The Walking Dead Final Report

The walking dead

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Social Media MVPs

Reading the last two chapters of Groundswell reaffirmed two key things for me about cultivating internal and external groundswell. The first is how important executive buy-in and active management participation is. As the authors note, “the fact that a VP references an employee blog post in the course of everyday business discussion speaks louder and truer than any mandate or exhortations to use the technology” (p.227).  Actions speak louder than words online as offline. If management tells employees to use a certain platform or tool but does not use it themselves or at least give participants evidence that their posts and blogs are being read and referenced will make them seem insincere at best. 

The second is about how a good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow. The Lean Startup talks about how important it is to get MVPs—that is, miniumum viable products-- out there in the world as soon you possibly can. Getting something out there allows you gather feedback quickly before you’ve fully committed and sank a lot of resources into a particular design or method. This means you find out earlier exactly what your target audience (whether internal employees or external customers) wants because they end up telling you what they want. The benefit is you’re no longer grasping at straws in the dark trying to figure out on the fly what your target audience wants. Let them tell you.

This has implications for members of our generation, some of whom will enter organizations resistant to cultivating the groundswell, whether it be internal or external. I talked about this with the chapter 9 example of marketers spending 8 months conducting market research in the hopes of convincing their bosses of the upside of a jointly authored executive blog. Their old-world thinking bosses didn't buy it, and the marketers wasted a lot of their own time and energy. Perhaps the better tactic would have been to get an MVP out there--a blog authored by marketers that didn't require a painful decision by dino-executives to get going.

The point is this: forget about trying to convince your bosses with an elaborate, months-in-the-making presentation about how social media could improve the organization. Instead, get out an MVP that will either demonstrate the value to your boss, or give you feedback on how your MVP can be improved and tailored to the targeted audience’s needs. 

To get a concise summary of the Lean Startup's insightful principles, check out this super-instructive video:

Louis C.K. Hearts the Groundswell

Louis C.K. is a normal guy, albeit an extremely funny one. He's a single dad with two kids living in Manhattan who jokes his most important job is making sure his kids go un-killed everyday.

But last December, he did something remarkable for an "everyman" comic--instead of going through behemoth middle-men like HBO or Comedy Central to host and distribute his latest comedy special, he politely asked his fans to not illegally torrent it and instead download a $5 digital rights-free copy directly from him and his personally managed website. The funny thing is he's far from "hip" and has no affection for social media diehards. Check out this wonderful bit on how, if Jesus came back, we'd all be too busy tweeting to listen to him:





Louis C.K. didn't do it this way because he thought he'd make more money, but because he understood one immutable law of the Internet: if you make it easy and cheap for people to get something they want, they'll do it: “I buy lots of things online and I had a focus group of one. I thought about it, and five bucks seemed almost free and I figured if I took out the hassle, most of the speed bumps, it would almost be like hitting a link and streaming it." 


And it's worked (hell, I bought it). The special has grossed him over $1 million dollars as of December 22, 2011 (it's likely much higher now), enough to pay the rent for the Beacon theater, his staff, himself and still give a quarter of it away to charity. All for a per-download price that is truly, as C.K. says, "almost free."

Louis C.K. has done for comedy was Radiohead did for music in 2007 when they released In Rainbows on their website with a "pay-what-you-want" policy. C.K. has likely forever changed the way comedy specials are distributed. He made a conscious choice to connect directly with the groundswell, a.ka. those who wanted to view his special and support him, and in the process exposed the corporate gatekeepers who have long controlled how content is shared as largely irrelevant, unnecessary and money-grubbing entities.