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BOOK REVIEW
Get in on the digital social scene
This in-depth examination of digital social interaction is packed with stats and
case studies and is certainly worth a browse, says Shane McGonigle
o you suffer from customers are writing about your products on blogs and recutting your
D
GAS (Groundswell commercials on YouTube. They’re defining you on Wikipedia and ganging
Approach-avoid- up on you on social networking sites … most companies see this as a
ance Syndrome)? threat”. This is just the tip of the dramatic iceberg, but thankfully it melts
To find out for away by about page 40 or so.
sure, you’ll need This fear of people, of your customers, appears to be spawned by an
to read this book, although I’m apparent shock that not everything people say is positive and that you
not entirely certain you’ll be cannot control every piece of communication about your brand. Could
self-diagnosing your digital you ever? Now that we can eavesdrop on the consumer through the two-
health when you come out the way mirror of blogs and social networks, we hear the real story. Is that
other side. And it’s not certain not a good thing or are consumer-centric strategies a thing of the past?
that you will come out. I believe Irish people are thankfully behind and subsequently ahead of
Groundswell: Winning in a the world when it comes to sociability. Lacking hundreds of years of
World Transformed by Social industrialisation with the resulting breakdown of traditional social net-
Technologies, by Forrester works, we instinctively know how to communicate as people, consumers
Research’s Charlene Li and and brand owners. If you make a bad product you deserve to be criti-
Josh Bernoff, is well worth cised, and if you make a good one you deserve the laurels. Of course, the
browsing, but be warned — it chances are that your mother’s best friend’s sister-in-law’s niece will use
is a difficult enough read. your product and if it does not perform you will know all about it!
The authors are attempting to coin a term – ‘the groundswell’ — to If you can make it past the shock-horror pantomime of consumers that
encompass every aspect of the consumer phenomenon that I would best always say nice things and the Marketing 101 lectures, then there are
describe as digital socialisation — ie people communicating with others countless good case studies and interesting facts to give the reader a
online. Or, in the words of the authors: “The groundswell is a social trend decent appreciation on what is happening with digital socialisation.
in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each Better still, this book really works when the authors concentrate on the
other instead of from companies.” hard facts and practical advice. There are tips on the formulation of dig-
My interpretation of all this is a bit less dramatic but no less funda- ital strategy and tactics and some really practical approaches to
mental. It is people talking to each other because we like company, technographies – profiling consumers by the level and skill of their
chitchat and gossip; we are social animals. The source of this gentle digital interactions.
conversation is sometimes products and brands — not how to get them, Groundswell is about people chatting over the digital fence. Be a
but what you think of them generally. Nowadays, these conversations responsible brand, embrace and engage the consumer in this new com-
take place through electronic media, for example, the internet, and they munications world and you’ll do better than ever. This book is ideal if you
are becoming more numerous as people become more technologically take your education via 20-minute Dart trips in the offline, book format.
literate and comfortable with these modes of communications. So, the So, do you suffer from GAS? You will if you attempt to read this book in
groundswell is about digital socialisation and the impact these new one sitting.
modes can have on brands. Most of it is uninteresting babble – just
watch five minutes of Big Brother — but sometimes it deals directly with
your brand and then you do need to pay attention.
Socialisation in the digital world is a good topic and it is very well doc-
umented here, as you would expect from two Forrester researchers.
Shane McGonigle manages Leo
They’ve got charts, tables, percentages and a truckload of case studies Burnett Ireland and is president of
to illustrate their points. However, anyone with a marketing background
the Institute of Advertising
will need some patience as they will have to wade through some fairly
Practitioners in Ireland (IAPI).
obvious commentary.
Add to this a penchant for drama and you begin to wonder if you’ll
make the next page. For example, did you know that “Right now, your
Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies
by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press. ISBN: 978-1422125007
84 Marketing Age May/June ‘08
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