I believe that Bob Dylan said it best; “The times, they are
a-changing”
We are living in a digital world where more connections are
made virtually then they are face to face. Businesses are creating accounts on social media platforms
to support their brand rather than printing advertisements in newspapers. Young professionals are even assisting
older business people with the Web 2.0 world.
Even James Bond is getting an update when it comes to his technical staff! A brilliant, young man replaces the old Q with new technical skills for 2012.
And with change, comes a new foundation for thinking and
strategizing. In chapter four of
Groundswell, authors Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff talk about how to effectively
and efficiently utilize the groundswell.
Though many businesses get caught up in simply being
involved in Web 2.0 that they jump into the groundswell headfirst. I saw this first hand with the company
my mom works for. The small
business she works for provides vital medical information to people all over
the country. The business as a
whole depends on utilizing the web for important information concerning
treatments, PT, and doctor’s ratings.
Creating a presence on twitter and facebook seemed like an excellent
idea… except for when they did not think about the potential repercussions of
going in without a concrete strategy.
The boss felt anxious that the company did not have a social media
presence and wanted to act fast.
Little did he know that his scrappily put together facebook page would
have resulted in negative comments from users…
According to Li and Bernoff, my mom’s boss experienced what
they coined as groundswell approach-avoidance syndrome. Symptoms of this syndrome include,
“strong and sometimes obsessive interest in social media sites, checking mega
blogs multiple times a day to make sure you are in the loop with the most up to
date social media trends, and anxiety at the thought of actually participating
in social technologies.”
In short, business people should not force themselves into
the groundswell to soon; Li and Bernoff note, “If you don’t enter the
groundswell with a specific goal, you will FAIL.”
The best course of action then is to make a plan! Li and Bernoff suggest making a plan
based on the POST method; People, Objectives, Strategy, and Technology. Before diving into Web 2.0, use the
acronym POSR and ask yourself…
People- What are
my customers ready for?
Objectives- What
do I want to accomplish?
Strategy- How do
I want the relationship with my customers to change?
Technology- What
applications should I build or utilize to make this change?
Creating the framework, or basic plan, is just one step
towards entering the groundswell.
Businesses who take the time to then clearly define their said
objectives will as a giant leap in the direction of successfully utilizing the groundswell. Li and Bernoff suggest that companies
align themselves with one of these five objectives that best describes their
desired objective: Listening, Talking, Energizing, Supporting, and Embracing.
This summer, members of the Olympics marketing team had a
large presence in the groundswell.
As an athlete and a fan of nearly all athletics, I definitely tuned into
the games via television as well as interacted with the Olympics via social
media platforms. Unlike my mom’s
company, the Olympics clearly had a strategy before interacting with the
groundswell- facilitating user interaction as well as creating hype and
excitement before, during, and after the games… as well as promotion for the
winter 2014 games in Switzerland.
Current Olympic tweets. Link are included for people to
read. Hopefully users will comment, re-tweet, and begin a
conversation about the up and coming games in the twitter world.
The Current Olympics Twitter Home
On each of the social media platforms they used (mainly
facebook, twitter, and instagram) they promoted the games and gave users a
chance to comment on photos, post opinions and thoughts about events, answer
daily Olympic trivia, and create photo captions.
Current Olympics Facebook page
Facebook wall from the summer games in London. Users have liked, shared, and commented on posts which created some online hype about the games.
I personally thought that they successfully utilized
twitter, facebook and instagram to energize, inform, and facilitate user
interaction with all things Olympics. If they had not made a thought out plan
and decided what they wanted to use the groundswell for, then this may not have
been as successful. I will
definitely bookmark chapter four as on of the most important lessons Li and
Bernoff can teach us about utilizing the groundswell.
Interesting article on Instagram during the 2012 Summer Olympic games
Great post Katie! I loved your example of the Olympics. I am also impressed with the way that the Olympic committee in charge of Social Media has encouraged involvement from its audience. The pictures that your provided showed how engaging the campaign is, because of its use of social media.
ReplyDeleteBravo for the Olympic committee tapping into audience participation through social media...I'm looking forward to next year's Winter Olympics in Sochi and I'm interested to see how the committee utilizes social media after reviewing whatever successes and failures they encountered in 2012.
ReplyDeleteIt is unfortunate that the outcome of your mom's company jumping into the social media realm was negative. Sometimes it is better to put off starting any social media pages until you have a pretty solid plan in place.
Nice post, Katie. I liked the way you outlined and emphasized the information and your examples of effective and ineffective use of social media were great.
ReplyDeleteHi athlete, I like your post of Olympics. It is a worldwide event and a good opportunity to have fun with the groundswell. A little story, when Beijing held the 2008 Olympics, our city mall gave 20%OFF on everything when China won a gold medal! I never thought this deeply until I take the class, clever business, isn't it?
ReplyDelete