Instead of going to a certain place like Facebook or MySpace to be social with your friends, your friends will go to wherever you need them to be. If I'm reading a book review on Amazon, I'll be able to see my friends' reviews -- even if those reviews are written on a blog someplace else. There will definitely be platforms, but the key thing is they won't be walled gardens.
How are existing business models falling short when it comes to marketing in this new world?
Most people, when they go into these social networking channels, think of it as another marketing channel. They treat it as, "Okay, here's another place we can put banner ads to drive people to our site" rather than saying, "How can I build virality into this?" They're not personal conversations. When somebody reaches out to you personally, you're much more likely to engage, to internalize the brand and therefore become a spokesperson for it.
How do you make that personal connection when there are literally millions of people out there?
You can use viral videos on Facebook. It could be like what Ernst & Young, the accounting firm, is doing on Facebook. They're recruiting students on college campuses, so Facebook is a natural place for them to be. They send out advertisements targeting various campuses and encouraging students to come to the site. There's a discussion board and a lot of comments on the wall. They can ask a question and somebody from E&Y answers them. The people doing it are the top people who run North American recruitment for Ernst & Young. That's very personal.
Where do you see groundswell going in the years ahead?
Social networks will be like air. The groundswell will be anywhere and everywhere you want it to be -- even in places you don't want it to be as a marketer in your company. The message we want to get across is that the groundswell is inevitable. You can ignore it at your own peril. You can acknowledge it and play nicely with it. Or you can choose to thrive in it. Companies who can put aside their fear of losing control and tap into the power of that groundswell will really benefit from it.
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Recent Comments | 13 Total
June 30, 2008 at 1:38pm by
really interesting and insightful!
June 30, 2008 at 9:22pm by Rob Loach
Awesome writing!
July 2, 2008 at 10:05pm by David Damore
If you want to hear more great stuff from Charlene and two other amazing women [Sarah Lacy and Tara Hunt].
Check out their podcast/radio show/conference calls.
http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=21831&cmd=tc
Not sure when the next call is but you can listen to the first two at the link above.
Best
July 3, 2008 at 6:59am by Howard Poon
I've just started reading Charlene's book, Groundswell. If the first few chapters are an indicator, it's a excellent read – written in plain-language and packed with relevant examples to support the the core content.
July 3, 2008 at 2:50pm by Jolaine Thomas
Oh, so true.
July 6, 2008 at 4:32pm by Carel Two-Eagle
The central message is "Power to the people!" A concept when Europeans first came here to Turtle Island, an ongoing thread in all ITI cultures, then in the 1970's when it became a majority-culture slogan; those who claimed to be 'in control' or 'in power' tried to bury it deep. We ITI know this for fact - our holocaust is still going on. But like anything vital to life, the concept just kept resurfaciing; and now with the Internet, it appears we the people have a real chance at making it live in our lives once again - ITI and non-ITI alike. Finally. All we must do is take hold of it and not let go.
July 7, 2008 at 1:58am by Jay Tatum
This is a curious article on over-stating the obvious and it comes across to me as one of those, "I told you so," kinds of posts. I haven't read the book, I'm just reading the interview and I am not all that impressed! I don't think it is particularly well written or that the questions really probe the author crtically enough about what she is trying to say in her book. I mean, I get it that her book is about the transformation happening to businesses with social networking (as if this is new!)as the traditional tools used in business are no longer effective, but for me, I would have liked to have asked those three basic questons about the book:
First, "What question is the author asking?"
Second,"What answer does the author give?"
Third, "What are its implications?"
Yeah, these kind of qot asked and they kind of got answered and there may be some implications to examine. So what? My hesitation in now reading the book is that she is telling us what she's going to tell us and but we already know it.
I would rather engage the author in conversation and ask some questions about her research, how this confirms or denies the assumptions from "The Cluetrain Manifesto," and given the subject matter of the book, will it invite me to explore the topic more or will it be more "I told you so"?
July 7, 2008 at 5:12pm by Michael Daehn
Good read- if you are in marketing or technology you should pick it up.
July 10, 2008 at 5:16pm by alice yoo
I totally agree with this Charlene on this - companies need to understand that a paradigm shift is happening and if they don't try to open themselves up to people they'll only come out looking worse.
I am an ambassador for OneWebDay.org and wrote a story about this - http://onewebday.org/stories/?p=7
I also have a public blog where I enjoy talking about these kinds of things (among other things): www.modernmet.com
July 12, 2008 at 5:27pm by Makio Yamazaki
'Professional Socail Skill'(not technologies) would be more and more important than ever before, I mean.
July 19, 2008 at 9:30pm by Karrie Sullivan
While basic the article hits on some good points that most companies are trying to figure out right now. The message about how social media will affect how companies go to market hasn't gotten through yet (otherwise IT would be working on how to mitigate risk and leadership wouldn't see social sites as time wasters).
Social media will radically cange the roles PR, corporate communications, marketing, and advertising play in companies. Everyone will be recruited into marketing and marketers will be called upon to integrate with non traditional disciplines as engineering and manufacturing to help them deal with communications challenges posed by doing business in a social media world.
September 25, 2009 at 11:50pm by joe lee
Hey, you have a great blog here! I'm definitely going to bookmark you! Thank you for your info.And this is DoFollow Social Bookmark site. It pretty much covers DoFollow Social Bookmark related stuff.
Thank.
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November 4, 2009 at 1:25pm by Taras Kolodny
Awesome writing! дао цигун