As someone who is fairly new to marketing, I’m always open to learning about and applying creative marketing strategies. A few months ago I listened to a set of CDs of the book “Groundwell: Winning in a World transformed by Social Technologies” by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff. The term “groundswell” refers to the power of social media and how online users can utilize it to influence everything from fashion to politics and achieve objectives by helping each other.
A good example of this is online product reviews. Let’s say you want to try out the trendy new Mexican restaurant downtown. Instead of going to the restaurant’s web site to peruse the menu and make a reservation, your first stop is Yelp or Urbanspoon, to find reviews of diners who have been there already. After reading a few negative reviews in which the words “food poisoning” and “shockingly awful” appear, you decide to go somewhere else for dinner. That is the groundswell hard at work!
As a consumer, the groundswell is a great resource for doing research and finding a place for your voice and opinion. For a company, the groundswell presents an opportunity to connect with people who use or want to know more about your products and services. These CDs teach you how to interact with the groundswell by listening to it instead of shouting at it. Some of the methods they suggest include monitoring your social media sites for common themes, communicating through a company blog and asking your consumers to complete surveys and reviews. What I like about it is the examples and case studies they use to illustrate the point.
One example I especially enjoyed was one that introduced me to www.willitblend.com, by Blendtec, a blender manufacturer. This website features a series of short videos that star Tom Dickson, CEO and Founder of Blendtec, in safety goggles dropping various items (an iPhone, Silly Putty, a tazer, etc) into a blender to find out if it will actually blend. It’s fascinating to watch these everyday gadgets and random objects whirl around at high speeds to become dust or liquid. I was so intrigued after hearing about this website on the CD that I went to willitblend.com and watched about 4 of their hilarious videos.
The point of the exercise is that during these quirky demonstrations, the product itself is not spoken of at all; there’s no fast talk or blender stats popping up. it’s just loud noise and destruction of small objects, but afterwards, you’re so impressed that there’s a blender out there that can liquify an iPad that you’re tempted to buy it if you happen to be in the market for a blender. A good takeaway message is to let the product speak for itself by showing what it can do as opposed to talking about it.
I would recommend the Groundswell book or CDs to anyone who wishes to better understand and communicate through social media. Teltek is always interested in hearing from our customers, blog readers and anyone who wants to know more about us and our services. Call or Email us today!