The ground is swelling and it's delicious!

The world is slowly being transformed by social media.

Right now, social media sites like facebook, twitter and YouTube are defining the way people think about your organization.

Bloggers are blogging, people are watching YouTube advertisements and twitter statuses are all creating an ongoing conversation about various brands and organizations.

This phenomenon, the groundswell, is defined by Charlene Li and Joseph Bernoff as a trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations.

Ultimately, the groundswell allows for people to inform themselves and others about their views of an organization without being corrupted or impacted by the organization itself.

While some might see this as a bad thing, organizations should embrace the positives of the groundswell. Yes, some control is lost on behalf of the organization, but if the organization uses this groundswell to listen to what consumers are saying, they can better meet the needs of their target audience.

One of the better ways to "listen" to what social media users are saying is by using social bookmarking sites like delicious.

For those of you who don't know what delicious is, it's a site you can use to bookmark interesting articles. The site will show you how many other people have tagged a site or article that you are looking at. The public nature of the site also allows you to see what other people are bookmarking and reading. It's a great way to connect with like-minded individuals and find cool stuff to read.

For a corporation, delicious can help monitor if their websites are gaining popularity, which can be used to identify public perception about their brand. Essentially, it is a technological gathering of public opinion based on the number of tags received.

Personally, I have just started using my delicious account more actively and have been reaping the benefits of doing so. I come across other articles that interest me just by clicking on who is looking at the same stuff I am. It's pretty awesome if you ask me. I have been connected to blogs that I now follow and have read lots of articles that I may not have come across on my own.

So, next time you come across the delicious bookmarking widget on Internet Explorer, click on it, add to your list and see what other people are reading.