Just like we have support systems, the groundswell has its support systems too. They are very lovely. They go by the names wikis and support forums. Of course, support has existed for firms before wikis and support forums, and that support, the older more mature support, goes by the name call centres or technical support.
Now, firms are realizing the positive effects of supporting the groundswell with tools like wikis and support forums. Why? Why is this better than the older more mature cousin approach? Because. Because these groundswell support approaches open the opportunity to save money, but more importantly, it lets people help people. Simple. People are more inclined to accept help from other people: real, live people. Also, it is much faster and more efficient for an individual to look at a Linksys support forum, especially during the Christmas season when call volumes are high, and to top it off an earthquake strikes in Asia (where Linksys has call centre operations) and takes down phone lines. You might be able to see how this might help a firm. With its support forum Linksys turned potentially angry consumers into happy consumers by directing them to a support forum. That was a real life example.
Of course, there is various criteria to determine if groundswell support, of all kinds, are appropriate for your firm. Remember: wikis are harder to execute than support forums. Wikis need people, content, policy for the wiki (but not too many because people might be intimidated to contribute), and patience.
Thinking back to the earlier example of the NBA, and looking at if a wiki or support forum would be of any good to them, a person might think that a support forum might be useful (and in fact is actually used) to help NBA fans with issues like purchasing NBA LEAGUE PASSES, cancelling subscriptions, and which smart TV models support the NBA LEAGUE PASS. We can see how the NBA possibly saw a benefit in using support forums to help NBA fans. However, one recommendation, the support forum provided by the NBA (as there are other individual forums out there) does not allow a dialogue. It registers issues and the NBA formulates and posts a response. This response can then be rated as helpful or not but it is missing dialogue.
References
Li, C. & Bernoff, J. (2011). Groundswell: winning in a world transformed by social technologies. Harvard Business School Publishing: Boston, Massachusetts.
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