Groundswell

How swell that I should write a blog post about the book, Groundswell (www.forrester.com/Groundswell). If you haven't read it, it's a must read for all those web heads out there who are trying to make social networking work for their business.

It's funny that I write this in a voice that may suggest others will read it - but no one is reading the Fenbi blog these days. I am trying to figure out how to hook up an RSS feed but it requires a little bit of knowledge that I don't have right now.

Back to the Groundswell - the book is basically giving me hope that I can enter into a career or make one of my own based on community marketing. Community marketing is a term I learned only just the other day ... but it has been inherent in my upbringing. I grew up in a town that scared Rite Aid from moving into an old bowling alley ... and instead a Food Co-Op took its place!

To me - marketing and PR and communication in general have been welded together by the fabric of social networking. I don't even really know what traditional marketing is, but I have a feeling an understanding of it doesn't matter any more because the effectiveness of traditional advertising has diminished due to increased noise - due to do-not-call lists - in other words, back in the 50's there were 4 TV channels and now there are thousands. There used to be several radio stations, now there are thousands. I have never received a call on my cell phone from someone asking to sell me something, but when I was a kid I remember I almost signed my mom up for new light bulbs over the phone! The method of an individual or group using the old model for advertising and marketing to blast off a message just will not work because it will not rise above the noise.

I believe if someone uses social networking in the right way - based on research - you can save your business thousands of dollars and have more success reaching your target audience. After all, the majority of Americans and Europeans are using this thing called the world wide web - however, the world wide number isn't even 50% of the world population yet.

It is so strange that I happen to be reading the Tipping Point right now. The Tipping Point came out in 2000 before all this social networking craze. I bet in a matter of no time the author will re-write the book based on Groundswell and offer a perfect example of a word-of-mouth campaign that actually works! Or I could lazily try to do it right now ...

Say I worked for an outdoor clothing store.

My method for promoting the product based on social networking would start with web design. In today's day in age interactivity is key - and the ability to listen to the consumer has never been so easy. Imagine a forum where consumers could sound off about your products ... talk about what they like, what they don't like, product defects, enthusiasm ... you name it. In one internet forum you have the capacity for a never ending focus group and likely saving you hundreds of hours of work and thousands of dollars.

But how would you drive those people to the site?

The tools are already out there ... you have myspace, facebook, and a plethora of other programs that allow you to search through their members based on key words like 'outdoors' or 'camping' or even your brand name. These people are your 'connectors' and possibly 'mavens' (as defined in the Tipping Point). All it takes to rev these people up is a thousand points of contact - simple introductions with perhaps a dangling carrot like a $5 off coupon - and in the process you can easily redirect them to your site with a link. You can use google or technorotti to search blog posts and link to those folks not associated with those networks geared towards the younger generation.

However, as research from Groundswell shows, people in the older age groups are still very likely to visit the forum on your site and even if they don't participate they are very likely to read or critic the posts. But based on my own personal anecdotal observations, the older generation is starting to use Myspace and Facebook. For shits and giggles I looked up all the people over 65 years of age within a 250 mile radius of Eugene, Oregon and found 2,500 names. While some of those were kids pretending to be old, many more were genuine grade A old people! I find that very interesting ... and I expect that age group to balloon in the coming years. Consider it baby boomers trying to show they are still hip ...

You would also need to give people a reason to keep coming back to your outdoor clothing site. I would suggest a "family photo album" where users could upload photos of themselves wearing your clothing in different places and doing different activities. Patagonia has been doing this for years in their magazines, why not on the internet where thousands of people can submit photos.

I guess what I am getting at is that social networking has taken mass marketing and mass communication back to interpersonal communication. It's the technological form of what it must have been like in an era before television and radio. It is now easier to engage and listen to thousands of customers. An outdoor clothing line could easily think of funny and creative ways to make viral videos to go on youtube ... I just wish I had the positioning to put my money where my mouth is and really try some of these ideas out.

I wonder if colleges will start to have classes on how to fine tune your online sales personality?

My outdoor clothing line example was a little inarticulate and not very well thought through - but this is a post for the layperson ... this is a post for me to get my excitement out of my head and onto paper ... and this is mostly a post brought to you by the fine folks at Forrester Research who wrote an awe inspiring book ...

July 17th and 18th my firm has been so kind as to pay for me to go to the Internet Strategy Forum in Portland (http://www.internetstrategyforum.org/). It's crazy because my internship is over in less than a month, yet they are still forking out over $250 for me to go hear people speak on this subject ... people at the absolute forefront of this school of thought. I have to admit I feel excited to go ... and I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to work with the fine people at Conkling Fiskum & McCormick. In all reality I wouldn't have been thinking on this path if they hadn't been thinking about it first ... then encouraging me when I expressed interest in learning more. Although I dabbled in these strategies while in my last band, it is only recently that I feel I have really learned what it takes to harness the power of the web. Now if I just had a bunch of spare time, a new computer, and a company that would pay me to prove these theories. I would love to write viral jingles for the new century ... fight songs for your brand ... something drunken friends could sing during a fine summers night of merry-making! Yes!

Now, let's go check out some clothing sites and see if they have already enacted the principles of social networking ...