After reviewing the other suggested readings and videos, I cannot help but come back to the couple of pages from chapter 1 of the book Groundswell. The book defines its title as "a social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions..."
It is truly remarkable how any one individual can summon support from the masses using even the most simple media outlets; and I find this phenomenon absolutely compelling. But what is concerning to me is that somebody's mere opinion of a poor experience could be taken as gospel and ruin a company's reputation. That part is beyond intriguing -- it is alarming!
This groundswell movement is not just a matter branding for a company, or an opportunity for advertising, or a community for additional retail sales, or a forum for increased trade volumes, but it could very well be a conduit for calamity depending on the voice that is being heard.
Just think about it. Imagine you are a small business owner who has invested your life savings into your company, and provided years of dedicated and faithful service to your customers. But then one day in one particular moment you slightly upset one particular patron or passerby who then posted a few sound bites about the experience. And then others in that person's user community discovered that piece of content and proliferated it further. Perhaps it then made the local, regional or national news. That could be game over for everything you have worked tirelessly for and stood for in your business.
As much as do like the prospect of "groundswell" and how the book positively portrays it, the flipside could absolutely be calamitous. And as the couple of pages in chapter 1 suggest, one person cannot reverse the proliferation of the masses. It would be as Grant Robertson says, "That's like trying to take pee out of the swimming pool."
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