Definition of groundswell- A sudden growth of public feeling or support for something.

Negatively Affected-  Comcast  AOL  Dunkin Donuts  Many more Positively Affected-  CBS (television series Jericho)

 Tapping into the groundswell  requires more than a willingness to relinquish control  Companies need a strategic framework for:  Developing applications  Implementing applications

 Research and sales  Traditional functions in companies  Listening and energizing  Nontraditional or groundswell functions

 “Listening”  Companies such as Dell inc., CBS, and Fiskars are using it to great effect.  Other organizations are as well  Rate My Cop and Rate My Teacher are good examples. Rate My CopRate My Teacher  Others include: Yelp and Digg.comYelpDigg.com  These allow industries to hear what consumers have to say

 “Talking” or spurring the consumers into action!  By “Talking” to its customers they get more and more people who enjoy the hobby involved. The Lion Brand Yarn created a blog which it encourages people to start knitting and crocheting.Lion Brand Yarn

 “Energizing”  Paramount used an energizing strategy when it put out its sequel to “Transformers”  Allowed its customers to do a versus strategy between the two sides in the movie in order to customize their favorite social sites.  Though not a powerful movement it was influential  Other companies used “Energizing” to greater effect such as Fiskars.

 “Supporting”  Example: when Dell inc. started its online support team.  This forum became very useful, eventually answering 20% to 50% of all customer questions  That’s without asking someone from the company directly!!!

“Managing” Vovici, an online community creation site was the focus of an international study. Vovici – One of the subjects, an unnamed international bank, had two communities – The first was established for employee feedback – However the second community went much farther including: weekly sales numbers discussion forums questions to senior management status reports for each department company news

 Groundswell  Embracing groundswell was the same with all companies  It was a cultural shift in a customercentric direction

 There was six key managerial recommendations for any organization attempting to harness the power of the groundswell.

1. Accept the loss of control 2. Expect pushback from managers 3. Line up executive backing 4. Start small and focus on measurable objectives 5. Expand beyond projects 6. Stay focused on culture, not technology

 Groundswell is defined as a sudden gathering of force, as of public opinion. This term has become popular for social applications being used by organizations  Groundswell customer applications can:  generate research insights  extend the reach of marketing  energize sales efforts  cut support costs  Stoke the innovation process

 Water Cooler: an innovative social web tool that allows employees to communicate and share ideas and information across departments and geographical locations. This allows for increased opportunities in:  Collaboration  Productivity  Decreased inefficiencies

 Ex:  Salesforce.com  Dell  Direct2Dell  Investors  Expansion  Customer Centricity

 Negative comments and discussion  Ex: wal-mart facebook app  Chevrolet customer commercial experiment