Whew, there was a lot of ground covered in the reading to be discussed in this one blog entry, so I’ve decided to do a quick format because after all, blogging is all about being concise and interesting. I’d like to give a one to three sentence summary on what I feel are the chapters’ most important points and then a comment or two. Hopefully you readers out there can give me some of your feedback.
Chapter 7 was all about “Energizing the Groundswell” and the value/impact an energized customer can have for you. My summarization is that the authors are saying: People trust the recommendations of their peers and if you can somehow create a buzz through social media by allowing ratings and reviews or fostering a community, you can reap the benefits of having your company spread by word of mouth.
I recently ran across a website that manages to do this without having to build a costly rating/review system. It’s called ruelala.com and works as an invitation only online shopping website. The company fosters community by staying exclusive and relying entirely on word of mouth and it rewards its members for sharing the good news with shopping credits. And on top of this community feel you probably won’t be surprised to hear they have a blog feature. The site really intrigues me because it seems like a unique example of how you can energize your customers in a new way and really seemed to pay attention to its target audience, those urban and trendy shoppers who are status aware and interested in something exclusive.
“Helping the Groundswell support itself” was all about using social media, namely wikis, so that your customers can answer each other’s questions and solve problems without needing the company to step in. As a user of such groups, sanctioned and non-sanctioned, I can say my life has become a lot easier. However, it seems that not all groundswell support is treated equal and this really frustrates me. What I mean by that is when a company decides to go this route; I feel they really need to still offer the option to use traditional methods to get support. Apple Support in particular has a very nice website designed for its users to help each other but sometimes sifting through the pages and pages of question/answers gets tiring. Hopefully, more companies begin to recognize this and realize that one of the important roles they play when creating a wiki is organizing content so that it stays manageable.
Embracing the Groundswell is about using your customers to improve product development so that it is more efficient and addresses the areas/issues they are looking for. Finally, there is a cost effective way for a company to listen to their customers and effect change. The book touches on Dell and how it used the groundswell to create the Linux PC and reading about made me realize how Microsoft has taken a new medium, used it to its advantage, and then possibly spun it into their “I’m a PC and Windows 7 was my idea” ad campaign. Essentially, they are saying, “we listened to you, our customers, and created this product the way you wanted it...enjoy.” This to me is sheer brilliance.
Finally, the end of reading assignment touched on, “How Connecting with the Groundswell Changes your Company.” After reading this I wonder if this chapter should have been called “How being the representative of your company that is connecting with the groundswell changes you” and was slightly terrified by taking on that role. The last two pages saved me though and really put it into perspective that as exciting as it would be to lead a company into this new area that seems to make so much sense after reading the book-there is still a lot of legwork and struggle. It’s not going to be as simple as “hey guys, I grew up with social media, it works, trust me!” I just hope I’m up to the challenge.
Showing posts with label Groundswell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Groundswell. Show all posts
Monday, July 26, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
Groundswell-Chapters 5 & 6 Reaction
Reading chapters 5 & 6 of Groundswell was eye-opening for me.
I started taking this class because I knew deep down that social media was the wave of the future and important to me personally if I am to advance my career in marketing. Essentially, I was a lot like the executives described by the authors in CH. 5. I knew that it was important and I knew about the technologies but I didn't know why and didn't know where to start.
Also, for the past week I had been struggling with the fact that the influence social media has over consumers will last. My doubt stemmed from my personal experiences as a social media user that boiled down to me becoming increasingly tired of receiving the hundreds of messages and projections daily through the web and ultimately I decided to scale back my involvement in different media. Honestly, it is a feeling that has stemmed from all of the types of consumer-marketer interactions I have had on and off the web. Magazines, TV, radio, billboards, you name it, were all shouting at me, as they do all of us, and I was getting sick of it.
I didn't even realize how tiring it was until 4 years ago when I studied abroad in a foreign country and felt such relief because throughout my experience there I no longer listened to the TV or the radio, and was unable to even read the billboards that were printed in a language I couldn't understand. The result was, upon my return and in order to prolong some of the semblance of peace I felt abroad, I no longer subscribed to cable television or listened to the radio in the car. So with regard to social media and their messages my question was; if I was feeling this bogged down, how were others feeling? How would I develop a career in an industry I enjoyed participating in as an agent of industry but couldn't stand to listening to most of the time in my personal life?
What I have learned by reading chapters 5 and 6 is that social media is the solution-not an added problem like I had previously feared. First, in chapter 5, the authors stress the importance of listening. This really is the first key to communication and finally there are inexpensive and easy-to- use resources that get to the route of the issues that consumers may have and provide efficient avenues for companies to address them. Chapter 6 is all about how to talk with the customer and for me, this is even more important. I really felt relieved when I read, "with so many products trying to get people's attention, shouting at them isn't nearly as effective as it used to be...shouting doesn't work. Conversations do." It was as if they were reading my thoughts and put them into words better than I ever could. This book has really given me a better sense of the kind of marketer I want to become and has assuaged my fears of becoming the type that I hate.
I started taking this class because I knew deep down that social media was the wave of the future and important to me personally if I am to advance my career in marketing. Essentially, I was a lot like the executives described by the authors in CH. 5. I knew that it was important and I knew about the technologies but I didn't know why and didn't know where to start.
Also, for the past week I had been struggling with the fact that the influence social media has over consumers will last. My doubt stemmed from my personal experiences as a social media user that boiled down to me becoming increasingly tired of receiving the hundreds of messages and projections daily through the web and ultimately I decided to scale back my involvement in different media. Honestly, it is a feeling that has stemmed from all of the types of consumer-marketer interactions I have had on and off the web. Magazines, TV, radio, billboards, you name it, were all shouting at me, as they do all of us, and I was getting sick of it.
I didn't even realize how tiring it was until 4 years ago when I studied abroad in a foreign country and felt such relief because throughout my experience there I no longer listened to the TV or the radio, and was unable to even read the billboards that were printed in a language I couldn't understand. The result was, upon my return and in order to prolong some of the semblance of peace I felt abroad, I no longer subscribed to cable television or listened to the radio in the car. So with regard to social media and their messages my question was; if I was feeling this bogged down, how were others feeling? How would I develop a career in an industry I enjoyed participating in as an agent of industry but couldn't stand to listening to most of the time in my personal life?
What I have learned by reading chapters 5 and 6 is that social media is the solution-not an added problem like I had previously feared. First, in chapter 5, the authors stress the importance of listening. This really is the first key to communication and finally there are inexpensive and easy-to- use resources that get to the route of the issues that consumers may have and provide efficient avenues for companies to address them. Chapter 6 is all about how to talk with the customer and for me, this is even more important. I really felt relieved when I read, "with so many products trying to get people's attention, shouting at them isn't nearly as effective as it used to be...shouting doesn't work. Conversations do." It was as if they were reading my thoughts and put them into words better than I ever could. This book has really given me a better sense of the kind of marketer I want to become and has assuaged my fears of becoming the type that I hate.
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