I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for.... Transforming with the Groundswell?

I just discovered my new favorite Ben & Jerry's flavor and my addiction is serious. And then to make matters worse, I made a critical discovery in the effort to support my addiction. Did you know you can go to the Ben & Jerry's website and search where to buy your favorite flavor? It's true. And it's dangerous. While on the website searching for my new addiction flavor, I did a little exploring and it wasn't long before I was sucked into the Ben & Jerry's community and a part of the groundswell myself.

Maybe you love ice cream like me or maybe you don't because your are lactose intolerant (so sorry if that's the case). Either way, Ben & Jerry's offers up something for ice cream enthusiasts and those that are just socially conscious.  This is especially true if you are passionate about fair trade, marriage equality or climate justice. Just looking over Ben & Jerry's outputs on social media websites like Facebook and Twitter, it's not hard to see that Ben & Jerry's has transformed themselves from an ice cream company to a company deeply committed to their community. As a whole, Ben & Jerry's is an organization that lives and breathes the groundswell and has been transformed by the groundswell.

How the Groundswell Transforms Your Organization

In the book Groundswell:Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, part three focuses on how the groundswell transforms your company- inside and out. It sounds easy, yet many companies forget, that the customer really should be the focus of the organization. Li and Bernoff say:

" One of the benefits we've seen of engaging with the groundswell is that your organization goes through a mental shift- you become so engaged with your customers that you walk in step with their needs and wants. The key to this transformation us taking an idea that typically starts with a few employees who understand the groundswell and making it into an organization-wide movement. In essence, you want to create your own mini-groundswell within the company to embrace the groundswell of customers outside it."

Ben & Jerry's began this transformation even before there was a groundswell to embrace. It started simply when Ben & Jerry's committed themselves to not using growth hormones in their dairy products recognizing that their community wanted and deserved better. Since the mid-1980's Ben & Jerry's has embraced their customers-putting their health and well being first, even sometimes before their ice cream. For company's like Ben & Jerry's it's easy to continue embracing the groundswell - but what to do it you are just starting to allowing your organization to be transformed by the groundswell? Li and Bernoff give us a step by step guide:

• Take it step by step. Remember, Rome wasn't build in a day. Making a mental shift takes time and practice
• Each step you take leads naturally and organically to the next step. Make sure you have a plan and a vision about where you want to go.
• Executive support is a must or the transformation will not work. Ben and Jerry's is a great example of this as their founders, Ben & Jerry, fully embrace the social missions the company  focuses on.

Li and Bernoff also caution that there will be bumps in the road. To overcome those bumps "you must have a clear vision of what the company needs to do, getting the company to embrace the groundswell is going to take a lot of small steps and a lot of time... It's a minefield. But you can succeed- if you take the right steps in the right order".

Ben & Jerry's has been successful communicating with the groundswell because they've always embraced it. They allowed themselves to be transformed by the groundswell by becoming passionate  about what the groundswell is passionate about. Let's take a look at how Ben & Jerry's success translates to social media.

Ben & Jerry's on Social Media

The Ben & Jerry's Facebook page serves up two purposes. The first is to, of course, creatively promote their ice cream:

The second is to engage on with the values and issues both they and their groundswells care about:

Ben and Jerry's effectively promotes these purposes with their simple mission on Facebook: "Ben & Jerry's believes business has a responsibility to give back to the community. We make the best possible ice cream in the nicest way possible". With over 7.8 million followers on Facebook, Ben & Jerry's reach is far. And not only do  they listen to the groundswell, they generate conversation like their post below in support of Oregon's "Right to Know: Measure 92"

And while they reach a large community, they also monitor and respond - quickly I might add- to the community's positive and negative feedback. While mostly the feedback is positive, there are some negative posts which Ben & Jerry's promptly responds to:

@LittleBabesGone Sorry about your experience. Please tell us more here https://t.co/IUYKNEhDed & we'll do our best to make it right. Thanks.

— Ben & Jerry's (@benandjerrys) October 23, 2014

Overall, Ben & Jerry's community is very passionate about the company. Many, if not all, the company's posts have hundreds, if not thousands, of likes.  Throw in shares in the high twenties and thirties with multiple comments and replies- it really shows an outsider like me that the Ben & Jerry's community is engaged.

Oh and my new favorite flavor? It's Coffee, Coffee, BuzzBuzzBuzz. How fitting for the buzz the groundswell creates about Ben & Jerry's!