Groundswell: Winning in a world transformed by social technologies by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff
Reviewed by Marty Vanags, EDC CEO

 

While leaving a recent business meeting, one of the participants admitted to having been on Facebook and other social media sites. He used a common series of phrases I hear from time to time among certain business people, such as “Oh, I can’t tell the difference between Facebook and SpaceFace, blah, blah, blah” (that’s me tuning them out). It is the defense mechanism many of us use when we don’t understand something, when a part of our world is moving so fast we feel helpless to catch up or when we feel as if the world is passing us by. We make excuses for not understanding these things by playing dumb. It is common as you get older (remember our parents – they just don’t get “it”).

The truth is that the world is moving at an incredible pace, faster than it has ever moved before. Technology has changed so rapidly in the last 30 years (most of my lifetime), that it does seem overwhelming at times. How can we react; what should we do? Wouldn’t it be easier if we could go back to the old ways of doing things? Easier and slower paced…maybe, but easier or even smarter…definitely not. Of course, an “old school” technology has been produced that my business colleagues that don’t want to be part of the mix can use and will be oh-so-familiar to them…a book. Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, published by Harvard Business Press, will help one understand the reasons behind this very quick-moving but, ultimately, important tool being used in business today. Social technologies are transformative, and to simply ignore them or say you don’t have time for them, well, is like the caveman saying, “Thanks for that new thing you call a wheel, but I’d rather drag my stuff around,” to his fellow cavemen.

“Groundswell” is a word used to describe an awakening or a quick rise to prominence. A groundswell often occurs in social situations or the political environment. Things move so quickly and rapidly, and there is such obvious agreement over a concept that everyone starts moving in the same direction. Because so many people are confused about social media, whether it is a fad or something trendy to do and how it can be used in a business application, this book has come along at a very good time. It reads like a primer on social media and has great empirical evidence to back it up. The authors are analysts at Forrester Research, an independent publicly traded research company that focuses on the implications of technology towards business. They are uniquely situated to develop sound information on the impact social media is having on the business world.

The book is divided into three sections: “Understanding the Groundswell,” “Tapping the Groundswell” and “The Groundswell Transforms.” At 233 pages, minus the notes and indices, the book is a fairly easy read over a long weekend. Obviously, much time is spent describing what the groundswell is and what has happened in recent years. So what is the groundswell? The authors describe it 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.” EBay, Craig’s List, Angie’s List, open source software like Linux, Firefox and others are early social media sites, even though we don’t look at them that way. These sites recognized that people using the Internet might think differently and act differently than previous generations of business users. The authors explain that the groundswell is happening now because there is a convergence of three things: people, technology and economics; and they go to great length describing these factors.

One reason I like this book is that it spends a great deal of time using something the authors term “Social Technographics.” This term is used to describe types of people based upon their use of the groundswell activities. The profiles can be divided into the following groups:

Creators — online consumers who at least once a month publish a blog or article online, maintain a Web page or upload video or audio onto sites like YouTube. These people represent 18 percent of the online adult population.

Critics — react to online content by posting reviews and comments and participating in and editing wikis. Twenty-five percent of adult Americans online are critics.

Collectors — save URLs, tags and social bookmarking services like del.icio.us. They vote for their favorite sites and use RSS feeds. Collectors make up 12 percent of the adult population online.

Joiners — participate or maintain profiles on a social networking site like Facebook. Twenty-five percent of adults who are online in the United States are now on Facebook. In South Korea, the participation rate is 40 percent.

Spectators — the largest percentage of adults online in the United States. This category consumes what everyone else creates. It requires less effort and makes up 48 percent of users.

Inactives — forty-one percent of all Americans online remain untouched by the groundswell. And, of course, those offline are merely watching TV or reading a good book.

A great amount of page space is given to the analysis and definition of groundswell participants and the use of social technographics. This is a good thing. One of the most valuable parts of this book is the use of this research. Understanding of the how and why of social technographics is the first step in understanding which social media tools are going to be best for your company or organization.  Understanding the data is paramount for understanding how to use it. The authors go immediately into the second section after the discussion of technographics to discuss how to tap into the groundswell.

Using tools like POST, which stands for People, Objectives, Strategy and Technology, the book describes some very easily understood tools for implementing social media strategies. They also describe five objectives a company can use in pursuing groundswell strategies. These include:

• Listening — best suited for companies that are seeking customer insights for use in marketing and development
• Talking — spreading messages about your company
• Energizing — supercharging the word-of-mouth among your most ardent supporters
• Supporting — helping customers support each other
• Embracing — integrating your customers into how you work, including helping in the design of your customers

This book is filled with great examples taken from the research Forrester conducts on a constant basis. I believe a book like this can help companies and organizations wrap their arms around a fast-paced topic matter that seems to change all the time. Most companies and organizations I know have to have procedures and policies that guide their growth. The trouble for most organizations is that the nature of social media is highly organic and doesn’t provide this structure, so they shun it.

Organizations and companies that try to ignore the groundswell will be in trouble one day. Yes, they can survive on “old school” ways, but not forever. To merely say this is something that you don’t have time to pay attention to is the same as saying you don’t have time to pay attention to the news of the day or the business world in general. Groundswell, the book, will help you get through the muddle and guide you along the way. My business colleagues who ignore the importance of social media will have to answer to their unwillingness to adapt. They will answer by losing important customers who will go with vendors or service providers that have used this important tool to listen and interact with their customers. Or, they will take on the challenge and become a player in the groundswell.