Does anybody have ice? The ground is swelling again.

Look over there! Quick!


Did you see that?


Did you see the groundswell?





Ok, well you probably didn't really see it, because groundswell is actually "a social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations", according to Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff.





So, why is groundswell so important? With the rise of RSS feeds and social bookmarking sites like Delicious, Digg, StumbleUpon and such, it is easier than ever for people to converse, share information and opinions and ask questions. People are getting information faster and from a larger number of sources. This means that the good news about a company will travel, but the bad news will probably travel faster. And to more people.





Companies can no longer ignore groundswell (at least, if they want to be successful). It isn't going to go away (I'm sure that's what these algorithms indicate, if I could understand them. Math was never my thing), so it's time for companies to discover how to use it to their best advantage.





Essentially, it should be about "listening to, talking with, energising, supporting and embracing your customers and community", like Australian telecommunications and media company Telstra is doing with Now We Are Talking, which listens to the issues and concerns of their customers.





Now, if it takes those issues and concerns into consideration and offers solutions, it will really be adapting to groundswell.





Another useful way for companies to use these sites? Brand monitoring. Whether good or bad, people are likely to talk about your company, product or service. These sites allow a candid look at what customers are saying and sharing with the world, something that would be difficult to get through other approaches like surveys, focus groups, etc.





Where should a company start? Marketing Pilgrim suggests several tools, including using Username Check to prevent "brand-jacking" - a someone hijacking your brand for their username and, potentially, damaging your reputation.





There are other sites that can be used to monitor the social conversation: Facebook Lexicon, which allows the user to see how often a keyword is mentioned on Facebook walls; BackType, which monitors comments left about a brand; and of course, Twitter helps by monitoring the brand and offers RSS feeds and emails through TweetBeep.





The list of social media monitoring tools available to companies is large and growing every day. Some are more useful/applicable than others, but using these tools is becoming more and more important for companies that wish to maintain long-term success. The only difficulty is determining which tool is best for the job.