Inside your company

KEEP YOUR EMPLOYEES (WHO ARE CUSTOMERS) IN THE LOOP! Make them work together. Best Buy started Blue Shirt Nation and it was created to listen to what the employees had to say. They came together, embraced the idea and were committed to making the company and their goals a success.

Avenue a/razorfish uses wikis to keep their employees together and on the same page. All projects have pages and they can learn about their colleagues.

Organism which is a social network was created to bring together collaboration and communication between the employees.


Bell Canada came up with ID-ah! where employees would submit ideas and vote on them. There was a committment to all employees but a committment by executives to read and put into place some great ideas therefore applying what they had been told.

Dove

Dove went against the norm and didn't use typical models for a commerical. This a was a genius idea in forms of creation because it was something out of the ordinary. They also used web based videos to launch a new product line.

Dell listened first then acted. There were unsastisified customers who were really taring apart the company on blogs that it wasn't even aware of. They finally made the "blog resolution" team and by doing this they were able to track blogs and share their knowledge with their customers.

The book talks about how you become so engaged with your customers that you start walking hand in hand with them and caring about what they say which is great for the company.

Supporting itself

A good support system enables people to connect and they will making life alot easier. Just in the case with the CarePages and how it made life so much easier for the parents. They didn't always have to worry about talking to people. They allowed the hospital to create this new piece of knowledge and distribute it to the family members.

DELL had the case where one of its customers was posting answers on Dell's community for free. He and other customers were supporting each other and applying the knowledge that he knew. It saved so much money and so many calls to Dell Customer Service. Dell gets its validation from the ratings and reviews that the customers send in that they were satisfied with the answer they got or that it helped them in some way.

People who support each other support the groundswell. They are the true sight of knowledge management in that they create, apply and distribute all the time!

Energizing!

GET PEOPLE TO TALK! That is the whole point and purpose of energizing the groundswell. Get into their enthusiasm and allow them to talk and share and create ideas together.

Ebags, 21 days after a bag ships, they send an e-mail asked them to review the product. Of course not everyone responds but they people who care about the company and the product do. They get people talking and the site eventually learns to build on itself. They allow the people to create and distribute the knowledge, what knowledge they want heard.

LEGO uses lego ambassadors to communicate with each other and share ideas with the people as to what they want. They are creating knowledge together, sharing together, and then applying it when they tell the CEO's what they want.

Energizing is all about creating and applying in my opinion. You want new ideas so get people to talk. You want people to feel as though they have a say in something so every once in a while apply an idea that they want.

Talking with the Groundswell

ERNST AND YOUNG is a prime example of how to talk to the groundswell. They are a company that has to hire around 3500 college students every year. They have created a facebook page that encourgaes one on one talking with the candidates. They have an information page in which they distribute knowledge in the form of video, information, and other advertising.

Here they have created the knowledge and distributed it well, getting it out to their target audience.

HP has their executives blogging. They have them answering questions to their customers and they are creating, sharing and applying knowledge.

Proctor and Gamble created and distributed knowlege in a very different way. Instead of "yelling" at their customers and only advertising about their product they created a forum and a site that allowed people to talk about many topics, occasinaloy throwing in promotions for their products. It's like hiding what you want to advertise behind what people really want to talk about. Very smart!

Who do you market to

When I read the case of the Mini Cooper company I was very surprised yet it made total sense. If you don't have a new product coming out and if there is not something that is going to wow your customers are you stuck? Not really. It's time to then think creatively.

They distributed knowledge in one of what I think is most brilliant ways. They marketed to people who already owned the mini cooper. Instead of trying to find new customers they marketed to and used there current customers. Telling them what a great car it was and letting those enthusiatic customers feel as though they are part of something and let them spread the word.
This is sooo smart because I would rely on what a friend told me more than a salesman. I would think the salesman is just trying to sell me the car but if my friend owns one, loves it and goes on and on about it then maybe there is something there.

Apply that knowledge of the happy customer and let them do some of the work for you.

How to get into the groundswell

So how do you get in there and learn to fight with the best of the best. You stop and look at the important things and what is going to matter to your customers.

P- People What are the people wanting?
O- Objectives What goals are you trying to achieve with your site?
S-Strategy How do you want relationships to change?
T-Technology What apps should you use?

Listening- Listen to what your customers want, don't want and are saying
Talking- Spread the message
Energizing- Use energized customers to help spread the word about your company
Supporting- Help customers support each other. Create an area where they can work together
Embracing- Integrate customers, embrace them, and use them to help your company

Targeting AlphaMoms

People were creating a website and thought that blogging would be a huge part of it and what they found was that they were wrong. "AlphaMoms" were more of the critics type. They liked to rate and read information but they really didn't like to be creators. Therefore they had to change there plans. This is applying knowledge as it relates to knowledge application because they are learning what is going to be the most effective on their site and using it. They didn't post a whole bunch of blogs or want a whole bunch of blogs because these women didn't want to use them. They wanted to rate and read and review other people's work and that is how they changed their sites.

This is why it is important to know the technographics and who your audience is because it could make all the difference in whether your company or idea sinks or floats.

Different Technologies

This book in chapter 2 mentiones many different technologies that are associated with the groundswell. Blogs which are journal entries, social netowrking sites which allow people to maintain a profile of themself, wikis which are when many people are relyed on to create and maintain the site, ratings and reviews which allow people to post comments and responses, and tage which are a people driven organization. There are RSS and widgets with bring the updated content to you and widgets are mini apps that connect to the internet.

TECHNOLOGY AND PEOPLE! It's all about people to people interaction. Allow them to create, apply and share information and everyone will be on to the groundswell. Companies and customers will begin to have a greater respect because they now have a say in how businesses are run.

How important are social technographics?

They are very important. As Chapter 1 talks about you must know who your audience is and what they are involved in in the world of technology to determine what they will participate in. There are the creators, critics, collectors, joiners, spectators, and inactives. Creators publish blogs and web sites, critics post ratings, collectors vote for websites, joiners join social networking sites, spectators read blogs and read ratings and the inactive don't do anything in the world of the groundswell.

Digg.com decided that it's customers would be in charge of what was on their site and that is why they decided not to take the number down. Once they did in the first place, other people were putting it on their own blogs and things and I loved how he said "at least we'll go down fighting." This was knowledge sharing as it relates to knowledge management. They shared what they knew and then it was taken from person to person. They distributed their knowledge and then let it go from there. I think it is wise when you allow the customers to feel as though they are able to help maintain a site and get their ideas out there.

Not part of the Groundswell?

What will happen to a business in the future who is not an active member of the groundswell. What if there was a company who went out on a limb and chose not to use the groundswell; not to listen to it? Would the company survive and strive or would they drown in the negative comments and blogs that they can't respond to and defend themselves? I think for any company in the future to strive they will need to be part of the groundswell. They will need to use it to market there company, to communicate with customers or to strive off of their feedback. Companies need to grow with technology and it would be crazy to think that a company in the years to come could strive without being involved with technology in a major way.

The post office

Technology may be hitting our mail system hard. Word it that our post office is losing so much money it is considering taking away one day of mail which doesn't seem like much. But it was so obvious it was going to happen and it will probably get worse with the use of e-mail and the internet for much of people's communication needs. It seems the only things that come in the mail are bills (which you can now access and pay online) and local community newspapers (which you will probably soon be able to access online). So instead of losing one day of mail service per week will we ever be in danger of losing the post office? It is an interesting concept to think about and in one way you say it could quite possibly happen but at the same time there are things that seem like they can only be done at the post office. I just can't believe how much money technology and the use thereof have taken away from a mail system that has been in place for quite a long period of time.

Computer security in the health industry

As someone who deals with a hospital via e-mail and the internet I sometimes wonder how safe my information really is. All of my personal information from contact information to test results is sitting on these computers for someone to access at any time; someone which might not supposed to be able to see it. I am notified of perscriptions, doctor's appointments and bills through this system; alot of which is very sensitive information. With computers changing all the time is there always going to be adequate security? How will people know if their information is in danger or not? It is a wonderful advantage being able to use the computer to be in contact with my doctor's office but sometimes I wonder when to much sensitive information is to much to be put out there? Just something I have been thinking about.

Can people really be all they need to be?

As Dr. Jih was talking in class today, he mentioned how a company he knows of can't hire people because they simply can't find the "right" person. With the way technology is growing is it acceptable to ask that someone be as up to date with technology as it is with itself? Can one person simply know all there is to know? I'm not to sure of this answer to be honest especially when it deals with technology. It changes so much everyday so how are we to know when someone knows everything or we think we ourselves know everything. Sometimes companies will just have to hire people who fit the bill and who are will to learn as technology and the industry evolves and quit looking for that "ideal know all candidate." Companies must make their expectation realisitic and if someone is will to learn with the changes then so be it.

The future of technology

It is interesting to just think sometime where technology is going. To think of where we have been in the past to where we are now alone is simply amazing. For instance, now you can get a complete college degree online. Everything can simply be done by using the computer and many years ago this was unimaginable. While there is so much good with technology also comes the bad too. So many people are taught the easy way today when using computers, calculators, ect. or they sit in front of the t.v. all day. So while yes technology is a good thing and many advances in this field are great there are always going to be some negatives to the field especially if technology gets to advanced.

Who do we market to?

Before I read chapter 5 in the groundswell, I thought duh, you market to people who you want to buy your product. You can tell people how great it and why they should buy it and on and on. But the book makes a really good point in that it is crucial to market towards people who already own part of your brand. By getting people to talk about how much they like your car or how much they like your clothing, they are going to talk. And people are going to listen to them because they own the product already and have experience with it. It is not like listening to someone who doesn't know anything about the product or who is just trying to make it sound good. It is real like experience which people take into consideration more and appreciate. So this chapter has totally changed my mind on who we market towards. Not only do we market towards new people but we market towards people who already own and enjoy our products.

Listening

Why is listening important for companies? It is important for several reasons but in particular the fact that customers want what they want from a company and they want to know they are being heard. Companies can make many beneficial changes to their organization when they LISTEN. It is something that would appear to be so easy but are book states that " listening is perhaps the most essential neglected skill in business" which is very surprising. Sometimes managers or CEO's make the company what they want and they alone want, and don't really include other people. It is amazing to think of so many companies that have went out because they didn't listen to the customers. I know a local restraunt that went out of business because customers were wanting what they weren't giving them. They didn't give the customers what they wanted= they went out of business!