“Surely such venture is gone from the world”

Last week I finished reading John Steinbeck’s East of Eden (which I’d recommend). When I started reading it, this part in chapter 2 stuck out to me:

“They landed with no money, no equipment, no tools, no credit, and particularly with no knowledge of the new country and no technique for using it. I don’t know whether it was a divine stupidity or a great faith that let them do it. Surely such venture is gone from the world.”

The narrator was talking about people coming to the West to farm in the late 19th century. I must have been in an online marketing mindset when I read this, because my mind jumped to Groundswell (another book I’d recommend).

If a business ventures into the online world without the proper knowledge and preparation, they may find it hard to cope and may end up damaging their brand. But social media is everywhere now, and if a company isn’t delving into this constantly changing area of the internet, they will be left behind by their competition and they won’t know what’s being said by their customers.  Groundswell authors Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff define this idea of a “groundswell” as:

A social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations.

Basically, the book Groundswell deals with social media. If you’re like me, I hear “social media” and I immediately think of Facebook and Twitter and stop there.  But this book divides it into wikis, forums, ratings, networking, RSS and everything else, and tells you the pros and cons of each. It divides people into categories of Creators, Critics, Collectors, Joiners, Spectators and Inactives, and lists what each group can do for your business. It can even help you find out what groups your specific audience falls into.

Once you read about those principles, the book explains how to listen, talk with, energize, support and embrace the groundswell. (If that is all you are interested in, then you can buy the book Marketing in the Groundswell, which is the same book but only includes these few chapters. But I’d recommend the whole book.)

If you’re still wondering if you should read this book, consider this excerpt:

“If you have a brand, you’re under threat.Your customers have always had an idea about what your brand signifies, an idea that may vary from the image you are projecting. Now they’re talking to each other about that idea. They are redefining for themselves the brand you spent millions of dollars, or hundreds of millions of dollars, creating.”  (pp.12)

Each company should look at how they can be involved in the groundswell, but not every application is right for each company. Groundswell helps you decide where your company should be involved, and how heavy that involvement should be.

When I bought Groundswell, I was expecting it to be a hard read–almost like a textbook. But it flows very well and it never feels bogged down with jargon or confusing research. The authors use very clear case studies and almost give a step-by-step description of how to jump into social media. They even include a subject and case study index for easy reference. I’d go as far to say that it was fun to read, and if you haven’t read it yet, you should pick it up soon.

You don’t want to step into this new world led by divine stupidity or only with great faith. Surely such venture should be gone from this world.

And on an unrelated note, here’s another passage from East of Eden:
“Joe had gone east and was helping to invent a new profession called advertising. Joe’s very faults were virtues in this field. He found that he could communicate his material daydreaming–and, properly applied, that’s all advertising is.”
I think I figured out why I like my career choice.

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