The Culture of the Groundswell: Saying Adieu to Li and Bernoff

I think we all know how I am going to feel about Li and Bernoff's last four chapters in Groundswell, but how did YOU feel?

I loved the way that Li and Bernoff outlined everything that they had discussed throughout the Book, like the chapters on Listening, Talking To, Empowering, and Energizing. But they continued...they continued to explain what to do as a company or non-profit that's starting with nothing or starting with a little. They talk about what do you when you have reached a minimal level of success with your social media platform, and also what to do in order to keep that success maintained.

Case Studies

Some of the things that I found particularly great, though, was Li and Bernoff's explanation of the Dove campaign for Real Beauty. I have been waiting for them to talk about this, and couldn't wait for them to finally get to it. It is such a great example of how using the Internet successfully can lead to incredible growth, and brand awareness! Li and Bernoff discuss the affect of this video campaign, "...he built in measurable results by offering free trials on the site. With 3 million visits to dovenight.com, the company was able to show it would put digital media at the center of an ad campaign. This was a turning point in Unilever's recognition of the power of online" (pg. 219).

The great thing about this video is that it will always be current. Just the other day I showed it to a group of middle school girls in order to initiate a conversation about women's representations in the media. It will always be relevant, and something to talk about. This video created a lot of external groundswell, and people are still talking!

In the same conversation, Li and Bernoff talk about Home Depot (pg. 252), and how they went from having awful online reviews to embracing and communicating with the groundswell. Because of a new CEO who had the foresight to embrace the groundswell, Home Depot saw a significant change in positive online activity! With an active Twitter Page and people tracking online Blogs, Home Depot has now learned how to use what people are talking about to their advantage. Their active Twitter feed outlines how they actually respond to the questions people are asking. They ask questions of their audience that get them excited:

• @HomeDepot: If you had an outdoor #hottub, which would be more important: Waterproof speakers or more jets?

The last case study that was great to read about the Best Buy's 'Blue Shirt Nation' (pg. 235). A really important aspect of these last four chapters is the internal groundswell. It's notable that while external groundswell is incredibally important for brand awareness and learning about product design, customers wants and needs, etc., internal groundswell is just as important because it tracks what the employees are saying, and creates an employee culture separate from within the stores.

A screen shot of Blue Shirt Nation: Webisodes Begin.

Best Buy's employee, Ashley (pg. 233), and other employees can talk about their experiences at work: what customers are asking, what customers are confused with, what employees are confused with, what employees have suggestions about, etc.

Blue Shirt Nation for Best Buy employees creates a culture, which is the other topic for this exciting blog about Li and Bernoff's Groundswell...

 

 

Culture and Social Technologies

A social media band wagon...

In order to attain social maturity, a culture must be built around the social technologies of a product, service, or non-profit. People discuss culture and communication simultaneously, in the sense that cultural clashes can define particular acts of communication, however a cultural conversation with regards to social media is different and just as important.

By creating social media platforms with a message that transcend through all different forms of social media, a company/non-profit can create and thrive in an online culture!

"But creating a culture that embraces individuals' opinions can be a long journey" (pg. 256). The authors explain how cultural issues are often the first set of common challenges that companies face. Let a culture develop and embrace the culture, and while this will not be an easy process, giving up will only lead to failure in a Web 2.0 world!

They continue with the last 3:

• The problem of perspective: it's best to start small and grow with reasonable expectations.
• The organization issue: Centralized Model-> quick progress vs. Distributed Model-> requires more patience and moves more slowly but shows permanent gains.
• The common risks of social application: Organizations can no longer hide behind the truth in their services and products, they must face the facts, and listen/respond to what people are saying.

Centralized vs. Distributed...

The culture developed by Best Buy's Blue Shirt Nation is immeasurable, however it is fair to say that 12 great ideas have come from the employee conversations. It is about the culture that is created and the culture that can be fostered. Culture is something that Li and Bernoff discuss throughout the book, however they write with particular emphasis towards that last 4 chapters.

In it's Full Glory!

Organizations must learn how to transform with the times and listen to the groundswell. It is about creating a platform for employees, CEO's, and consumers to communicate with each other in an effort to ultimately get results. While social media is not necessarily just used for profit, it is extremely helpful for for-profits to learn how to use social media.

In Summary...

It is hard to sum up everything that Li and Bernoff have to say without going through this each piece one by one. Ultimately, I draw from this book 4 themes:

• Listen to the audience, Talk to the Audience, Empower the Audience, and Energize the Audience
• Each organization's social media strategy is going to be different and that's okay: it is about knowing who your audience is, what they want to hear, and THEN what technologies reach them
• Create a dialogue; a conversation: ultimately by creating a culture one re-harnesses current members, and then will inevitably reach new members once the already invested are talking
• Never give up, start slow and smart, and always track yourself through measurables, one can only grow when they see where they have been successful and unsuccessful, and then grow from the mistakes in order to sustain social media success!

Thanks Ms. Charlene Li and Mr. Josh Bernoff for writing such an excellent book, and something that has truly changed my feelings about social media marketing whether for non-profits or for-profits!