Reflection of Chapter 1- 4

Normally, we define Groundswell as a

  “social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than rom traditional institutions like corporations” (Li & Bernoff, 2011, P9). Groundswell is fast-growing phenomenon.

 Three factors collision causes groundswell, they are people, technology and economics. 

- People always want to gain benefits through interactions, and they always revolted against institution power.  

- Technologies helps connect people with each other, and helps connect individuals and the rest of world as well. Various software connects people faster, more directly and universal. 

- Economies: online trade make people earn profits easier and quicker, online businesses offer more opportunities to people who want to make money.

In a word, as the development of technologies, the relationship between economy scale and people’s rebellion has changed. Groundswell provide a platform for interactions.  And Groundswell has affected the traditional industries.  

Concentrate on the relationships, not the technology.

There are plenty of technologies involved in Groundswell, it is important to know how they work, how many people use them, how they form a part of Groundswell, how they threat institution power, and how to use them.

Technologies	Example	Advantages/ Impact
people creating blogs, user-generated content, and podcasts.	Coco-Cola Conversation	- Drive traffic to business website. - Find out what consumers want. - relate company's products with current event.
people connecting social networks and virtual worlds	Twitter	- Engaging with my audience.
people collaborating with Wikis and other open sources.	Wikipedia	- Flexible tools that can be used for wide range of applications.
people reacting to each other on forums, ratings and reviews.	Taobao	- More convenient for consumers communication about their experience.
People organizing contents like tags.	Taobao	- Easy to be find.
Accelerating consumption: RSS and widgets		- All news at one stage. - Easy republishing.

*some links related with the above table.

1. Coco-Cola Conversation: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/5-great-examples-of-company-blogs/
2. Advantage of people collaborating with Wiki and open sources: https://www.youthvillage.co.za/2014/10/advantages-disadvantages-using-wikipedia-research/
3. Advantage os accelerating consumption: RSS and widgets: https://www.tutorialspoint.com/rss/rss-advantages.htm

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Evaluating new technologies.

The example of Alibaba and Taobao has been mentioned on the first original blog. 

1.     Does it enable people to connect with each other in new ways?

2.     Is it effortless to sign up for?

3.     Does it shift power from institutions to people?

4.     Does the community generate enough content to sustain itself?

5.     Is it an open platform that invites partnerships?

Social Technographics Profile is a way of grouping people based on the groundswell activities that they participate ((Li & Bernoff, 2011)

Social technographics ladder.

The social technographics classifies people according to how they use social technologies.

Creators make social content operate. They write blogs or upload video, music, or text.

Critics respond to content from others. They post reviews, comment on blogs, participate in forums, and edit wiki articles.

Collectors organize content for themselves or others using RSS feeds, tags, and voting sites like Digg.com.

Joiners connect in social networks like MySpace and Facebook.

Spectators consumers social content including blogs, user-generated video, podcasts, forums, or reviews.

Inactives neither create nor consumer social content of any kind of social technologies.

POST method: an effective way to successfully create social media campaigns. 

People: the organization can not get anywhere if it don't understand its audience. 

Objectives: clear objectives could help the organization determine if the champaign is success. 

Strategy: the strategy is more than just s plan. It’s plan that hopefully helps you achieve your objectives. Strategy is about a value exchange. (https://www.postplanner.com/secret-to-successful-social-media-campaigns-post-method/ )

Technology: once the organization understand its people, objectives & strategy, it can confidently select the tools &tactics that will use for its campaign.

5 objectives

listening: have better understanding of customers.

Talking: spread message and information about the organization or business.

Energizing: make enthusiasts customers to energize.

Supporting: set up tools to help customers to support each other.

Embracing: help customers come up ideas to improve my business.

Normally, companies choose one of the five goals that best fit their company's goals. However, sometimes companies choose a goal and find that they are ultimately focusing on different goals.

For Alibaba, it aims to be a platform which "will enable the creation of 100 million jobs, serve two billion consumers and support 10 million profitable small businesses" (Stivastav T, 2017, para 4) (https://www.thedrum.com/news/2017/10/17/jack-ma-outlines-new-strategy-develop-alibaba-economy). Thus I believe that Alibaba's primary objective is to set up a platform that could help consumers to support each other. Staffs offers services for customers, and consumption lead to Alibaba hire more staffs. 

Q: Do you agree with the view of Alibaba's primary objective is to be supporting, why?