Response Post Week 1

Prior to reading Groundswell, I thought of social media as primarily being utilized by individuals, not companies or businesses. I was very interested to learn about what a vital role groundswell plays in a company’s marketing strategies and how much of a business’s identity is shaped by its online presence. Although the increasing number of online outlets makes it more difficult for a company to have control over its image, they can also use this visibility to their advantage. Customer reviews and opinions can often dictate to a company what improvements are necessary and as discussed in chapter 5, listening to the groundswell and what customers are saying can be extremely important for a company.

The first chapter presents an example of GM’s Bob Lutz who began blogging about his company and “revolutionized the way GM communicates.” It didn’t necessarily transform the company as a whole, but gave them a competitive edge by enabling them to directly communicate with their customers. Aside from blogging, however, there are many other ways in which businesses can utilize social media that is not traditionally used professionally. Because so many people visit websites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, companies see such websites as an opportunity for advertising and create pages on these sites. And while it may not seem very significant to me when I become a fan of The New York Times on Facebook and write a comment on their page, my comment may incite a discussion which can dictate to the business where improvements can be made.

Because most of the content on the internet is not monitored, I would assume that it would be risky for a company to participate in groundswell but the reading really showed how the saying “all publicity is good publicity” is true in this case. And although companies usually cannot control what is being said about them or their products, they certainly have ways to maximize their benefits from social media. As discussed in chapter 3, by creating a social technographics profile for their target consumers, companies can more effectively market to them. Basically, it pays to know your audience. This section also got me thinking about the side ads on Facebook that advertise to people based on their interests.

The first half of the book that we’ve read so far I have found very insightful. It allows me to look marketing from the supplier/producer point of view instead of consumer and shows me just how much thought goes into finding an appropriate ad to place on my Facebook page. And whereas before this reading I didn’t quite see how companies used social media, now I can’t understand how they marketed without it.