Groundswell

The information from the book Groundswell revolves around a strategic perspective on the use of new media in the marketplace which was created through the advancement in Internet technologies. The new media has weakened the control that businesses had on its customers with regards to production, operations, and markets. Today, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and YouTube have enabled people to create, connect, collaborate, react to each other, organize content, and accelerate consumption, which puts the customer in more control than any business thought was possible.

The authors of the Groundswell created a model for developing a new media strategy called the POST model. POST stands for People, Objectives, Strategy, and Technology.

People- what are your customers ready for? How will your customers engage?

Objectives- what are your goals? Listening(research), Talking(marketing), Energizing(sales), Supporting(support), and Embracing(development). By starting with an objective and you can create your groundswell strategy and tap into the power of the groundswell. Listening is referred to as learning what your customers are saying. People are talking about companies and if they listen, that information flows back into the organization which will enable them to better serve their customers. Talking refers to the two way conversations that take place. You send your messages out, hear what comes back, and you also see if your messages are reverberating out in the groundswell. Talking lets people spread the message of an organization through social networks. You can also communicate directly with your customers and monitor the information that is coming back- blogging. Blogs are a highly effective strategy that yields important information from the consumers to any business. Energizing is helping your best customers to recruit other people. Businesses can send a message out to their customers, they get excited about it and tell other people, which also gets them excited about products. This chain reaction goes on and on and on through various forms of social networking. Supporting enables your customers to support each other. This objective is all about saving money. If you can enable your customers to support each other in forums, this takes away the need for customers to call your business and ask questions. Embracing involves customers in the product development stages. 

Strategy- How do you want relationships with your customers to change? 

Technology- What applications should you build?

The POST strategy can be summed up by listening, talking, energizing, supporting, and embracing your customers. Using the new media will enable your business to accomplish all of these tasks, and success is sure to follow.