Groundswell and Making a Difference

One of the biggest and most important facets of the notion of "groundswell" and the unique opportunities that exists in our world today is the ability to use social media mobilization to bring to light issues, and problems within our world that may be very close to home, but in a world before twitter and facebook and massively popular blogs and podcasts, would never see the light of day.



While I was trying to think of a connection between Charlene Li, and Josh Bernoff's book Groundswell that spoke to me, I happened to check my phone and noticed that the most recent episode of Undisclosed was released. Undisclosed is currently the 17th most popular podcast on Itunes and continues the story told by Serial, which was the single most listened to podcast of all time.  If you don't know what either of these are, they follow the case of the murder of Hae Min Lee, a high school student in Baltimore Maryland back in 1999 and the subsequent investigation and eventual conviction of Adnan Syed. It's an absolutely enthralling and at times, utterly painful story. I give both my highest recommendation, but if you don't trust my recommendation go read some of the reviews on either podcast, Serial has over 4000 reviews on Itunes.


(Adnan in 1999)

The book Groundswell talks a lot about content creation, and how to manage content creators and use what people think about your brand to your advantage as a company.  It talks about things like: responding to criticism and problems effectively and how by doing that you can turn people into energized spokespeople for your company, it talks about actively listening to what people are saying about your brand, about making people feel like their voice matters, building communities around your brand, and how to tap into the groundswell to better your business.  And all these things are great ideas, and a necessary part of public relations and marketing now.  But for all the wonderful things the groundswell can do for brands and businesses, look at what it's done for non-profit companies, for bringing to light problems in society that have been ignored for so long, for motivating and energizing people to talk about and try and change our society, and for giving a voice to those who have been disenfranchised, whose voices previously would never have been heard.

Podcasts like Serial and Undisclosed, and the numerous others following the case of Adnan Syed have helped raise awareness of the countless number of people who may be wrongfully in jail, as well as shedding light on issues in how we police this country, and how the criminal justice system works, which has been in the news constantly. The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, a social media awareness and fundraising campaign last year is being credited for what could be a major breakthrough in research.

We live in an age where so much information is at our fingertips, and even a single individual has so much power to tap into our networks and use this groundswell to bring to light such important issues in society, and that's really the true power of the groundswell.