Groundswell as a Voice for the Disenfranchised

Like millions of other American's I followed the case of Adnan Syed through the popular podcast Serial so I was absolutely delighted to hear this past weekend that he was granted a hearing to present new evidence that was available during his original trial but for one reason or another was ignored or unknown to his lawyer at the time. A New York Times article that delves into the decision of the judge here. 

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I think this is a striking example of the true power of groundswell. As Li and Bernoff explain in their book, the key to groundswell is the ability of a company or brand or group to utilize the available tools of social media to create a conversation and a community surrounding that brand or idea.  More specifically, groundswell advocates actively listening to and interacting with the community surrounding your brand using platforms such as facebook and twitter, using these platforms to advance your agenda through promotions and other marketing tools. So how does the case of Adnan Syed fit into these ideas and what could it mean for the future?

(Adnan Syed)

Serial, and the continuing podcasts that have cropped up in the wake of Serial, have shown how a compelling story, or real world issue such as the one presented in Adnan's case can interact with the groundswell to build a passionate driven community around a broader issue, and thus bring to light problems within our society that have gone unnoticed, giving voices to the voiceless and using the people to bring about meaningful change in our world. Adnan's case is a prime example of this.  Without Serial, and the massive community of individuals who listened to, became interested in, and invested themselves in the case, Adnan would likely not be in the position he is currently in, but because so many people became interested in his case, and built a community around the belief that he is innocent, this case has been brought back from the brink of obscurity into the light of day, and brought the attention of groups like the Innocence Project.

The biggest thing I've learned from studying this case in the context of groundswell, is to remember that groundswell doesn't just work for large corporations, politicians and for profit corporations.  Non-profits, social movements, even individuals who have a story to be told can use the groundswell to start or further a movement.  Last year alone according to an editorial blog post from Social Media for Nonprofits there were 5 massive movements, all started through twitter and social media that are defined by their hashtags.  #YesAllWomen, #Ferguson, #IceBucketChallenge, #UmbrellaMovement, and #IllRideWithYou.  Each of these in different ways, used social media and the groundswell as a catalyst to bring to light and talk about a major problem in our world.