow clients to talk about their experience with us, post pictures from their own wedding, and most importantly it would spread information to potential customers.

Groundswell: My Facebook Story

In Chapter 3, “The Social Technographics Profile,” Bernoff and Li explain how people participate in the groundswell, and at the end of the chapter, he attempts to answer why people participate. I couldn’t help not comparing my personal experiences with the statistics Bernoff and Li provide.

For example, I remember exactly when and why I created my Facebook profile.

It was my freshman year at Auburn University, and I personally had never heard of Facebook. Actually, I take that back. Although I don’t remember exactly, I had probably heard of it, but chose to ignore the hype. I had never liked computers. I probably checked my email three times a year. And I didn’t ever “IM” my friends. In high school, I was too preoccupied with being a tomboy and playing whatever sport was in season. As Bernoff and Li state, I was an “inactive” as far as groundswell participation goes.

All of this changed when I came to college. I was out of my element. I was at a time in my life when I was ready for change and new things.  I noticed a few of my new girlfriends were always talking about their Facebook profiles, and eventually I wanted my own. I became a “joiner.”

I thought this was interesting when I was reading the chapter. It is logical to think that someone would first be a “spectator” and then become a “joiner.” That someone would check things out before they jump in. However, the only way I had been a “spectator” before I became a “joiner”, was by leaning over a friend’s shoulder while she was on her Facebook profile.

After I joined Facebook and began building my profile, I came across many different things online that caught my attention. I began reading people’s blogs and watching people’s videos. I became a “spectator”. From these beginnings, I began to participate more and more in the groundswell.

While reading through the chapter and reflecting on my personal story, I began to understand the importance of understanding the “Social Technographics Profile.” Bernoff states that with the power from this profile “we can understand how social technologies are being adopted by any group of people” (45). I see how these statistics, such as Bernoff and Li’s in the chapter, are important in marketing. It is vital for companies to understand how their target audience participates in the groundswell.

Therefore, I understand the importance of profiling your own customers and profiling them often. Participation in the groundswell is constantly growing and changing. This is seen my story.

Throughout my college years I have become a “joiner”, “spectator”, “collector,” “critic,” and finally a “creator.” I did join other social network sites, but not until very recently for a class. I also did not become a “creator” until recently for this same class. However, this means that Facebook enabled me to dive into the groundswell. It took me from someone who was inactive to someone who regularly comment’s on others’ blogs.

Groundswell: My Real World Experiences

The first sentence of the second chapter, “Jujitsu and the Technologies of the Groundswell,” addresses an important legitimate concern that I felt after reading the first chapter. This is that many initially see the groundswell as a problem. I was glad that Bernoff and Li addressed this, and by the end of the chapter I felt that they did an excellent job of explaining that it is not. The groundswell is a phenomenon that I can work with or even thrive in. In Chapter 2, Bernoff and Li also explain the online forces of the groundswell, and how I can use these forces to my advantage.

As I was reading and learning about the technologies and relationships within the groundswell, I began to recognize real world examples of what Bernoff and Li were talking about. For example, I would love to work in wedding planning one day, and coincidentally, I am at the age in my life when many of my friends are getting married. A friend of mine, Brittni, who got married last year, had a website that covered everything from the engagement to the big day. On the site, she and her fiancé ( her husband now) had their own blogs, pictures, videos and links. Another interesting thing that relates to this chapter is that I discovered Brittni’s wedding website from a link she had posted on her Facebook page profile.

From this one example, I can see many of the groundswell technologies at work. The blogs allowed this woman and her fiancé to instantly and continuously communicate details of their wedding to friends and family. What’s more is that their blogs allowed them to receive instant feedback. You can also look at wedding websites, like this one, from a marketing standpoint. Brittni posted links on her website that allowed people to access her gift registry at multiple stores. This is outstanding for retailers, such as Target, because people no longer have to physically locate or visit the stores to get a couples registry list. The easier it is for people to access this information, the more likely people are to participate or, in this case, buy a blender. Brittni also posted a link to her wedding photo album on her website. The link took you to a wedding photography company’s website, and from there, you could access her pictures. This provided the photography company with valuable exposure.

This real world example also relates to another technology Bernoff and Li talk about in chapter two. The social network site (SNS), Facebook, is very popular among my friends, and as I mentioned earlier, this is how I discovered my friend’s wedding website. Because Facebook is has such a large membership, I have found that the best way, for me, to reach the most people at once is through this SNS. Another thing to consider is that Brittni has over 800 “friends” on Facebook who can see her profile. I know the majority of these people were not invited to her wedding, but I would bet that lots of her “friends” visited her wedding website from the Facebook link. This interlinking instantly allows a huge amount of increased exposure for the organizations and companies featured on Brittni’s website.

To conclude this blog, I have to say that after reading this chapter and recognizing real world examples, I understand the influence of the groundswell and how to use it. I will definitely keep in mind the powerful possibilities of blogs and SNSs, and hope to use them to my advantage in the future.

Groundswell: The Power of Networking People

After reading the first chapter of “Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies,” by Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li, I had a moment of awareness that this is a real phenomenon that I must understand and utilize in order to succeed in public relations.

Many of the cases listed in this chapter were interesting, and they were also great examples of the extreme power of the Internet. I found a particular quote by Digg member Grant Robertson to be amusing and simultaneously truthful. According to Robertson, “You can’t take something off the Internet. That’s like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool,” (5). This was not surprising to me, but I was surprised by the way Kevin Rose embraced this concept when his website, Digg, came under fire on May 1, 2007.

When a blogger on Digg posted the encryption for the new high-definition DVD format that allowed people to copy HD-DVDs, the movie industry ordered a cease-and-desist.  Digg consented. However, I found the statement surprising that Rose later released on his website. Speaking to Digg bloggers, Rose said, “We hear you, and effective immediately we won’t delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be,” (6). Rose embraced the concept of free flowing information and proved, as Groundswell authors Bernoff and Li write; people are the most powerful force on the Internet, not lawyers or entrepreneurs.

Another idea that this chapter introduced me to that I found interesting is the “Streisand effect.”  This is a term for intense publicity that follows people’s attempts to remove content from the Internet. I enjoyed reading the real-life examples Bernoff and Li listed in this portion of the chapter, and I also found these examples to be helpful in comprehending the meaning of “the groundswell.” I have always heard people say that once something is on the Internet, there is no getting it back. And now when I think about it, I hear about celebrities’ inappropriate photos or videos that have leaked on the Internet, not when they leak, but when the celebrities fight to have them removed. For example, I vividly remember watching an entertainment news story on Barbra Streisand’s angry struggle to have the pictures of her house removed from the Internet. I’m sure that I never would have heard about those pictures otherwise. Looking at this concept as an actual “effect” is something I have never thought of before, but I agree with.

Finally, after reflecting on all this information, I have come to two conclusions. First, if I ever find myself working for a company that is attempting to “tame” a flood of Internet information (such as AACS LA in the chapter), I know that the flood cannot be stopped, and I must flow with it proactively. Secondly, I have realized the positive possibilities of Internet networking websites (as Bob Lutz did in the chapter). Although I do not know exactly how to “master groundswell thinking” yet, I do know that it is necessary to keep up with current public relations.

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