The Groundswell Train

It is a common stereotype that technology is killing person-to-person interaction. People say it consumes us, our time, and our relationships. Well I’m here to tell you that this couldn’t be further from the truth. Technology, if anything, has actually amplified how people connect with each other, and the name for this growing people-to-people interaction is the groundswell.

You may have just wondered if you read that right: the groundswell. What is the groundswell, you ask? The book Groundswell defines this as “a social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations” (Li & Bernoff 9).

People buy from people on sites like eBay; people read movie ratings by people on sites like Rotten Tomatoes; people share music with people on sites like SoundCloud.

The three common themes here within the groundswell are: people, technology, and economics. Basically, people are using technology to interact with one another on a wide spectrum of topics, and social sites are capitalizing on this interaction by providing the platform from which to interact including blogs, video sharing sites, social networkings sites, wikis, review sites, etc.

Don’t be fooled by all this technology though. It is not so much the technology we want to focus on as the relationships created from it. Right now, I am using this blog to create my content, but the point is so I can connect with you, my lovely readers. So tell me, what types of social technology platforms do you use to connect with people?

“A strategy that treats everyone alike will spell failure — people aren’t alike and won’t respond in the same way” (Li & Bernoff 40).

Similar to how your best friend might be a chatterbox but your personality is more of a listener, there are different types of digital consumer involvement personalities. In fact, there are seven of them, which you can find in the ladder image provided below.

These personalities are measured by a special tool, called a Social Technographics Profile. This is a tool that allows

businesses to study and strategize based on the groundswell tendencies of any group of people anywhere.

So which level of consumer involvement are you? For example, I am a creator via this blog as well as a spectator because I enjoying reading more than commenting. Why do you think you embody this title and what are some ways you could branch out into different classifications?

Ok, lets take a breather here. Are you one of those people who know they need to jump on the groundswell technology train but are too nervous to move forward? Don’t worry, I’ve got four easy steps for you to follow to build your groundswell strategy, it’s called “POST”: People, Objectives, Strategy, Technology. You can learn more about this here.

In following these steps, it’s also always important to listen, talk, energize, support, and embrace. Did I lose you? We’ll dive into listening and talking before we wrap things up.

Listening is just what it sounds like: Listen to the people cause the people have the power. Two ways to listen are setting up your own private community or monitoring your brand. A community is like a gigantic, continuously engaged focus group that is only accessible to those in the community. Companies like Communispace.com can help set these up, but be warned, they’re costly. Monitoring your brand is like Facebook stalking your company, just on an Internet-wide scale. Mini USA (BMW Mini Cooper’s brand in the US), implemented this strategy by monitoring online chatter of its cars. Mini discovered that instead of marketing to Mini buyers, they should market to Mini owners in hopes of Word of Mouth spreading the love of the cars and the community they created amongst owners (this was a gutsy move by Mini, but it paid off). Have you ever been a part of a listening community? What are some other ways that companies can listen in on what consumers want?

Talking is how you spread the word about your company. This can be done by engaging in social networks, joining the blogosphere, or creating a community (this time a public one). My favorite method of talking, however, is viral videos/trends. Viral videos are a way to get your foot in the consumer’s door, but the goal is to get the invitation to actually come inside and talk. This is just what blender company Blendtec did with their viral video series “Will It Blend?” The series caught viral attention online for blending household/technological objects into dust; it then took this viral attention and directed consumers to the “Will It Blog” where people could find demonstrations in their town, and even suggest items to blend.

So now that you know a few tricks of the trade, have you had any realizations of how companies have reeled you in and gotten you talking? Do you think that these technological means of talking are enough to get consumers aware and engaged?

Sound off in the comments below and thanks for reading!

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