Energize and Embrace the Groundswell!

I mentioned in my last review, that Groundswell can be termed as a "Social Media Bible" for many Social Media professionals. The next few chapters of Part 2 went deeper into how to energize and embrace the Groundswell and how to create an organizational environment where our employess can accept the change as well. Organizational behavior and cultual shift is an area of great interest for me, and a favouraite topic to discuss in my own presentations.

Let me start with one of the chapters in the second half of the book that dealt with energizing the Groundswell. Chapter 7 was an excellent chapter as the autors went into detail about the steps to harnessing the energy and momentum generated by a Groundswell. I particularly like the way they offer techniques for "energizing your enthusiasts" and a breakdown of complex information into helpful case studies including the following: Dell, ebags, Constant Contact and Lego. Another favouraite part of Groundswell, several of the case histories throughout the book included an "ROI Ratings and Reviews" section. I love a book that can break out a cost analysis and a profit analysis at the end of each example:


Dell


Constant Contact.

I might be a little biased toward this subject, but I thought an internal organization look at the Groundswell was covered nicely, "How Connecting with the Groundswell Transforms Your Company," and "The Groundswell inside your company," which gets the employees involved and participating in Groundswell thinking. I believe that anything you want to achieve externally, must be accepted and valued within the organization first. The employees are the greatest brand champions and should be used to organization's advantage. However, culture can be one of the toughest challenges. Even if you listen, plan and social outreach programs in place, a lack of buy-in or participation on behalf of organization's employees will prove counter-productive towards overall social success.
Groundswell outlines the best approach to getting the entire organization on board. A few of the helpful hints included:

• "First, start small" and pick your battles strategically
• "Second, educate your executives" by showing them the research
• "Third, get the right people to run your strategy" who usually are the people who are most passionate about relationships with customers
• "Fourth, get your agency and technology partners in synch" and make sure they understand the Groundswell
• "Fifth, plan for the next step and the long term" so you know exactly where the Groundswell thinking will take your company

I know that Groundswell was first published in 2008, and there's a reason why the book is a bestseller. If you pass this book because you think you should be reading newer titles(and yes, you can still read them too), you are missing an opportunity to hear excellent advice from two very savvy technology focused, social media professionals, who back-up everything they say with concrete examples. I think this book is well worth the read and is now on my recommended or "must read" list!

Energize!


Embrace!

Social Media - Egypt's New Freedom!!

Have any of your Facebook friends posted this? "I stand by the people of Egypt. For years Mubarak has been a ruthless leader who has violated human rights time and time again. Now it is time that United States Government stands by the people of Egypt. We say we promote democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan now we should support all of the people that are fighting for their freedom and democracy in the middle east."
The people of Egypt started an uprising and statements similar to the one above were posted on virtual walls, as tweets and re-tweets across U.S.A. and the world since the uprising began, likely by thousands of people with no ties to Egypt at all. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dq_JJI_8eg8
Banding together to fight for a common cause is not new to human race, but the omnipresence of Social Media has created a way for causes to reach more people, much faster, and deliver more information than ever before.
I am sure all of us are aware of how social networking rallied, "petitioned" and secured Betty White as host of Saturday Night Live, in a similar way, the American culture of Social Networking was used to to the best sway public opinion and actually involve the United States government in aiding the Egyptian uprising!
Heath Haussamen, the editor of NMPolitics.net, recently pointed his 2,041 Facebook friends to this link with this persuasive rhetoric: "-Crazy things happening in Egypt".
I am not implying that Mr. Haussamen alone swayed public opinion in American politics and single-handedly changed the paradigm of United States/Egypt relations, but his message was potentially seen by thousands of readers. And let's not forget he linked the message from Facebook, which has over 500 million members worldwide, and over 115 million in the U.S. alone. This meanstthis called for support, urging the U.S. government(many of whom are Facebook friends too!) to take action!
One might have reasoned then that just because all these people read the post or watches a video on You Tube, it won't make them band together for change. But, now the protest is out and he has resigned!! However, let's consider recent history:
When a massive earthquake hit a province in China, thousands of residents Tweeted, posted and texted their accounts of the horror to the world even before the Chinese government was informed. Within hours, donation sites were set up across the globe by the public, circumventing any involvement from the Chinese Government.
Facebook surveys have allowed people living in the war-torn Kashmir province to let the world know what country they believe their land is part of, despite the purely symbolic nature of the survey. Iranians took to Tweet after the recent election scandal, prompting international attention to the country.
Social networking has also been given much of credit for overwhelming voter turnout and campaign success during the 2008 elections (especially from younger voters, a demographic not prone to excercising their civic duties).
Writer Lee Brenner wrote in an article for White House Correspondents Insider,"The Obama campaign was extremely successful in their online organizing strategy and they will tell you they owe their win to the grassroots network, on-line video, MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, SMS, and a strong e-mail campaign."
With millions who were and are watching events unflod on TV and Internet, and having had access to unprecedented amounts of visceral, emotional accounts of the escalating conflict found only on sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, I am certain that the culture of social networking swayed public opinion, exerting such influence that United States government responded as agents of their people!

GROUNDSWELL : A true Social Media Bible!

Hats off to Li and Bernoff and bless their souls for having given us Groundswell for we aspiring Social Media Professionals. I have just read the first six chapters and have fallen in love with this book. These chapters make me feel more learned and confident about Social Media, so imagine my state of mind after reading the entire book!! There is so much information in the book Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff. Now I know why this book is a BusinessWeek bestseller. Groundswell is a great experience and here I am to share my thoughts will you! :) As I read through the chapters I found myself saying, "I can't believe I haven't read this book." Here's my first bit of advice to you. If you haven't already, go and pick up this book or if it is available on Kindle, then you should download a copy. It's critical that how the brands understand how to traverse the social landscape, and that stars with our own understanding on how to advice them. Before I go on, for those who don't know the concept of Groundswell, it is (as defined by the authors): "A social trend in which people use technologies to get things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations." Groundswell is a book that provides a roadmap and it does this in a number of ways. Li and Bernoff have succesfully managed to instruct through helpful higher-level concepts, great case study examples and useful graphics and diagrams that support their work. Let's take a look at the initial part of the book, which I would say captures chapters 1 through 5 or 6. I really have the feeling that the authors were very careful to introduce ideas and concepts and also help the reader to learn each one before moving to the next chapter. Although there are many, the most powerful concepts and the critical points that I want to stress on is the following:

The Social Technographics Profile: I find this tool tremendously important and think that it helps to identify the behavior of the target audience. The authors introduce Forrester's Profile tool, which enables us to enter the demographics of our audience (age, country, gender), so that we are able to guage their social participation (See screenshot below: source: Forrester)
The tool compares the audience particiaption as Creators, Conversationalists, Critics, Collectors, Joiners, Spectatord and Inactives, as compared to the average US consumer. The results of using a simple tool will guide us with the Social Media Strategy. It is critical that our target's participation matches the efforts that we want to put in place. For example rushing to build ratings and social networks when our target audience is mostly adult spectators will not produce best results. Below is Forresters Technographics ladder (source:Forrester) with an explanation of the breakdown of activities on each rung of ladder.

Strategies for tapping the Groundswell is one of my favouraite chapters in the book. The authors introduce an acronym for their four-step planning process - POST. According to the authors POST stands for: People - What is your target public ready for? Here's where they tie in the Social Technographics profile. By taking a good look at the people first we can assess the level of engagement based on the type of particiapation in social networks that is familiar to them. Objectives - Here's the one that I find missing quite often. The authors ask outright, "What are your goals?" They want to know if we are more interested in talking to groups of people, energizing or supporting them, and that means both external as well as internal employee groups. Strategies - How do we want our relationships with our customers to change, and what exactly do we want them to do? Carry messages? Become more engaged? If we don't map out our objectives, we cannot measure the change in activity once the strategy begins. The authors offer 5 helpful types of objectives: listening, talking, energizing, supporting and embracing. Technology: After we determine the people, objectives and strategy, it's lot easier to identify technology whether it is a blog, wiki, social network etc.

Listening to the Groundswell is never can never be stressed enough and that we must have a listening plan in our strategy. I am a huge proponent of listening. The authors break listening into 2 listening strategies. The first is to set-up our own private listening community, which is more expensive, but definaitely worth the investment. The second listening strategy is a more frequently used strategy and that is to begin brand monitoring through "blogs, discussion forums, youtube and everything else..." The authors use case studies to illustrate the listening strategies and include stories from National Comprehensive Cancer Network to USA Mini. I also think it is excellent the authors address how listening will change one's organization. This means that the Marketing, PR and Communications department take on a critical role with the listening function in Social Media Comunications. Of course, all the information obtained from any listening exercise must go beyond Marketing and PR to other departments in the organization. Social Media is shared responsibility!