9. Kati Ann Wright Contact Information Email: katiannwright@gmail.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/katiannwright Blog: www.wordpress.com/katiann4710 You can also visit me at facebook.com!
Editor's Notes
Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff have written the book Groundswell: winning in a world transformed by social technologies and was published in 2008. The idea of connecting with people through social media is represented in a whole new meaning throughout the book.
Charlene Li “is an independent thought leader and analyst on emerging technologies, with a specific focus on social technologies, interactive media, and marketing.” (Forrester Research Inc., 2009). She discusses these topics on her blog, The Altimeter.” Shehas been working with Forrester Research since 1999, but has had previous experience with online and newspaper publishing. It is also stated that she has worked with many well-known newspapers and television providers. Her name has been recognized in the media according to Forrester. She is “one of the most frequently-quoted industry analysts.” As well as a writer; she is a, “much-sought-after public speaker and has presented frequently at top technology conferences such as Web 2.0 Expo, SXSW, and ad:tech,” (Forrester Research Inc., 2009). Charlene currently lives in the San Francisco area, and is a mother to two children and blogs about being a mother on her personal blog, Midnight Musings and Symoms.com. Josh Bernoff is as stated above the senior vice president of idea development at Forrester Research. He is stated as being the, “idea development at Forrester Research, and is responsible for identifying, developing, and promoting some of the company's most influential and forward-looking ideas,” (Forrester Research Inc., 2009). Much like Li, Bernoff has written for many well-known newspapers, such as, the New York Times, and Wall Street Journal, as well as spoken at many conferences on the ideas of “television, music, marketing, and technology,” (Forrester Research Inc., 2009). Bernoff joined Forrester in 1995, and in 1996 created, “Technographics segmentation,” which is a group of people/consumers classified by the way they approach technology. As stated above he writes blogs for Forrester and a column for Marketing News.
By reading this book I learned more than just a way to go about business through the use of technology, but why people need to look at their product or company through the eyes of others using technology. The book groundswell states this, “a social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations. (p. 9). People are connecting with each other through websites, blogs, and social media websites. Not only are they connecting but they’re sharing. This term becomes very important when you look at the types of material they are sharing. The Marketing Funnel is a series of stages from product awareness to the purchase of a product. Marketers have little to do with what consumers are doing in the middle stages of the funnel, but groundswell does. Think about it this way, an individual see’s a product being advertised on TV. The awareness has been recognized, but there are stages along the way, such as, consideration and preference where the consumer needs some convincing and help. With groundswell the hopefully soon to be buyer can find out facts and talk with others. There are reviews available, competition, and people willing to talk. Most companies have caught on and are aware of finding bloggers posts and comments or reading their consumers daily tweets, but are they listening, asking questions back, and communicating for their benefit?
The models above are the POST Method and Social Technographics Ladder. As you can see, the ladder separates' each type of person by each step of the ladder. They’re separated into the category by what type of person each is when using technology. They range from creators and critics to those that are completely inactive. After seeing this figures I was very surprised! The number of people inactive is more than half of those that are using technology. And those that are using it are pretty spread out among these distinctive categories. This category surprised me the most. The Post Method helps someone when planning on working with customers or consumers through social media. You must gain interest and find out where your customers are, this can probably be found through a companies target audiences groups on websites, such as facebook.com. Then the mission of what needs to be accomplished plays a major role. What is it that you want for a product or your company. A plan of action should then be implemented when deciding the relational aspect of your work, and lastly what technology you will use to do it. The connection through technology is very likely to be a positive one in the end. After reading this book, I would like to see how small businesses can use the groundswell to increase their business sales in these hard economic times. Marketing is key, and getting the word out there can sometimes be challenging for a small business. Since the basis of communication through technology is being driven by a consumer driven market, I would like to know their ideas, tactics and/or techniques a small business owner would use through the use of technology to build awareness, improve sales, and gain customer loyalty. I would recommend this book to other students interested in Marketing, Sales, Public Relations, or Communication. The book has a lot of insight into how the communication needs to be ran, and how to take what critics and others are saying through technology and reverse it for your better. I think that this book would really help those who want to work for a company and position a company or product in a certain way, especially if the company image is in need of a new light. And if you want more information on social media, this is a great book to add to your library!
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