Groundswell, by Charlene Yi and Josh Bernoff, discusses the authors’ coined term of the “groundswell”, a phenomenon best described as an aggregate of all social media trends and their combined impact on the marketplace, a so-called ground swelling with consumer choice and influence. The main point of the book is to inform marketers and other interested audiences about the different aspects of the social media landscape and how they can be leveraged to interact with and influence consumers.
The most important tenet of the book is that one seeking to use social media to communicate should not rush into it. Careful thought should be given to understand what you want to do with your consumers. Furthermore, this is how the book is organized; listening to and talking with the groundswell are just two of the ways marketers can utilize social media to make informed decisions based on research and insights. I believe their example of the “overenthusiastic blogger” appropriately describes what can happen when CEOs who have not thoroughly thought about how to best use social media get caught up in the movement.
Tools like blogs, consumer panels, forums, and product reviews are clearly important to incorporate into any marketing strategy. International leaders like Procter & Gamble have used them effectively to communicate with hard-to-reach audiences like pre-pubescent girls, as evidenced by beinggirl.com. I think in specific instances like this, Yi and Bernoff have produced content that is both relevant and applicable. Before developing a social media plan for a client, it will be essential to conduct consumer research, monitor internet mentions, study ethnography and purchasing behaviors, and any other new techniques to correctly identify what the groundswell is around the client.
The problem with books like Groundswell is that they inevitably fall prey to the temptation of being an advertisement for research vendors, including that of the authors. Yi and Bernoff both work for Forrester Research, and they discuss firms like Communispace, who often partner with Forrester. I believe it is tactics like this which separate the New York Times bestsellers which change the face of business from mere industry publications disguised as sales pitches – it is fairly obvious that the authors are striving for the latter.
They also rehash topics like word-of-mouth marketing, which has been discussed extensively by mainstream, non-trade authors like Malcolm Gladwell in The Tipping Point. Additionally, their creators, critics, collectors, and joiners are akin to Gladwell’s mavens, connectors, and salesmen.
Given that the book was published in 2008, I cannot help but wonder as to how a special section on “don’t ignore the groundswell during a recession” would have fared in making the book more applicable. Companies consistently cut marketing budgets during economic downturns, despite research that shows brands who maintain or increase marketing/advertising during a recession increase market share. With consumer confidence a major indicator in a turnaround, companies can use the relatively inexpensive tactics inherent in social media to gauge consumer sentiment, while cutting back on advertising, or as Yi and Bernoff term it, “shouting”.
