Engaging and Helping the Groundswell Support Itself

Chapters 7 and 8 in Groundswell had to do with engaging your customers with each other, and your business. “Engaging the groundswell is a powerful way to boost your business.” Engaging customers is letting them influence each other by word of mouth. This is important because it’s “the most honest form of marketing, that builds upon people’s natural desire to share experiences.” You’re basically creating a community to energize customers within your social media.

Josh Bernoff explains starting a community requires a lot of work, because an energized community expects responses. It is important to be interacting with the community you developed in order to keep it energized. When people follow a company’s social media outlet, they are looking for some inside information they would not have known had they not been following the company online.

 Chapter 8 also explains how the groundswell is a support system. Whether it’s people commenting on each other’s social media pages, or starting a Wiki page, they are communicating with one another in a special way. Bernoff explains, support makes people comfortable and people need to feel comfortable to spend money on your product.

Bernoff stresses how important it is to dedicate time to your company’s forum, “company participation is crucial in the beginning.”  Let customers support each other!  Groundswell explains, by owning or participating in a community you are getting a front row seat, because you are collaborating with customers to create better products!

Photo from Unbound Technologies

Listen!

While reading Groundswell chapters 4-6 one word was used several times and really got my attention. This word was listening, and it is referring to the fact that companies need to listen to their customers on social networks.

 Blogs, Facebook, Twitter ect. are now being used as a sort of research tool to better understand customers. The interaction between the brand and its customers creates a unique bond because not only do companies have the benefit of listening, they can also talk to spread messages about their company.

Josh Bernoff preaches listening to the groundswell for a good reason. Out of 114 people 106 say that they would recommend the Internet as a source of information. This statistic goes to show how important it is for a brand to use some form of social media.

Having a form of social media also helps during a possible PR crisis. Companies have the opportunity to speak up and to protect their brand by giving their customers a message straight from the brand itself.

 Companies can also generate new product and marketing ideas from information their customers give online by giving customers a say in what they like and get them involved.

People are truly learning from each other so it is important to maintain positive conversations on a company’s social network. Social networks are the best solution for word-of-mouth problems, while blogs help complexity. Listen and respond to feedback from the groundswell is the most important advice I have read so far in this book. 

Photo from The Right Now Customer Experience Blog