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By Ellen Pearlman
Strategic Thinkers: Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff
Credentials: Li is a vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, she is an expert on social computing and Web 2.0; Bernoff is a vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research and the originator of Forrester's Technographics survey.
Big Idea: Customers are in charge-get used to it and seize the opportunity. But remember, in this Web 2.0 world it's not about the technology, it's about the people!
Book: Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies, published by Harvard Business Press, May 2008
Blog: Groundswell
Tool: Free data tool, profile your customers' social computing behaviors.
After reading "Groundswell" by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff you cannot help but get the message that people are in charge. Not companies. Not brand managers. Not the suits in the executive suite. The Internet has changed the power structure forever. Power has shifted to the people. The net allows individuals to put their voices together and tell you and your company what they think of your products and services. And if you don't want to listen, they will not go away. They will tell anyone who does want to listen how incompetent you are. (If you have any doubts, check out the complaints at www.consumeraffairs.com.) If you want to master the groundswell (defined by the authors as "a social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations") you need a new way of thinking and behaving. But where do you begin?
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First of all you need to realize that you should not get bogged down in trying to figure out the technologies that enable this trend. The technologies change rapidly and are not what's most important. It's all about the relationships and the way that people connect with each other that are at the heart of understanding this power shift. So whether your company is considering creating a blog, wiki, forum, podcast, online ratings, social network, virtual world or RSS feed to communicate with your customers, the key is figuring out how the people you want to reach use these connectors (or not). For example, 25 percent of online consumers in the U.S. read blogs, but only 11 percent write them; 29 percent watch user-generated video, but only 8 percent listens to podcasts; and 25 percent visit social networking sites at least monthly, but only 18 percent participate in discussion forums (source: Forrester's 2007 Technographics surveys).
When evaluating which of these social technologies (or future ones) are right for your organization the authors suggest asking the following questions:
- Does it enable people to connect with each other in new ways? If it makes those connections more interesting, varied or frequent it has good potential for adoption.
- Is it effortless to sign up for? If it easily connects to technologies people already have it's more likely to succeed.
- Does it shift power from institutions to people? If it mostly benefits your corporation it's less likely to catch on than if it benefits people.
- Does the community generate enough content to sustain itself? If it's easy for people to create content and benefit from other people's content it's more likely to be used.
- Is it an open platform that invites partnerships? Closed platforms don't evolve as fast since they cut off innovation.
So now that we've gotten the technology out of the way, what about the people issues? Not everyone participates in the groundswell, but even those that do participate in different ways. Understanding this is key to making the best decisions for your company about which groundswell strategy to pursue.
People have different reasons for using social technologies. But behind it all, say the authors, is a "drive to be social…a need to connect." The authors have created a Social Technographics Profile to group people based on the way they participate in groundswell activities. There are six groups:
- Creators—at least once a month they publish a blog or article online, maintain a Web page, or upload videos or audios.
- Critics—react to other content online, posting comments on blogs or forums, posting ratings or reviews, or editing wikis.
- Collectors—save URLs and tags, vote for Web sites online, or use RSS feeds.
- Joiners—participate in or maintain profiles on a social networking site.
- Spectators—consume the online content that others produce (in the U.S. this is the largest group, with 48 percent of online adult Americans classified this way).
- Inactives—do not participate.
Any profile you create must also take into account the age and sex of your customers and the country they live in. The authors have put together a tool to help facilitate figuring out which classification your customer groups fit into. It's necessary to figure out what activities your customers are ready for before you begin to plan your social strategy. If you don't you could end up building a social network, for example, that few of your customers participate in.
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The authors have also figured out a four-step process for helping you plot your strategy. They call it POST, for people, objectives, strategy and technology. Here's a summary of the thinking behind this method:
People: What are you customers ready for? Here you can use the profile tool to help you assess how your customers will engage with social technologies.
Objectives: What are your goals? Do you want to talk with customers for marketing purposes or do you want to generate sales from your best customers? Do you want your customers to support each other? Do you want to hear their ideas for improving products or creating new ones?
Strategy: How do you want relationships with your customers to change? Do you want them to become your evangelists or to become more engaged with your organization?
Technology: What applications should you build? This is the final step after figuring out the people, objectives and strategy.
You can also employ this thinking if you want to use social technologies internally to foster employee innovation and collaboration. The process is similar to planning an external strategy, but your objectives tend to blend together. The authors warn, however, that you should only deploy social technologies internally when "organizational change is both desirable and possible." It may get started as a skunkworks operation, but if it doesn't have management support and participation it is doomed to failure.
Finally, you need to consider the impact a groundswell strategy will have on your organization. It will change many things and people must be prepared. As the authors say, "Once you begin to listen and act on [the information you learn], your company will never be the same.... Whatever department takes charge of listening to the groundswell-whether it's research or marketing-will soon become far more central to how decisions are made."
Embracing this social and technological change will not be easy. It requires commitment and patience. But if you do it right you can build customer (or employee) loyalty. And as adoption of these and future social technologies builds, you really won't have much of a choice.
Reprinted by permission of Harvard Business Press. Excerpted from
Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies.
Copyright (c) 2008 Forrester Research, Inc.; All Rights Reserved.
Also of interest:
CIOZ Question: What's been most challenging about deploying social technologies at your company?
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