Where Do We Go From Here? Reading Reflection #3

 
As we reach the end of the book, I found the last few chapters of Li and Bernoff's Groundswell optimistic, and their prediction future of companies continuing to improve due to the groundswell phenomenon rather reassuring.  After all, the main moral of this book is that the opinions of individuals affiliated with a company will be more and more valued with the growth of social media, whether its their customers or their employees.  This is great news, as the tools we have practically grown up with are going to be more pivotal in measuring the quality of a service or product as well as expressing ourselves as consumers.  Although it is still an ongoing evolution, it is safe to agree with Li and Bernoff that companies will soon be increasingly utilizing social media, rather than relying completely on creative departments of their own, to improve their products and services.

Standards are continuing to reshape itself even at this very moment.  Thanks to Groundswell, I know that if I someday end up working for a mid- to large-sized company that does not have social media outlets that they use to listen, empower, and respect their employees, it is an indicator of how little they care about their workers.  Same goes with a small company that does not have social media pages available to market themselves and listen to their groundswell: it shows that they are not thinking strategically and not committing that minimal effort to exploit social media to expand.  Reading Groundswell and knowing what is ideal and vital to success helps raise the bar on the quality of a company's work as well as their customer relations.

In addition, I found Chapter 11 on the employee groundswell extremely interesting, as it is now an increasing imperative to give all your employees the proper tools to be social media ambassadors.  In other words, not only should there be a centralized online site where employees can communicate with each other and throughout the hierarchy of the company ladder, but there should also be a top-down discourse that ensures company members that they are being listened to.  Furthermore, there should be regulations as to what is appropriate within each employee's individual social media sites and what they post in the company's main comment boards or pages.  After all, one company who divulges too much or too inaccurately could destroy a company's reputation in minutes.  It seems as though the dynamics of a company's future will be interesting, as younger people will continue to have more of a say in how a social media campaign should be approached, but guidance from senior officials about what is appropriate should still exist.

As Li and Bernoff seem extremely positive about the Groundswell phenomenon, I have to agree with them that this is the future of how businesses are run, how marketing is structured, and how shareholders and consumers will become increasingly important.  Hopefully as time goes on, social media standards (in other words, what is appropriate in personal and corporate social media use) will become more concrete in order preserve this valuable social communication phenomenon that is currently leading to better products and easier lives.