Groundswell Is Coming for You




Did anyone out there also get confused with the term “groundswell” and question how it is related to SMM, when they heard it for the first time? To be honest, for me it sounded irrelevant and even daunting until I embarked on reading the eponymously-named book. 


Do you want to succead in SMM? This is the bible for you

Groundswell is, simply said, a social trend in which people are more willing to turn to each other rather than corporations when seeking help or support.  In other words, groundswell is about online connections that allow people to draw strength from each other (Li, Bernoff, p. 10). What happens is that people start congregating around some web community which draws the attention of more users and makes their voices heard. This puts them in charge of deciding how their brand, services or products should be perceived and even how their website should operate as in the case of Digg.com (Li, Bernoff, p. 3). The bad news is that groundswell activity can serve not only as a free word-of-mouth ad that boosts consumer awareness but also as a destructive PR when people’s understanding of your business doesn’t match your vision. Therefore, there is no way for corporations to stay aside any longer if they want to maintain the viability of their business.

The first step that should be taken towards successful groundswell thinking is understanding the very nature of the groundswell - what it is driven by. Ask yourself a couple of questions: “When people come to the Internet, what goal do they pursue? Do they want to create content, engage in forum discussions, post reviews or just silently observe?”. Depending on what groundswell activity online users participate in, an effective strategy can be built to reach out to the targeted audience. Social Technographics Profile reflects this participation, which provides companies with valuable data on variations in the use of the groundswell technologies (Li, Bernoff, p. 41).

You may not have noticed, but this is the first time I mentioned “technologies” in this post and this is a key to effective groundswell thinking. SMM is primarily about the relationships people build. Consequently, you should follow the guidelines exactly as they are described in the POST method, i.e. people first, technologies last with companies’ objectives and strategies in the middle (Li, Bernoff, p. 67). Once the extension of people’s engagement in groundswell activities is defined, clear company goals should be set along with long term strategies to achieve them.
POST is no longer what you think it is
     
     The order of POST stems from the fact that user behavior is rather unstable. People can switch behaviors as soon as they see something better (Li, Bernoff, p. 12). Imagine that you have learned YouTube inside and out and elaborated a strategy that would fit perfectly in this social network. So, it can be rather frustrating if another competitive video platform like IGTV emerges and groundswell just shifts. Why can this happen? One may propose that it is:




However, I would suggest that unique options and tools are secondary in making IGTV viable. The app is going to thrive in groundswell because it understands the ways people are more inclined to connect. By making up a Social Technographics Profile in the first place, Instagram founders realized that younger audiences, which mostly consists of spectators, are spending more time with amateur content creators and less time with professionals. This revelation prompted them to create IGTV. In other words, it is not the urge for advanced technologies but people’s engagement that defines groundswell thinking.


I agree that these theoretical insights that I shared with you are probably not going to bring you relief when thinking about tapping into groundswell, but let me try to reassure you one more time. In any corporate crisis, there is always a way to turn a disaster into an opportunity for learning and growth, and the same is true about groundswell. Despite how disastrous it may be, there is still a chance to thrive in it.

Here is a follow-up question: in what ways do you participate in groundswell? Are you a content creator? Joiner? Critics? Let me know in the comments below!

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