What's Chuck Norris got to do with it?

I am pretty much a novice in the world of social media marketing. Actually, who am I kidding? The only thing I knew about social media marketing is that I didn't know anything other than that I needed to learn more about it if I plan to work in the Marketing/PR world. So, imagine the sigh of relief I felt after reading the first few chapters of Groundswell: winning in a world transformed by social technologies. The first six chapters in Li and Bernoff's book are generally a 'how to' of what social media marketing is, and what companies need to do to use it in order to benefit from it. And everything is explained through case studies, MANY, MANY case studies!

Li and Bernoff define the groundswell as, 'A social trend in which people use technologies to get things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations, (Groundswell, 9).' Translation to companies: People will buy/consume your product based on what they hear from their peers, not what your Marketing/PR departments tell them. But, Li and Bernoff are not saying that Marketing/PR departments are a thing of the past, but that they have to learn about, join and adapt to the groundswell.

The first step companies need to take in joining The groundswell, is to figure out where their consumers are in the groundswell and how to most effectively reach them. To best figure this out, Li and Bernoff developed The Social Technographics Profile.

The Social Technographics Profile breaks down into groups where people are online. I completely agree with Li and Bernoff that it is a necessary and essential tool for companies to build their social media marketing strategy from. If a majority of your customers are Joiners it would be a huge mistake, as well as a waste of time and money, to start a blog. But if a majority of your customers are Critics, blogging would be the most effective way to reach them.

Once a company understands where their customers fall in the social technologies profile, there are no limits as to how far they can reach. Once they start using social media, they can not only reach their customers locally, but globally. '...the fundamental emotions that drive people to the groundswell--the desire to connect, to create, to stay in touch, and to help each other--are universal, (Groundswell, 49).'

What do companies do once they have entered the groundswell? According to Li and Bernoff, they MUST talk with the groundswell. The book uses Blendtec as an example of how talking leads to profit.

In short, The high end, high cost ($399) blender company Blendtec tests it's product's power by blending random things (ie. lumber) into unrecognizable pieces of dust. After walking through the lab one day, Blendtec's marketing director, George Wright, got the idea to video tape CEO Tom Dickson 'testing' the power of the blender. Blendtec's web tech downloaded the video to the company's website, and then added a link to digg.com. In one week there were over 6 million views of the video and, 'Sales at Blendtec are up 20 percent since Blendtec's "Will it Blend?" series started appearing on sites like YouTube, (Groundswell, 100)." 

 Now Bledtec's "Will it Blend?" is a series of videos on YouTube, with it's most popular video being that of Tom Dickson blending an iPhone into oblivion, with over 9 million views and counting. As Li and Bernoff say, "Blendtec had exploited the groundswells viral potential for marketing messages. George had cracked the code, in his own unique way, for talking with the groundswell, (Groundswell, 100)."

As companies begin to tap into social media marketing, they need to follow the lead of their customer. If Blendtec hadn't accidentally stumbled into their viral market, they potentially wouldn't have had the opportunity to 'talk' to their customers by allowing them to live out their childhood dream of destroying anything and everything with household appliances by watching Tom Dickson demolish an iPhone, which turned into a 20 percent sales increase. And who doesn't like a good old fashioned demolition? I certainly do! 

As I say farewell for this week, I leave with one pressing thought: We all know Chuck Norris doesn't sleep. Chuck Norris waits. BUT, when put to the ULTIMATE test, can Blendtec stand up to it's toughest challenge yet...Will it blend Chuck Norris?