While at my internship, I have been splitting my time between reading about SEO and reading about online marketing, which of course have some overlap. Currently, I am reading a book titled Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff. I found that due to my previous research, that I was pretty familiar with a lot of the ideas presented, even though this book flushed them all out particularly well. However, the thing I found most poignant was that case studies, which are prominent throughout the book, and which help to reiterate all the concepts, and of course give insight into actual paths companies have taken while trying to interact with the groundswell. For those who don’t know; “the groundswell is a social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other instead of from companies” (Introduction, Groundswell, Page X). Essentially, this book is about interacting with the customers that are active online, in order to reach your customer base as a whole, which can of course range considerably due to your companies personal tactics and goals. This book attempts, and I believe succeeds, at detailing with the range of possible interactions, and outlining which types of companies should consider which types of methods for interaction with the Groundswell. While reading this book, I engaged with Ben, an employee from a company who I have recently started using its product, Grooveshark. I would like to share my experience with Ben, as he is a perfect example of how to properly interact with the groundswell regarding his particular company.
Yesterday, I made a blog post about Grooveshark, about how much I really like the program, and I strongly encourage people to use it. As the site is currently blocked at my internship, I can’t find an exact date the product launched, though it was established in March of 2006, so needless to say, this can be considered a very young company. On my blog, I also made a list of some things I would like to see improved about the way the interface works, and put in a suggestion for an expansion of their product. I then sent a @reply to Ben on twitter, Grooveshark’s spokes person. I sent this at around 4:30 PM. At around 11PM that night, Ben sent me a @reply saying he had commented on my blog. His reply was a page long, more than half the size of the article I had written. I would like to highlight some of the key parts of his response. To see the whole response, you can find it here: http://preview.tinyurl.com/dmq9xf.
The first thing to notice is how nice Ben was at the beginning of his e-mail. He was personal, and had obviously taken time while writing his response. Though being nice to the customer seems like common sense, making sure that comes through in this sort of medium is crucial, and he used his words carefully to reiterate that point. More impressive to me still, was the bulk of the reply.
In my tweet to Ben, I had asked him to look at the suggestion part of my article specifically, and to react to it if he could. After making his polite and flattering introduction, he went straight to the part of the article I had asked him to. He reacted directly to all of my points, not just telling me what he though, but telling me about what the company was doing currently, to address the issues I had mentioned. When talking about my product idea for a way to get Grooveshark in the car, he not only reacted to what I said, but also told me about applications they were currently working on that were similar, which keeps me in the loop with the company, creating a personal feel to the dialogue.
I would like to quote his last paragraph here, as it is crucial to the interaction; “Thanks (a)gain for absolutely EVERYTHING, Blake, and let me know for sure if you have any other tips, questions, requests, or just want to chat. You know where to find me: http://twitter.com/grooveshark.” I couldn’t imagine a better way to have ended his response. It let me know that what I said mattered, even though that was made clear to me already, but it pushed for my continued drive and interaction with him and the company. This is a perfect example of energizing the groundswell.
“Energizing the groundswell means tapping into the power of word of mouth by connection with, and turning on, your most committed customers…” (Energizing the groundswell, Groundswell, Page 131). It was interesting reading this section of the book for me, because I knew it was talking about me, but from the prospective of a company. When I like something, not only do I like it on a personal level, but I spread it to everything that I think would also benefit from it. Ben doesn’t know this yet, though he will when he reads this because he’s good at what he does, but I must have already personally told about 40 people about Grooveshark, and that doesn’t include my blog. Not only did I tell them about it, but I went into about as much detail as I did on my blog, making sure that coming out of the conversation I have them committed. Not only that, but I told all of my friends and other people I have told about Grooveshark to contact me if they had any questions, and I would help them. I have already set up accounts, uploaded music libraries, explained the auto-play feature, and answered the question “what was that music site you were talking about again?” countless times. I have been using Grooveshark for under 3 weeks.
Ben didn’t know this. Ben doesn’t know me. I had never interacted with him before I sent him that link to my post. But by listening and interacting with the groundswell, Ben did exactly what he was supposed to do. I know myself, and as Groundswell mentioned, with people like me, we tend to be very fickle. If a company bothers me, people will know about it. If I like something, people will know about it. Keeping me liking something is hard, but if he keeps listening, I will keep talking, both to the company and to the groundswell. For now, I am a energized and committed customer, which is exactly what a starting company like Grooveshark wants and needs.
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