In chapter
five of “Groundswell” by Charlene Li, Ricardo Guimaraes shared that a business
is an open structure that management does not recognize. This is a powerful
statement in a world of transforming social platforms because even though more
business are becoming more aware of social media and joining in and getting
involved, still there are businesses that still believe they are in control of
how their product is perceived by the publics.
This is most of the time false and
something that businesses need to be aware of. The first two parts of “Groundswell” has
continued to make that clear. A business can circle good press and chatter
about their company; posting on their media about new campaigns and features. The
real verdict though comes from the forums, blogs, and Facebook posts that give judgment
upon these new campaigns, features, and items that businesses are coming out
with.
I find this so intriguing because a
company can spend all this time on a campaign just for a few people to snowball
the product into something else entirely.
On page
twenty-seven, it is stated that nearly half of online Americans read ratings
and reviews; now there is a much smaller percentage of people who actually
write these ratings. This shows that it does not take much to circulate press, which
can be bad or good depending on the review. How many times have we looked
online at hotel rooms to see who has had a good or bad experience? Or looked at
the ratings of a movie out in theaters online? We care about what other people
say even though we have never met these people and probably never will.
This is what
makes social media so unique and powerful. I can be writing on this blog about
something, like how much I love something as simple as how I like Diet Coke, or how much I dislike the look of Kia cars
and people will read it without ever knowing me but by being on a forum of
social media I can share and critic Diet Coke and Kia cars and people will share, comment,
and critic back. This networking is what gives the Groundswell all of its
power.
Haley,
ReplyDeleteI almost blogged about this same point! I thought it was such a profound statement, it is so true and yet, as the authors say, businesses have it wrong. They think they have control of their image, which I would argue they do to a certain point. They have control of their corporate image they give off through their website and messaging. But I don't think they have control of the image we (consumers) give them or how we perceive them. And I think this is the mistake that businesses are making, they think they hold the power of the groundswell. I think an interesting idea though, which the authors have also discussed, is how to make businesses, more specifically, those who control businesses, realize this faultily reasoning? The authors discuss this from an employee side, but how as we as consumers, make business leaders realize they don't hold the power?
Also, ironically I was drinking a Diet Coke as I was reading your blog ;)
Anna,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment! I it nice to hear someone agrees with me.
To answer your question (I am not sure if it was rhetorical or not but I am going to give my two cents anyway), I think that business leaders should have a sense of self-responsibility when it comes to the groundswell now. Groundswell is so influential that if a leader chooses to ignore it and continue to think outsiders have or should have, no influence and their business fails because of it I think that is the leaders own fault.
As consumers I feel like in 2014 our presence is already known and if a leader chooses to ignore the consumers I think they are probably going to pay for it.
Nice to hear your a fan of Coke too by the way. I love Coke...the drink of course not the hard drug ;)