Creating a Groundswell

In helping me prepare for a presentation that I'm doing tomorrow, a wonderful librarian friend found the book "Groundswell" by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff and laid it at my door. (Thank you Kaeli!)

The book talks about how technology has changed our world and will continue to change our world. I must admit, I'm still in the first couple of chapters, but I do get the idea--people in business, especially public relations people--are going to have to change their way of thinking to take advantage of the Groundswell.

The Groundswell is the ability for people online to bypass "the man" and as a community get what they want. The whole idea is that like minds congregate and in creating a groundswell, collaborate. Watch out business! The community takes over!

Actually, this has already occurred. Public relations people are just now catching up. Newspapers are still working to get there despite their innate ability to create community. Go figure. I think it's that virtual community that they're having trouble getting.

Back to the book: In their blog Li and Bernoff give a list of 10 tips from the book, and the last one talks about community.

Okay, okay, I hear you--so what's the point? The point is, this is back to basics, just with a focus on technology. We can leverage our communities, even if those communities are online, to create change. Actually, it's probably easier to leverage communities to create change online. Word spreads faster and more people can congregate and collaborate. These are points that I need to make sure to get into my presentation: back to basics.

No matter how far we've come, it's still about what we find in common that binds us together. And it's that commonality that allows us to create Groundswell moments, stopping action by government and big business.