Main points of the Groundswell Book

The groundswell is a social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations. (P9)

The groundswell trend is not a flash in the pan. This is an important, irreversible, completely different way for people to relate to companies and to each other. (P10)

The groundswell comes from the collision of three forces: people, IT technologies and online economics. These three trends – people’s desire to connect, new interactive technologies, and online economics- have created a new era. This is the fast-growing phenomenon which is called the groundswell. (P10)

Groundswell Thinking

• Marketing through social networks
• Enabling your customers to support each other
• Gaining advantage from the groundswell

Offline, people don’t change behaviors quickly, so companies can develop loyal customers. Online, people can switch behaviors as soon as they see something better. It’s the force of these millions of people, combined with the rapid evolution of new technologies by trial and error that makes the groundswell so protean in form and so tough for traditional businesses to deal with.

The Long Tail has pointed out shelf space creates far less power when there’s nearly infinite selection online. (P13)

The principle for mastering the groundswell is concentrated on the relationships, not the technologies. In the groundswell, relationships are everything. The way people connect with each other – the community that is created – determines how the power shifts.

The big principle versus the component technologies: First, the technologies change rapidly. Second, the technologies are not the point.  (P18)

• You must understand “how bodies move”, not just learn a single block or throw.
• You must develop a feel for the groundswell.
• Mastering the groundswell: concentrate on the relationships, not the technologies.
• In the groundswell, relationships are everything.

Groundswell technologies and how to use them (P18)

1. How they work
2. How many people use them
3. How they form part of the groundswell
4. How they threaten institutional power
5. What you can do about them

The blogosphere means that for any given topic, there’s a sort of running commentary. The cross-linked blog posts cause these posts to rise in the Google rankings because of the importance Google places on links in its search algorithms. The blogosphere is made up of all blogs and their interconnections. The term implies that blogs exist together as a connected community (or as a collection of connected communities) or as a social.

Wikis are sites that support multiple contributors with a shared responsibility for creating and maintaining content, typically focused around text and pictures.

RSS and widgets can be excellent marketing tools, especially when it comes to pushing out regularly updated content to your customers

Twitter: Send short messages anytime they want. Twitter is intriguing for several reasons.

The groundswell technology test (Evaluating new technologies)

• Does it enable people to connect with each other in new ways? The groundswell is about making connections.
• Is it effortless to sign up for? The ones that succeed are also easy to connect up to technologies people already have.
• Does it shift power from institutions to people?
• Does the community generate enough content to sustain itself? You need to create value for your followers to sustain yours.
• Is it an open platform that invites partnerships? This determines whether a product will wither or flourish.

People collaborating: These (Wiki, Wikipedia and open source (Linux, Apache and Firefox) are very powerful.

The groundswell has two key ingredients: technology and people

The Social Technographics Profile: To truly understand the groundswell, you need to dissect and quantify the dynamics that separate different participants. Your strategy must also account for how groups differ. That is goal of the Social Technographics Profile.

• A, B and C are all active members of the ABC community, but their roles are different.
• A is creating, B is reacting, and C is reading. In fact, it’s the interactions among them.

The Social Technographics Ladder (P41)

• Creators, at the top of the ladder, are online consumers who at least once a month publish a blog or article online, maintain a web page, or upload video or audio to sites. (Publish a blog, own web pages, upload video, audio and music you created and write article)
• Critics react to other content online, posting comments on blogs or online forums, posting ratings or reviews, or editing wikis. (Update status on a social networking site, ratings, review and contribute)
• Collectors: use RSS feeds add tag, vote for web sites online and add “tags” to we pages or photos
• Joiners: maintain profile on a social networking site, visit social networking sites (SNS)
• Spectators: read blogs, listen to podcasts, watch video from other users, read online forums, customer ratings, reviews and tweets.
• Inactives: none of these activities

* The real power in the social technographics profile is this: with it we can understand how social technologies are being adopted by any group of people. If that group happens to be your customers, you can use their social technographics profile to build an appropriate social strategy.

Social technographics profile

Many companies approach social computing as a list of technologies to be deployed as needed – a blog here, a podcast there – to achieve a marketing goal. But a more coherent approach is to start with your target audience and determine what kind of relationship you want to build with them, based on what they are ready for. Forrester categorizes social computing behaviors into a ladder with six levels of participation; we use the term “Social Technographics” to describe analyzing a population according to its participation in these levels. Brands, Web sites, and any other company pursuing social technologies should analyze their customers’ Social Technographics first, and then create a social strategy based on that profile.

At the heart of Social Technographics is consumer data that looks at how consumers approach social technologies – not just the adoption of individual technologies. We group consumers into six different categories of participation – and participation at one level may or may not overlap with participation at other levels. We use the metaphor of a ladder to show this, with the rungs at the higher end of the ladder indicating a higher level of participation.

Alpha Moms are comfortable with technology, interested in parenting, and have above-average incomes. An article in USA today describes them this way: Alpha moms are educated, tech-savvy, mommy excellence. She is a multitasker, a kid-centric and hands-on. She may or may not work outside the home, but at home, she views motherhood as a job that can be mastered with diligent research.

Alpha Mom is a working mom who is trying to balance her job, children and her stay-at-home husband. Alpha Moms, a group that includes mothers with above-average incomes and a favorable attitudes towards technology. Their profile is shown below. (P47)

The notable thing about the profile of Alpha Moms, as we describe in Chapter 3 of Groundswell, is that they’re more likely to be Critics than Creators – a fact that turned out to be important for the media company that was planning a community for them.

* Proper services are forums, ratings, and reviews reactive forms of groundswell content.

The global power of social technographics profiles (P49)

The fundamental emotions that drive people to the groundswell – the desire to connect, to create, to stay in touch, and to help each other – are universal. As a result, we can use the same Social Technographics Profile groups, applying them by demographic variables, or behaviors, anywhere in the world.

Why do people participate in the groundswell? (P60)

Keeping up friendships, Making new friends, Succumbing to social pressure from existing friends, Paying it forward, The altruistic impulse, The prurient impulse, The creative impulse, The validation impulse, The affinity impulse.

The POST method: people, objectives, strategy, and technology (P67)

• People: What are your customers ready for?
• Objectives: What are your goals?
• Strategy: How do you want relationships with your customers to change?
• Technology: What applications should you build?

Five objectives that companies can pursue in the groundswell (P69)

1. Listening (Research): Use the groundswell for research and to better understand your customers. This goal is best suited for companies that are seeking customer insights for use in marketing and development. Ongoing monitoring of your customers’ conversations
2. Talking (Marketing): Use the groundswell to spread messages about your company. Choose this goal if you’re ready to extend your current digital marketing initiatives (banner ads, search ads and email) to more interactive channel. Participating in and stimulating two-way conversations
3. Energizing (Sales): Find your most enthusiastic customers, and use the groundswell to supercharge the power of their word of mouth. This works best for companies that know that they have brand enthusiasts to energize. Making it possible for your enthusiastic customers to help sell each other
4. Supporting (Support): Set up groundswell tools to help your customers support each other. This is effective for companies with significant support costs and customers who have a natural affinity for each other. Enabling your customers to support each other
5. Embracing (Development): Integrate your customers into the way your business works, including using their help to design your products. This is the most challenging of the five goals, and it is best suited to companies that have succeeded with one of the other four goals already. Helping your customers work with each other to come up with ideas to improve your products and services

Thinking through a strategy (P71)

• Create a plan that starts small but has room to grow.
• Think through the consequences of your strategy.
• Put somebody important in charge of it.
• Use great care in selecting your technology and agency partners.

Two listening strategies (P81)

There are lots of ways to listen to the groundswell. To gain real insight, you are better off working with vendors that provide professional tools. There are two basic ways to do this:

1. Set up your own private community
2. Begin brand monitoring.

Listening to the Groundswell explains how to the groundswell for research purpose with tools like private communities and brand monitoring. (P93)

What it means to you, here are six reasons why:

1. Find out what your brand stands for.
2. Understand how buzz is shifting.
3. Save research money; increase research responsiveness.
4. Find the sources of influence in your market.
5. Manage PR crises.
6. Generate new product and marketing ideas.

Succeed with listening to the groundswell: (P95)

1. Check the social technographics profile of your customers.
2. Start small, think big.
3. Make sure your listening vendor has dedicated an experienced team to your effort.
4. Choose a senior person to interpret this information and integrate it.

How listening will change your organization (P96)

1. Change the power structure of you organization
2. The instant availability of information from customers
3. The no-more-being-stupid factor

Talking with the Groundswell shows how to use the groundswell for marketing and PR, with techniques like user-generated video, blogs, and communities.

The marketing funnel (P101)

In traditional marketing theory, consumers are driven into the big end through awareness activities like advertise like advertising. They proceed through stages – including consideration, preference, and action – to become buyers. Marketers have little control over what happens in the middle stages, but the influence of the groundswell is heaviest there. “Eyeballs → Awareness → Consideration → Preference → Action → Loyalty → Buyers”

Techniques for talking with the groundswell (P102)

1. Post a viral video
2. Engage in social networks and user-generated content sites (UGC)
3. Join the blogsphere
4. Create a community

When brands should use social networks (P107)

1. Use the Social Technographics Profile to verify that your customers are in social networks.
2. Move forward if people love your brand.
3. See what’s out there already.
4. Create a presence that encourages interaction.

Tips for successful blogging (P115)

Start by listening. Determine a goal for the blog. Estimate the ROI. Develop a plan. Rehearse. Develop an editorial process. Design the blog and its connection to your site. Develop a marketing plan so people can find the blog. Remember, blogging is more than writing. Be honest.

Energizing the Groundswell illustrates a key strategy charging up your customers and enabling them to recruit their peers.

Word of mouth succeeds because: (P130)

1. It is believable.
2. It is self-reinforcing.
3. It is self-spreading.

• Note that friends’ opinions rank higher than reviews in a newspaper, in a magazine, or on TV.
• Note also that 60% trust reviews on a retailer’s site – reviews from people whom they have never met.

Techniques for energizing enthusiasts (P134)

1. There are three basic techniques for connecting with your brand’s enthusiasts:
2. Tap into customers’ enthusiasm with ratings and reviews.
3. Create a community to energize your customers.
4. Participate in and energize online communities of your brand enthusiasts.

Advice for energizers (P147)

Here are five steps for applying the techniques of energizing to your own organization.

1. Figure out if you want to energize the groundswell.
2. Check the social technographics profile of your customers.
3. Ask yourself, “What is my customer’s problem”.
4. Pick a strategy that fits your customers’ social technographics profile and problems.
5. Don’t start unless you can stick around for the long haul.

Helping the Groundswell support itself is about saving money and gaining insight by helping your customers support each other. Clearly, the groundswell is a fantastic support system. Enable people to connect with each other, and they will, making life easier for both themselves and you.

Practical advice for getting started with community (P174)

1. Start small, but plan for a larger presence.
2. Reach out to your most active customers.
3. Plan to drive traffic to your community.
4. Build in a reputation system.
5. Let your customers lead you.

Embracing the groundswell is about finding practical ways to tap into customers to help you innovate now – to increase the chance of developing some – thing your customers want. And it’s not just about better products and processes. It’s about innovating faster. (P183)

Crowdsourcing is all the rage right now. It’s especially popular with advertising agencies, which are increasingly asking people to create television ads as part of some sort of contest. (P190)

starts with decentralization, by sourcing tasks traditionally performed by specific individuals to a group of people or community (crowd) through an open call. In this way it is different from sites such as Stack Overflow, Twitter or Facebook, which do not have open call for contributions.

How the groundswell spreads with a customer-centric organization (P198)

There are three essential elements to this transformation. First, it’s important to take this step by step. Second, each of these stepping-stones leads in a natural progression to the next step. Third, you must have executive support.