Imagine a sea of information.
Imagine your Facebook pages, your Twitter updates, your blogs, your comments and reviews being small drops of water in that sea. What would you think if you are told that you have a good chance of making a very big wave, a groundswell in the sea?
That’s what Li and Bernoff try to tell today’s corporations, governments, and all other kinds of organizations in their book Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies. A negative ZAGAT review could influence or change someone’s decision making on where to dine; a Tweet calling on supporting disaster relief in Haiti could be retweeted many times to spread the word and motivate action among thousands of people; a big thumb-up to M.A.C. Brush 187 in some Japanese girl’s makeup vlog (boys, feel free to replace it with, say, Ford Mustang in car blogs) may make you curious enough to get to a local Sephora in Raleigh and try it out. Today’s consumers are no longer their own islands. Between them and the information in traditional forms of pitches from salespersons, commercials, advertorials, news releases and so on, there are fellow consumers that inform, educate, share experience with, and bring changes to one another, making big waves together. Social media is definitely changing the social/economic/political dynamics locally and globally. Thus, traditional institutions like corporations must learn how to become wave makers, or at least decent surfers.
As a marketing communication analyst in a PR agency, my constant interest lies in helping businesses understand, communicate, and manage relationships with consumers. Since most target audience today is in the groundswell made possible by social media, it is thus natural to feature in my blog three key players- consumers, social media, and public relations. I’d keep exploring how businesses can effectively establish and maintain relationship with consumers using social media. I’d look for insights into how leaders of organizations can jump out of comfort zones, and genuinely embrace the groundswell.
Welcome aboard, and let's start the exploration!
Posts
I love the reference to the wave- provides a good reference to size. Also, In college I had a poster of "The Great Wave of Kanagawa" over my bed- luv that picture!
ReplyDeleteThanks! I'm glad you like it! My first mental image of groundswell was this painting :)
ReplyDeleteI like the wave metaphor. This makes me think about sound wave. Every individual blogger, tweeter, video/audio uploader has his/her own small or loud, but limited voice; it is the resonance of many others who share common interest and passion that make a harmonious sonata.
ReplyDeleteI really like the wave metaphor too - especially when you think of the initial crash of a wave and then the after-effect that can have on surroundings.
ReplyDeleteJean, I too like the wave metaphor just like others. Also your perspective as a marketing communication intern is important.
ReplyDeleteChao: True. The resonance is what we marketing communication practitioners should/can monitor. But my question is- won't we be too late if we only have the time/energy to catch the "resonance"? Say, if we catch a negative resonance, what we are left to do is only damage control I guess. What do you think?
ReplyDeleteRachel: I really like your thoughts about the after-effect of a wave. That addresses the importance of constant research in public relations. With research, we may even find out some butterfly effect of a wave!
ReplyDeleteParomita: Thanks! I just wanted to see how much I can learn if I view social media from the perspective of marketing communication. I think they two must have huge chemistry with each other :)
ReplyDeleteI too love the wave metaphor - very apt! Absolutely, if we want to stay afloat, we have to embrace social media. Looking forward to hearing more of your thoughts from the marketing communication perspective. : )
ReplyDeleteNeha: Thanks! I look forward to sharing with you, too!
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