I understand that it can be scary to join the Groundswell – what to say, what not to say, where to join, how to join and so on. If you are having trouble getting your feet wet in online conversation – here are a few simple, common and effective ways to start:

1. Social Networks – Joining sites like Facebook and Twitter is one of the simplest and most user-friendly ways to talk about your brand with your consumers. There is more to Social Marketing than just creating the profile, of course, you must generate the conversation. This is not impossible, it is just where the real work is. Test out which talking points generate the most feedback and this is how you learn what moves your audience.

2. Blogs – Use a tool like WordPress to set up an easy-to-use company blog. Do your best to engage your staff by encouraging all employees to write blog posts. Visit, mention, comment on and link to other blogs – while generating your own unique and compelling posts. HP has created multiple company blogs that allow them to answer service or product-specific questions by the masses. Their blogs have become a central place for solving problems and discussing new products. And have increased communication, generated trust and saved the company both time and money.

3. Viral Videos – Put a video online and let people share it. Familiar with Blendtec and their “Will it Blend?” videos? George Wright, the marketing director for Blendtec, put videos on YouTube of his company’s $399 blender – blending up all kinds of household objects. The first five videos that George made cost $50 to create and landed 6 million views in their first week online.¹ Whoah. Now in the campaign’s fourth year – sales are up 700% and the videos have been viewed more than 100 million times.² If you can create compelling content, this is fit for you.

4. Communities – These are exactly what they sounds like – communities, online communities. If you can generate a safe, trust worthy, open, interesting community for your customers online – you will win their attention and participation. Proctor and Gamble created beinggirl.com to offer a community for discussing the trials and tribulations of becoming a woman without actually screaming – “Hey, use our products!”. Instead, they created a space for young girls to ask the most embarrassing questions, share funny stories, obtain free samples and ultimately – discuss what it is like being a young woman. P&G did the math and figured that even if their site only converts one percent of it’s visitors into customers – they are already making three times more than the website costs.¹  How is that for ROI? Community is always better than media.

Sources:

¹ – “Groundswell, winning in a world transformed by social technologies”, written by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff

² – www.whatnextblog.com

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