When we share social media case studies, we tend to start with the people. Best Buy’s Blue Shirt Nation is a story about two guys – Steve and Gary – and the server they hid under a desk. Sure, Dell revolutionized social media, but the story starts with quoting Jeff Jarvis quote chapter and verse – “No more.” Exxon leveraged a social platform to connect with problem solvers, but the story is about the half sheet of paper the unlikely hero sketched the big idea on – and, yes, we wish, often aloud, that it was a bar napkin because that would make the story better. MINI’s groundswell marketing success is thanks to a woman named Trudy swearing to her boss that their car wouldn’t become the next PT Cruiser (sorry, Cruiser owners).
When it comes to integrating social in an organization, it almost always comes down to one or two people who changed a company from the inside or out.
That’s why we’re excited about the latest undertaking by Charlene Li and her fellow travelers over at Groundswell. Their first book outlined how companies use social media. The new one is all about who made it happen. The empowered employees and customers who changed, opened and accelerated their businesses.
Watch for this new people-centered book coming soon. It’s called Groundswell Heros: Harnessing the Power Shift in your Workplace and Marketplace
Oh, and, we love the name of the first chapter: Empowered people and what to do about them. What indeed.
