Reflection Three

Chapters 9 through 12 of Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff explain how we can embrace the groundswell and our customers, describe how connecting with the groundswell shapes our organizations, and emphasize the importance of remembering to tap the groundswell within our own organizations.  Some of the most interesting points to me from these chapters are the use of crowdsourcing to embrace customers, the importance of a strong Twitter presence, and the value in listening to the groundswell within our own organizations.


Throughout the first nine chapters of the book, we have learned strategies for listening to, talking with, and tapping into the groundswell, however, our engagement with the groundswell can't end there.  We must work to embrace our customers and incorporate their suggestions and feedback into innovation.  Not only does embracing the groundswell result in faster innovation, but it also proves that we are listening and are committed to providing a better product or service.  For example, Lay's is one brand that regularly crowdsources customer ideas through the "Do Us a Flavor Contest".

Do Us a Flavor Contest, 2017 Finalists

Lays launched the first Flavor Contest in July 2012 and since then has introduced more than a dozen of wild flavors including "Wavy Fried Green Tomato", "Crispy Taco", and "Southern Biscuits and Gravy".  Lay's produces the suggested flavors of each of the finalists they select and ask customers to try each flavor and vote for their favorite. Lay's incentivizes participation in this contest by offering a 1 million dollar grand prize and additional prizes to the runner-up finalists and semi-finalists.  Not only does Lay's benefit from the increased consumer buzz and sales from the Flavor Contest, but they also get the chance to try out new wacky flavors that they may never have considered themselves! In addition, their flavor innovation happens faster as a result of this contest because they recieve thousands of flavor suggestions to help inspire them.

Li and Bernoff highlight Twitter as one, almost essential way to tap into the groundswell.  According to Li and Bernoff, "10 percent of all the influence spread in social media comes from Twitter" (200).  One organization that I think excels at their use of Twitter is Moe's Southwest Grill.  Not only does Moe's use Twitter to listen to and talk with the groundswell through humorous tweets, but they also use it to energize their most loyal brand enthusiasts.

One of those brand enthusiasts is @hollytheninja, a close friend of mine.  Holly has tweeted at and about Moe's so much that they actually have followed her back and even regularly respond to her tweets.  For Holly, this reinforces her love of Moe's. Not only does she love their food, but she loves that they are a company that goofs around with their customers as if they were friends.  This type of relationship and intimacy between company and customer contributes to her sentiment that she would rather die than eat at their competitor, Chipotle.  For Moe's, positively interacting on Twitter energizes their most loyal customers who then spread the love of Moe's brand.  It is a low-cost and easy way to make a customer's day and energize the groundswell through Twitter.

Finally, Li and Bernoff explain the importance of remembering there is a mini-groundswell within our own organizations.  There are several advantages that we can gain from tapping into the mini-groundswell within our own organization including archiving knowledge and documents, improving communication, and increasing employee engagement.

As explained by Li and Bernoff, Best Buy is one company that successfully tapped into their internal groundswell through Blue Shirt Nation, an internal community site for Best Buy employees.  Although Blue Shirt Nation was a huge success in energizing Best Buy employees, the site was discontinued several years ago.  In its place, Best Buy established WaterCooler, a new online employee forum where employees have "free reign" to post almost anything they want.  According to Best Buy WaterCooler was an effective and low-cost substitution for Blue Shirt Nation and allowed increased communication between store employees and corporate employees.  Unfortunately, I was unable to find any more recent information on WaterCooler and so I can not confirm if it is still an effective tool in tapping the groundswell or if Best Buy allowed the community to fizzle out.

Do you think the companies described above have successfully used social media to interact with the groundswell? How could they continue to improve?