Visionary of the year?! Thank you, SNCR.

by Josh Bernoff

In a development that left me breathless, SNCR (The Society for New Communications Research) has decided o give Charlene Li and me its "Visionary of the Year" award. We're getting honored along with the founders of Twitter for Innovators of the Year, and Dell for Brand of the Year.

I'm even more tickled by this since the manuscript for Groundswell, the book that led to this honor, was completed in November 2007, almost a full year ago. You try to be visionary with that sort of delay . . .

If you're not familiar with SNCR, it's a great organization that helps share research and insights on new developments in media and marketing. From their site:

The Society for New Communications Research is a global nonprofit think tank dedicated to the advanced study of the latest developments in new media and communications, and their effect on traditional media and business models, communications, culture and society.

SNCR will be giving out the awards at its annual Symposium in Cambridge, Massachusetts on Friday, November 14 (right down the street from me). Have a look at the event -- it's well worth a visit to get a look at what's on the leading edge of new communications technologies in business. I'll see you there.

How ordinary marketers can generate extraordinary ideas

by Josh Bernoff

After six months of touring and connecting with clients about Groundswell I continue to be amazed at how creative marketers can be. So I wrote about it

This is my column this month from the American Marketing Association's Marketing News. Some of this and some other insights were also published in a recent Forrester document called Lessons from the Groundswell. (full content accessible to clients only).

I just completed a tour of  North America, giving speeches and running workshops for companies that want to build strategies for social technologies like blogs, communities, social networks, and wikis.

I visited a mobile phone maker, a beer company, two investment firms, a shipping company, a bank, a software company, a TV network, a cable operator, a travel services company, a credit card company, and a company that makes medical implants. All of these were large companies. Every single one was full of people who had no experience with social technologies. And the same thing happened at every single one.

People became inspired and began to plan innovative social applications.

The conventional wisdom says that thinking about these social platforms is counterintuitive. We’ve all been told that giving up control is hard – that entering an environment in which the customers have the power is challenging. This is all true. Corporations that embark on this path have a lot of learning to do.

But what I saw in the last few months is that given the right frameworks, nearly anyone can begin to think this way. Most marketers know their customers pretty well: what they want, how they think, what their problems are. What I’ve seen is that if you give them the tools to think differently about how they can connect with those customers, the results can be amazing. I expected the TV network and the software company to be creative in their embrace of customers in the social world. What I didn’t expect was the powerful innovation that came from people that sell prosaic products like credit cards and medical devices.

It was as if I had given them permission to break out of the marketing prisons in which they had been locked up forever. Stepping into the sunlight, they were dazzled momentarily. Once they got over the shock, they realized they could understand and relate to their customers in a new way, and they began to generate ideas.

From watching these people, I’ve learned a few things. Let me share them with you.

First, we’ve been telling you to start by thinking about people (the social capabilities of your customers) and objectives (a firm idea of what you want to get done). These are the P and O in the POST process (people, objectives, strategy, technology) that is at the heart of Groundswell. I’ve learned more about why this works. It’s because when you think about a blog or a community, you bring preconceptions with you about how they work. When you start by empathizing with your customers, your thinking goes down a whole lot of different paths, many of which can connect effectively with those customers. By expanding your ideas of what is conceivable, you may hit on a very different strategy than you would by focusing on whatever tool or technology that’s hot right now.

Second, I’ve seen how naysayers can turn into allies. At the investment company, the legal department worked with the people running their community to come up with a streamlined process that didn’t require legal to check every post. At the medical company, everyone told me the regulatory affairs guy would say no to anything interesting. In fact, he was one of the most engaged members of the workshop, and reached out to make sure others knew he could collaborate with them on how to get ideas to pass regulatory muster. Conclusion: if you involve the people who typically say “no” at the start of the process, you’re more likely to be able to get started successfully.

Third, it’s not about you. One of the most powerful lessons people took away came from my story about Procter & Gamble’s feminine care products group, which created a highly effective community for adolescent girls. This community, beinggirl.com, works because it is about girls and their challenges, not about tampons. This message hit home everywhere I went. Marketers designed applications about pinching pennies, trading stocks, or getting the most out of your HDTV set – rather than about their own products. I expect customers to embrace these applications because they solve problems, instead of just selling.

And fourth, and most importantly, I saw the power of management opening marketers’ eyes. At one of the investment companies, the CMO kicked off the day by telling everyone they had to learn to embrace this new way of thinking – and sure enough they did. The head of branding at the cable company gave a similar message, and emphasized the importance of the day by bringing together folks, not just from all of his divisions, but from all of his advertising agencies – and they all worked together. At the credit card company, the day started with the COO of their ad agency entreating these marketers to overcome their fear. This group started out timid and quiet, but by the end of the day they had overcome their fear and amazed me with their insights.

Social technology thinking – or as we call it, groundswell thinking, isn’t just for the 25-year old whizzes in your marketing group. It’s for everybody. You just need to open up your mind to it. Are you ready?

More importantly, what are you doing to get ready?

Groundswell analysts from Jupiter/Forrester/US/EU: Yes, it blends!

by Josh Bernoff

As you may have read on blogs from Jeremiah, David, and Emily, we convened a little pow-wow here in Cambridge this week. We included not only the new members of our team from Jupiter -- David Card, Emily Riley, Barry Parr, and Michael Greene -- but our European analysts covering social computing -- Rebecca Jennings, Mary Beth Kemp, Christine Overby, and Jaap Favier -- and our analysts looking at marketing at technology companies, Peter Burris, Laura Ramos, and Oliver Young. We also included some of our research support staff including our data expert, Cynthia Pflaum.

As the "Chief Groundswell Officer" at Forrester and instigator of this get-together, I have to say this was the most empowering event I've been a part of in years.

First of all, I was pleased to see that not only are the Jupiter and European analysts open to being a part of this movement, but our thinking is highly compatible. The Jups are a bit more media-focused, and the Europeans have their own way of looking at this, but it's clear the Groundswell phenomenon is global and that marketers everywhere want to be a part of it.

This was an internal meeting, but I'll share that we generated a whole bunch of new research ideas, critiqued and improved our consulting offerings for marketers, and busted our heads developing a common understanding of the tools we use, such as the Social Technographics Profile and the wiki on which we all share our examples and concepts.

Before this it felt a little like I was trying to hold everything together with my fingernails -- demand for our services seems endless, as more and more marketers need help with social applications. After this, I felt more like we were a team with some pretty amazing strengths and a strong bench. I would trust any of these analysts to help a company with its social applications. In other words, "Yes, it blends!"

We also had a bit of fun making smoothies with my Blendtec blender.

 

I wouldn't normally write so much about an internal meeting, but this gives me confidence that you'll see a whole lot more insights from all over Forrester as the team gets going. These are not shy people, and they are thinking about your problems. We look forward to helping you, and impressing you.

Groundswell meets Will It Blend

by Josh Bernoff

For your viewing pleasure. Like it? Share it!

Want to know more about how we did it? Read this.

To see in higher quality, click through to YouTube.

Here's the embed code for sharing:

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The story behind Groundswell on Will It Blend

by Josh Bernoff

This is the story of the video in the following post.

In Groundswell we profiled George Wright and the team at Blendtec that created "Will It Blend", a series of goofy videos that show off the power of the company's industrial-strength blender (and have increased sales by 20%).

I thought to myself, "I wonder if I could market Groundswell as cleverly as this." Rather than think of something original, I ask George if we could work with him. Amazingly, he agreed. (If you've followed Groundswell you know we've tried a number of original things, but this was an opportunity not to be missed.)

First a little about the video. When it comes to viral video, you need to make sure 1) you create something people will spread and 2) that the video carries a payload -- a message about your product. Fail on point 1 and your video won't spread. Fail on point 2 and you'll be a hit -- but it won't help your company. It's a very difficult balance. Blendtec hits it brilliantly, as does Greg the Architect. Very few others have.

I tried to hit this balance in my own Blendtec video. As you'll see, we make the point that mixing technologies without focusing on a clear objective isn't a good strategy. Do you think it works?

If you're interested in the making of this video, read on. The rest of this post is about my visit to Blendtec in Orem, Utah.

Blendtec is nestled in an industrial park in the exurbs of Salt Lake City. The squat, industrial building gives no clue as to the creativity going on inside.

Blendtec's blenders are microprocessor controlled, which is what makes them special. They use a direct drive and avoid jamming using the microprocessor, rather than with an indirect drive like other blenders. So this product really is better than other blenders -- and it's also why it costs $399.

As I saw in their factory, most of the parts are manufactured elsewhere and assembled in Utah. But the direct drive portion is custom-manufactured right in the factory in Utah, since it needs to meet exact tolerances to work properly. (I love this picture of all the direct drive elements lined up and ready to go.) They actually test the motor portion in a "burn in" period, which results in the unusual sight of a cabinet full of blender bases whirring at full speed as they go through their various cycles in a test mode. Loud!

The TV studio is a room off the warehouse floor, outfitted to look like a game show. The CEO, Tom Dickson, is every bit as much fun in person as he appears in his videos -- at 60+, he's become a video star that people recognize in airports, but from what I saw during the taping, it's clear he really cares about the product and the employees. He is a natural.

The taping itself took place over the course of a single morning and gave me the chance to wear my seldom-used green groundswell tie. Kels Goodman, Blendtec's videographer, has taken his considerable video skills and turned them to this very narrow but effective area of humorous blender video production.

I asked the CMO George Wright if the company was now as much a media company as a blender company and he didn't quite have an answer. Blendtec is now working with other companies that are willing to pay for a Will It Blend videos as a form of advertising (for the record, we didn't pay, they volunteered to create this video with us). Every one of Blendtec's videos created with other marketers helps to generate more publicity for the company, but they keep them sequestered from the "official" Will It Blend videos in a partner area to avoid confusion. Blendtec's marketing has created a new business for it. Is this great, or a distraction? You tell me.

What we have here is a bunch of industrial manufacturing guys, focused originally on a quality product and selling to restaurants, who found they could have a bit of fun showing off their product and found a whole new market. Fun attracts an audience. Are you having fun in your company? How will you use that to invite people to join you?

Soliciting entries for the Forrester Groundswell Awards 2.0

by Josh Bernoff

One year ago, we began asking for entries for the Forrester Groundswell Awards, which recognize excellence in accomplishing business goals with social applications. We received 78 fascinating submissions and recognized the winners at the Forrester Consumer Forum in  Chicago. The winners were some truly amazing applications.

This worked so well that we're doing it again. The number of people creating corporate social applications has increased, so we expect more entries. And we'll be including the community in the process, in ways we'll describe soon.

As before, the 2008 Forrester Groundswell Awards will go to people and companies who have created the most innovative and effective uses of Groundswell technologies like blogs, wikis, social networks, and communities. Nominations are due by September 9, 2008. Winners will get a free ticket to Forrester's Consumer Forum in Dallas on October 28 and 29, where they will be recognized for excellence. They'll also get to show our awards badge on their Web site.

Here are this year's rules:

1. Entries should represent excellent and effective use of social technologies to advance an organizational or corporate goal.

2. You can submit your entries using an online form we'll publicize right here in August. Entries will include a short description, a graphic representing the entry, and a link. The link should take us to a place on the Web where we can see your entry, including your description of what makes it an effective use of social applications.

3. The content of all entries will be considered on the record and can be quoted in Forrester research and any other Forrester materials. All entry submissions will be posted on the Forrester Groundswell Awards site, as soon as possible after submission. This public posting is new. We are hoping to provide a method so that visitors can rate and review the entries. (We'll still be picking the winners, though, based on business effectiveness rather than popularity.)

4. We'll disqualify entries that we think are inappropriate, including those with obscenity or copyright violations.

5. Agencies and vendors can submit applications created by their clients, but are responsible for obtaining the necessary permissions to submit those entries.

6. We'll judge the winners based on proof of accomplishing business or organizational goals, not based on what looks the best or uses the best technology. Innovation and audacity are good, too.

7. There are seven categories: LISTENING, TALKING, ENERGIZING, SUPPORTING, EMBRACING, MANAGING, and SOCIAL IMPACT. Read Groundswell to see what these mean. (A smart entrant would read Groundswell anyway to see how we think!) MANAGING is for internal employee social applications. SOCIAL IMPACT is for pro-social non-commercial applications. You can submit an application in one category only so choose wisely.

8. We will award at most one winner in each category, plus finalists if we feel like it. If there are no worthy entries in a category, we won't give an award in that category.

9. Winners will be featured on this blog and will receive their awards at the Forrester Consumer Forum in Dallas.

10. There is no rule 10.

Watch this space for more details. We look forward to seeing your entries.

 

If you have questions these rules don't answer, contact Tracy Sullivan (tsullivan [at] forrester dotcom).

Groundswell is a bestseller. Thank you. And a few reflections.

by Josh Bernoff

Thank you for buying so many copies of Groundswell.

According to the July 3 issue of Business Week, we were a bestseller in the previous week. Number 15 out of 15 spots, but hey, we made the list -- most business books don't get close to that, especially with the staying power of books like "The Four-Hour Work Week" making it harder to climb up those charts.

We've been in the top 20 on Amazon's business books list and the top ten on 800-CEO-READ, which does corporate bulk orders, but this is the first bestseller recognition in a mainstream publication.

I'm reflecting a little on how we got here.

First of all, the speaking schedule has been brutal. When you write a book, you spend a lot of time alone. But despite all the wonderful online techniques, there's no substitute for shoe leather and airline miles -- people want to hear about it. It got to the point where I began to think that every businessperson in America must have heard Charlene and me speak. But at every new engagement, there were 20 or 100 or 700 new faces and most of them had never seen these ideas before. Generating word of mouth is hard work.

What I learned from talking to all of you is that first, there is a huge curiosity about Groundswell phenomena and business. Businesspeople really want to know how all this stuff works, who's doing it, which consumers are participating, and how. Concrete examples and statistics are wonderful things to talk about. It lets all the air out of the balloon (bubble?) and gives people something they can hold onto.

Sometimes I worry what will happen when we speak to a more Web 2.0-savvy audience, like the OMMA Social event I did last month. But even there, providing examples of real business value and a roadmap for strategy opened some eyes. For the insiders, it helps to have frameworks to work from and examples in appropriate business context.

So here are some takeaways from four solid months of talking about the book (and a little success).

1. Here's what people remember: Stories. Statistics. Frameworks. Make sure you have them. And tell them with flair.
2. The groundswell is about people. When you talk about this, make sure you talk about people -- both ordinary consumers and businesspeople. People can relate to this.
3. Everybody takes away something different. Charlene spoke Supernova recently and the person who wrote it up for Knowledge@Wharton wrote about our Mini USA brand monitoring example. Other people end up talking about Procter & Gamble's beinggirl.com or Dell's Flaming Notebook blog post or the POST method. The lesson is that you should have a lot of stuff they can hang onto because you never know what will catch an individual's imagination.

All of your support has been wonderful. I like to hear stories about people who bought one for everyone in your department, or all your clients. I'd love to stay on the bestseller list. I'm not going to tell you to buy more copies. What I really want is this:

• Tell your boss.
• Tell your friends.
• Tell your boss' friends and your friends' bosses.

That's how the groundswell discussion will go mainstream.

Barack Obama vs. my.BarackObama.com on FISA -- When Your Fans Disagree With You

by Josh Bernoff

As you can see from this graphic, the banner at the top of myBarackObama.com, Barack Obama is serious about people's ability to change the world. But we're about to see just what happens when his supporters don't support his decisions. There are lessons here for corporations, too, so watch what happens.

I've written about how Barack Obama has leveraged the power of his supporters, not only through the social network of his supporters, my.barackobama.com, but through energizing those supporters during the primary. Democrats -- and Obama supporters -- are more likely to use social networks, a tendency that could benefit Obama as he attempts to reach out to their Independent friends in the general election.

But social networking in politics is still at the broadcast stage -- candidates ring their networks like a bell to amplify their messages. As we tell corporate clients all the time, once you start talking to people in the groundswell, you need to listen, as well.

Obama is seeing this in a big way. For political reasons -- moving, as all politicians do, more to the center for the general election -- he reversed a previously held position and will vote for a provisions of a bill called FISA that provide immunity from prosecution for phone companies that worked with the government on homeland-security driven wiretapping.

Many of his supporters disagree with him on this and see it as a betrayal? How many? At least 14,000. That's how many of them have banded together in a group called "Senator Obama - Please Vote NO on Telecom Immunity - Get FISA Right", highly visible on his own social network my.barackobama.com. This group is easy to find as it is now the largest group of the thousands on his site. One of his supporters' heartfelt cries of dissent is now the top search result for "Barack FISA." And the New York Times has written about the internal conflict.

What would you do? This situation is likely to happen to you as you participate in the blogosphere, create communities, and pursue corporate goals.

Obama is likely to run afoul of this again and again as he inevitably tacks to the centers -- and away from his supporters -- in the coming months. Here's our advice (and the same applies to you as you make corporate decisions and deal with the groundswell):

1. Make the right choices. You are not a tool of your supporters, you are supposed to be a good decision maker. Don't be unduly swayed by thousands of your supporters, if you believe you need to make different decision.
2. Justify your decision. And I don't just mean in the press. In the network. Obama himself needs to make a statement within the network to show he is listening, and justify his decision. He needs to acknowledge that he has supporters, and he listens to those supporters, even when he disagrees with them.
3. Give your supporters credit. There are lots of good ideas in a network like this. Obama needs to call out some of these, support them, and say where he got them. This will go a long way toward keeping the base energized.

I'll make following statement in closing -- please try to respond to this post based on what a politician or a businessperson should do in this situation, not based on your support of Obama, McCain, or whomever. This is about leveraging the groundswell, not Democrats and Republicans. (A futile request, I know from experience, but it's worth a try.)

Fast Company excerpts Groundswell

by Josh Bernoff

While we get a lot of press, this one is special.

Fast Company excerpted the book, with a very nice bit from Chapter 12 on wine, shoes, and what your life will be like in 2012.

Plus an interview with Charlene.

All in all a good way to start the month.

Forrester Research is hiring -- become an analyst or researcher on our global social applications team

by Josh Bernoff

If you see how fast corporate investments in social technology are growing, it won't surprise you to learn that Forrester is hiring. We're expanding our team in the wake of all the interest stirred up by Groundswell.

We're hiring for the positions of senior analyst and researcher. These are plum jobs, because they will put you right in the center of transformation that's happening as companies begin to embrace social applications.

I've been an analyst for 13 years and it's the most fun I've ever had  in a job. You'll spend your time speaking with people in companies who are actually implementing social applications, gathering information about what works, what doesn't, and where the industry is going. This, combined with our extensive consumer research data, forms the basis of our research content. You write documents on topics of interest to clients or work with clients on how to build these applications.

In the analyst job, we're looking for people with real experience building these social applications for businesses, either at a company, in an agency, or in a technology vendor.

The researcher job is a little different, since it focuses directly on the data collection. The researchers help write and analyze the results of the surveys we use and help write research documents driven off the data. That's why the researcher job requires a strong statistical backgrounds with survey experience.

Our current analysts on this team are working in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Foster City, California; New York; London, Paris, Amsterdam, Sydney. You could work with us in any of these places, or elsewhere. For this position, due to the need to collaborate freely, we're most inclined to hire analysts who can work in Cambridge or Foster City.

Forrester is an extremely collegial place, with analysts around the world collaborating freely with each other. We keep driving forward into new areas of knowledge. Working here is a blast.

Here's how to apply. Click to see the description for the senior analyst job or the researcher job. Then click "apply online." I hope I get to work with you!