Product Description

Corporate executives are struggling with a new trend: people using online social technologies (blogs, social networking sites, YouTube, podcasts) to discuss products and companies, write their own news, and find their own deals. This groundswell is global, it s unstoppable, it affects every industry and it s utterly foreign to the powerful companies running things now.

When consumers you ve never met are rating your company s products in public forums with which you have no experience or influence, your company is vulnerable. In Groundswell, Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff of Forrester, Inc. explain how to turn this threat into an opportunity.

Using tools and data straight from Forrester, you ll learn how to:



-Evaluate new social technologies as they emerge

-Determine how different groups of consumers are participating in social technology arenas

-Apply a four-step process for formulating your future strategy

-Build social technologies into your business including monitoring your brand value, talking with the groundswell through marketing and PR campaigns, and energizing your best customers to recruit their peers

Timely and insightful, this book is required reading for executives seeking to protect and strengthen their company s public image.

"Groundswell is jammed with big ideas, useful stories, and quotable stats. This is the new industrial revolution. Are you on board?"

-Seth Godin, author, Meatball Sundae

"This book will rock your world, if social technology hasn't rocked it already. It's a tsunami of unstoppable force. Amazon, Procter & Gamble, Facebook, Google, and Dell are profiting from the crest of the wave. Are you? Li and Bernoff are the apostles of the tsunami. This book will be your bible."

-Scott Cook, Founder and Chairman of the Executive Committee, Intuit

Groundswell provides practical advice on how to stay nimble and flexible in an ever-morphing digital world. Enabling your company to respond to change quickly especially when talking to and supporting your consumers is essential for business success.

-Cathie Black, President, Hearst Magazines

"The first phase of the Internet was about getting everyone connected. In this next phase, which changes the way we work, live, play, and learn, we re starting to realize the value of those connections as well as the new communications and experiences those interactions lead to the human network. Groundswell effectively documents this shift and underscores the opportunities available to all from this major market transition."

-John T. Chambers, Chairman and CEO, Cisco

"Heed the Groundswell! It's critical reading and helped us master the new dynamics of social media."

-Christina Norman, President, MTV

"Groundswell is a comprehensive look at the tidal wave of change engulfing marketers. Nobody should attempt to engage the newly empowered and emboldened consumer without first hearing what Li and Bernoff have to say on the subject."

-Clark Kokich, CEO, Avenue A | Razorfish

"Social technologies and the groundswell impact every business and organization worldwide. Li and Bernoff have written an insightful book that takes a refreshing research-driven approach to helping businesses transform themselves and successfully navigate this new dynamic landscape."

-Steve Rubel, Senior Vice President, Edelman Digital, and columnist for Advertising Age

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #368 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

Review
...for Groundswell's intended audience - managers struggling to answer questions such as "should my soap company have a presence on Facebook?" or "why isn't anyone reading our company blog?" - the emphasis on data and analytics is not a bug - it's a feature --The Financial Times, May 21, 2008

The Forrester analysts have prepared one of the most comprehensive and useful primers on the sudden surge in social media. --Advertising Age, July 3, 2008

Their response, an introduction to the current state of online social networking and what to do about it, is entertaining, well- written and mercifully free from techy details. --The Financial Times, June 4, 2008

About the Author
Charlene Li is a vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research. She is one of the driving forces behind Forrester s Social Computing and Web 2.0 research. Josh Bernoff is a vice president at Forrester Research and one of their most senior and most frequently quoted research analysts. He created the Technographics segmentation, a classification of consumers according to how they approach technology.

Customer Reviews

Relevant and enriching social media education from the bottoms up!
The social media, whether in the world of consumer reviews or within guarded corporate walled gardens, is undoubtedly a growing phenomena. And this book helped me in understanding that it all starts to grow a social community needs to begin with the objective in mind - think about and visualize first the customer relationship you would like to build. Again and again, the reinforcement that building successful communities is not the technologies, is emphasized.

The structure of the book is great:
1. Introduction: Understanding the Groundswell
2. Strategies: tapping the groundswell
3. Key learnings and what the future could hold: the groundswell transforms

I like the book for its illustrative case studies and its pragmatic resonance. Here were the lessons from groundswell to help us make the transition:
1. Groundswell is about PERSON TO PERSON activities.
2. Be a GOOD LISTENER.
3. Be PATIENT.
4. Be OPPORTUNISTIC.
5. Be FLEXIBLE.
6. Be COLLABORATIVE.
7. Be HUMBLE => Always keep in mind that it is afterall the People's Groundswell.

My only gripe is that the authors appear to run out of time for the last section on learnings and future - probably a follow-up book is in the offing?

cheers for the new year,
Nelson Wee @ [...]

Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies
Groundswell is a must read for anyone who is looking to understand the social networking landscape. It is an easy read and clearly breaks down social technology strategies and objectives. You will also learn the importance of being an active listener in the social networking space. This book is worth the money.

Fabulous book - real insights into the future of personalised international economy
This book provided enormous insights into the future for business and organisations. As the Net Generation matures, they will demand more personalised, niche service and this book is a fabulous introduction to how to go about that.

It's full of relevant case studies from business and not-for-profit, and heralds the beginning of a new era in customer focus and relationships. Some friends and I have started a women's book club for business books, and we're beginning with this book. I will be referring it to friends running charities for the insights it offers into new ways of relating to donors, as well as friends running niche businesses seeking a worldwide market.

It's easy to read, useful and practical. Highly recommended.