The Groundswell Inside your Company
I cant believe we’re finally just about done the groundswell…..sigh. What a fun adventure blogging has been.
We’ve come so far and learned so many valuable lessons about the ways social media and technology can truly change companies around for the better. Not only this, in todays highly competitive business world it is important to stay connected with your customers in new innovate ways. Simply answering the phone is not enough anymore. Well, maybe its enough…but its becoming more and more about setting yourself apart and creating those close relationships with the customers who have the ability to push your company forward.
Chapter 12 focuses on your employees. The first ten chapters gave great insight to how to connect with your customers, but its essentially your people who will be the key to making this work. My company is generally fairly small, but as companies expand and become larger there is more issues in terms of communication and information flow. Here are five important factors that Best Buy Blue Shirt Nation accomplished that led their company to groundswell success:
- Listening – Listening to your people can turn into solving
- Talking – Incorporate everyone together so each person can see where changes are occurring – keep the communication!
- Energizing – Enthusiasm in your employees will leak into your customers. Positivity spreads like fire!
- Supporting – commitment to support and promoting employees from within
- Embracing – Embrace the relationships and communities you create
Check out this great article I found on how to encourage employees to adopt new technology changes within the organization! This article makes some great points that can be applied to the implementing the groundswell. Check out my twitter for some great ways to motivate your employees (also make sure to check my replies to some great website links & articles).
The internal groundswell is all about “creating new ways for people to connect and work together, and to that end, its about relationships, not technology” (Bernoff, 2011).
I think this is so important for ANYONE, no matter what industry or company you work with to fully understand. Without those relationships, trust, communication, effort and passion, the groundswell will not succeed. People must be willing to be involved in a participative culture that encourages participation. MOTIVATE YOUR PEOPLE. The groundswell also talks about the importance of management support in chapter 12. In order to be successful, management must lead their people, participate actively, and sponsor/initiate involvement throughout the company or these efforts will simply fail and this could be a huge loss financially. The important lesson here: there is no substitute for management involvement. Lets all remember this as we move forward in our careers and potentially encounter businesses who are starting on the groundswell path. And guess who might be the future manager? you!
Remember, the secret to thriving in the groundswell is culture. yes, the customers are important, but nothing will ever succeed without the teamwork and dedication within the organization. Everyone must be involved to see change occur. Find the rebels in your company and rather than thinking about all the risks – think about the opportunities. Think about the future!
Until next time groundswell friends. Remember to stay in touch on twitter where I will frequently update my feed with new and exciting groundswell/social media marketing links. @amandacam19
Sources:
Charlene Li, Josh Bernoff,. (2011). Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies. (expanded and revised edition.). Harvard Business School Press.
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