Emily's Social Media + Marketing Communication Blog

It's an interesting time to be L.L. Bean is a century-old outdoors company based in Freeport, Maine. It is most famous for its signature "Bean Boot"  and forgiving return policy. So what's so exciting about 2018, of all of L.L. Bean's years in business? Well, on February 9, 2018, L.L. Bean announced that it would be scrapping the lifetime return policy  that its customers raved about. Closing the doors on this policy was a bold move on the company's part, but according to the Associated Press, over the last five years L.L. Bean has lost  upwards of $250 million USD on merchandise returned to the store. Even worse is that monetary loss was only captures how many items were so damaged and worn beyond repair that the company couldn't recycle scraps for new products or donate them. For anyone who can empathize with the company's financial situation from a distance, the news is easy to swallow. ...

The topics covered in Li and Bernoff's Groundswell , from Chapters 5 through 8, outline how any business can tap into the groundswell. They focus on five critical activities: listening, talking, energizing and fostering support. The tricky part about this is that none of these activities are mutually exclusive; to be successful, a business needs to engage in all five activities at once and continue to maintain this over time. "So where Camaro owners might talk about their car's power and Lexus owners about their car's luxurious styling, Mini owners would rather see themselves as members of an exclusive club f people who belonged together. As the first buyers of this odd little car, they bonded with each other. they identified themselves -- and each other -- as Mini owners." (Li, Bernhoff, p. 91). I found it interesting that Li and Bernhoff described Mini owners as if they were already an exclusive group, just because of their groupthink that extended beyond ...

Every morning when I wake up and scroll through my Facebook feed, I'm reminded that everyone is a critic nowadays. I can't read a single article -- whether it's from Buzzfeed  or the New York Times -- without becoming entrenched in a sea of thoughts (and arguments) in the comments section.  Did I make this pie chart with no empirical data? Yes. Is it still accurate? Also yes. Don't get me wrong, I think it's great that virtually everyone has a voice online nowadays. True, everyone's had the opportunity be creators and online publishers for decades -- but how much easier is it to speak up now that virtually everything comes with a nifty comments section or "share" button? The comments section is now your go-to place for heated debate and some very strong voices. A satirical article from  Babe.net , playing off the fact that their articles are on the receiving end of many, many comments. But, if you'r...

In Chapters 1-4 of Li and Bernoff's Groundswell , we've learned a good deal. We've heard about who the "groundswell" is, and how it functions as one collective force. We've also learned about what businesses are doing to tap into the power of the groundswell.  Between monitoring web chat forums and arranging focus groups , we've learned that it's possible to tap into customers' minds -- both present and potential. But merely that insight isn't where the work ends. Businesses need to take that information, synthesize it in a way that makes sense for their corporation, and incorporate it into their PR and marketing strategy.  Whoever made this graphic definitely gets the picture. This new knowledge then needs to be shared with other functions within the company. In the words of Li and Bernoff, "As listening becomes a bigger part of your company, you should integrate the results into corporate decision making," (Li, ...