The Groundswell Reading Reflection Ch.11-14

Attaining Groundswell Thinking (Groundswell Ch.14 p.279)


Essence of the groundswell thinking

1. The groundswell is person-to-person activity.

    As a person, you need to be ready to talk and connect to your customers. For example, blogging, connecting in communities, and "friending" are personal activities.

   "Develop empathy for the people, and you unlock their secret."

2. Be a good listener

The successful point in the groundswell is listening not just to customers but to others in your company, and to people who have built applications at other companies.









3. Be patient

   Technology is still developing and moving fast, so it takes a while to get everyone into the same level. Eventually, they will take that first step to begin the first journey.









4. Be opportunistic

   Starting small is really important. To seek places to build applications that make progress on connecting with customers in a small way lead and help you to seek opportunities to expand that success.



5. Be flexible

   The groundswell always surprises people because events happen that you don't expect at all.

   "Groundswell thinking means constantly adjusting to and learning from these events."

6. Be collaborative

   You will need supports from people who think the same way as you, so that you will break the precedent with them and their idea will help you accomplish your goals.　

7. Be humble

   Even though it is a social media, you will deal with people and it's people's groundswell. Connecting people is not easy and requires you to have a big power. However, you need to consider how to face with people. Being humble is the best way to engage with people in the groundswell. Trying to be a part of it.



Still, a lot of companies has not started the groundswell yet because their executives are now willing to spend much money on social media to communicate with people. However, some are actually trying to transfer their communication style to digital which means social media. Here is the link about how much the companies are transferring their style of engage with people.

PR News: Digital Media Radically Transforming Marcom Process

In the groundswell, it has been telling us how important to engage people as a person. That sounds like it tells us how to be a good person. Thus, as long as being a "human"when you talk to people through social media, your engagement will be succeeded and the groundswell will be tapped into your customer well.