Blogs, wikis, online networking and other social technologies are giving businesses new ways to engage with customers – but many firms fear losing control of the relationship. Marketing gurus Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff reveal how your firm can successfully tap into the ‘groundswell’.

Using technologies like blogs and wikis, YouTube and Facebook, discussion forums and online reviews, customers are taking charge of their own experience and getting what they need—information, support, ideas, products, and bargaining power — from each other.

This phenomenon, coined 'the groundswell' by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, two of Forrester Research’s American top analysts, is being proven to create a permanent shift in the way the world works.

The groundswell phenomenon is not a flash in the pan. The technologies that make it work are evolving at an ever increasing pace, but the phenomenon itself is based on people acting on their desire to connect.

Groundswell helps companies in every industry tackle this unstoppable trend. Most companies see it as a threat—but they should see it as an opportunity. So where should company strategists start?

Authors' Q&A: Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies

Why did you create this book?

The interest around this topic was massive; with our clients’ connections and our consumer surveys, we were in a unique position to talk about it. Frankly, this book was fun to write. The incredible ways that people connect online, combined with the frustration of corporate people dealing with them, makes a dramatic story. We’re not just giving advice. We bet people will love reading about this as much as we loved writing it.

What are the catalyst forces of the groundswell and why is it happening now?

People’s desire to bond with each other, new Web technologies, and online economics have generated a rapidly accelerating change. People are connecting with and drawing power from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations. Now, nearly half of all online Americans connect with social applications at least monthly, and the numbers are even higher in Asia.

How should corporations think about groundswell strategy?

Right now managers are approaching things backwards. They tend to start with the technology they want to use—like a blog or a community—rather than starting as they would with any other corporate initiative, with their customers and their objectives.

In the book we describe a four-step process called POST: people, objectives, strategy, technology. Analyse your audience, then identify your objectives, and then move on to how the strategy will affect your customer relationships. Technology selection happens last.

What types of objectives can companies accomplish in the groundswell?

They’re widely varied. Research can listen better to understand customers. Marketers can initiate conversations, talking with their customers instead of shouting at them. Sales can energise the company’s fans to spread word of mouth, while customer support people can save money by having customers help each other.

Development can supercharge innovation by embracing customers’ ideas. And many companies are boosting efficiency by connecting with an internal groundswell among their employees.

Can you give us an example of a company that succeeded with these types of strategies?

The book includes sixty-five examples and twenty-five full case studies with return on investment. For example, we show how Best Buy’s “Blue Shirt” sales reps have become more deeply invested with the company through connecting on an internal social network. We describe how Ellen Sonet, a marketer at Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, gained power in her organisation by exploiting the insights that come from an online community. And readers will get to see how Adidas generated 4 million impressions per $100,000 spent by creating “pass-along” enthusiasts within MySpace.

ABOUT THE BOOK

In this book, Li and Bernoff show businesses how to turn the force of customers connecting to their own advantage.

Based on real customer data and over ten years of research analysing the effects of technology on business, the authors provide real stories of the people who make the groundswell an amazing place. Twenty-five case studies from around the world—from health care to retail to consumer goods to business services—shed light into the psychology behind what’s happening.

Learn how the marketers of Procter & Gamble proved that subtle marketing within a community was four times as effective as television, how Best Buy taps into the intelligence of over a thousand of its employees with its own social network, how Dell has transformed itself by embracing customer insights in nearly every department, and how many other companies have successfully tapped into the groundswell.

Whether you’re in marketing, research, support, sales, development, or even running the enterprise, Li and Bernoff provide the background and tools to understand and participate in this social phenomenon in three sections:

Part one: Understanding the groundswell, is a call to action and introduces the social technographics profile, a key data tool crucial to any groundswell strategy.

Part two: Tapping the groundswell, includes the four-step POST process for creating strategies and outlines how to listen, talk to, and energise your customers.

Part three: The groundswell transforms, helps companies transform themselves by embracing the groundswell thinking and forecasts the next steps in the groundswell trend.

The Social Technographics Ladder has been reprinted by permission of Harvard Business Press. Excerpt from Groundswell. Copyright 2008 Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff. All rights reserved.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Left: Charlene Li

Right: Josh Bernoff







Charlene Li

Charlene Li is a vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research. She is the driving force behind Forrester’s Social Computing and Web 2.0 research, examining how companies can use technologies like blogs, social networking, RSS, tagging, and widgets for marketing purposes. She recently appeared on 60 Minutes as an expert analyst on Facebook.

Josh Bernoff

Josh Bernoff is a vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research. The originator of Forrester’s Technographics survey, he has become one of America’s most frequently quoted research analysts. Josh’s analysis, which seeks a deeper understanding of people and how they use technology, has been cited by sources from The Wall Street Journal to 60 Minutes.

Book details: Groundswell
Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies
Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff
Harvard Business Press
Publication date: May 1, 2008
ISBN: 1422125009
£16.99
224 pages
www.groundswell.forrester.com