Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies | 
 enlarge | Authors: Charlene Li, Josh Bernoff
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $17.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  37 reviews
Sales Rank: 556
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.2
ISBN: 1422125009
Dewey Decimal Number: 303.4833
EAN: 9781422125007
ASIN: 1422125009
Publication Date: April 21, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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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
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| Customer Reviews: Read 32 more reviews...
 groundswell -- A Great Resource For Role of Social Networking September 8, 2008
I like to read, but I'm not that fast at it. Combine that with the amount of reading I have to do to complete my Bachelor's Degree, the general responsibilities of being an entrepreneur, as well as keeping house, and it's a wonder I get the shampoo bottle read.
groundswell was written by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff and published in 2008. It is a reasonably well written resource on the lightening fast changes in Internet technology and the social networking programs that have sprung up like crab-grass, often referred to as Web 2.0. The book explains the amazingly popular YouTube, what discussion groups are, and how corporations of all sizes can benefit through blogging. The authors show excellent examples of how the decision to use or discount these technologies have affected major companies such as Ernst & Young, L.L. Bean, and HP.
The book is full of graphs and research information showing the number of people who participate in commerce online, and the varying levels of activities. They use the categories of Creators, Critics, Collectors, Joiners, Spectators, and Inactives. Each category is described and how each of those categories affects business is plainly explained. Examples are ample and the reader can truly comprehend how ignoring the groundswell in social technologies can lead to disaster.
I did find that this book focused toward a larger sized corporation than what I have. Being an entrepreneur, self-employed, one-person company makes it a little more difficult to manage a presence in all these items. My company has a Web presence, LinkedIn, FaceBook, MySpace, Twitter, and other accounts. Keeping them all updated is a major undertaking. An undertaking that I struggle to maintain. However, understanding the importance of participating in these forums could make the difference in whether a company survives those first 2 years after start-up.
This is a good book to help anyone understand the fast changing "Web 2.0" world in which we live.
 groundswell August 31, 2008
I think reading Groundswell helped me be a better CEO. I am looking into getting started now.
CIO's must read August 31, 2008
Groundswell is a must read for any current day CIO looking to ensure that IT is a strategic asset and not just a service in the future.
A Social Media, Web 2.0 Must Have in a Crowded Web 2.0 Centric World August 28, 2008
The bottom line of this book: it's about listening to people talking about you (you = yourself or your company). Now a days we can think of ourselves, really, as our own brand!
So, LISTEN.
Now why? That's what the book explains in great detail. It has great detail and case studies to support its conclusions. They are excellent and break down into as real world as we, as Marketers, could as for. With graphs ("technographs") and everything. It's exposing the analysts' thinking on an entire different level!
The terminology alone was worth it for me. This was a very slim part of the book. Hell, maybe one page? It was defining the terms used to describe the different people that are the pieces of the puzzle of the social media puzzle. I found it worth my while to get inside an analysts head. I struggle with trying to define these people every day. I seem to over-define areas like this. The book clearly defines these areas. I can now stop. Well put and well documented!
Overall:
1. The breakdowns of each client investigated, presented as a case study are worth it beyond words. If these were individual case studies on [...] -- they would be worth it to me to pay over $250.00 a pop. Great job!
2. I love the focus on humanity and everything therein -- the human touch, so to speak. So many companies do not get this and do not benefit from this. You help bring them back from the corpse they have become with this book! ...hopefully.
3. This brings me to the next point: Energize. -- Vitality. Hopefully this will bring vitality to the community, audience and everything reading (customers, community, analysts, and anyone involved). Make it a must-read for anyone...
4. "Jujitsu Master" and the entire concept behind this ancient art form -- excellent props to you both to the entire concept behind the title and conception behind this title and scheme. It is hitting the hammer head on the nail.
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Critical:
What technologies exist that are not above $50,000.00 a pop that would enable businesses to monitor their online reputation besides Nielsen BuzzMetrics or Cymfony? I thought you should mention OTHER online reputation monitoring tools that are not so "enterprise inclined." Such as Trackur, Techrigy, Sentitment Metrics or Levick. Just a mention of Smashing Magazine might of done the trick as a reference point of their article from 11/24/06?
I may add, is that some of the examples are too "enterprise level." I would have liked to see more small business to mid-level business examples. Some of the examples are too focused on businesses that are publicly traded. NOW, with this being said, I can not discredit the integrity of the book based on this. This is why I gave it five stars (and I'll move on). We can each take these examples and synthesize them to work for ourselves; I understand how Forrester works more exclusive clients, so these might have been more expressed than others in the book.
Also, you fail to mention: Where is the technology and social media as a whole going? Do you care to give a forecast? Is Twitter going to make it? Is microblogging going to just come and go? Is social bookmarking going to fail? What is the prevalent technology and why? How can which improve? These are questions I believe all would like answered...
But, again -- overall, an excellent, much needed resource!
Groundswell August 17, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Groundswell is a very good book if you want to understand modern marketing and customer relationship management. In a world where online accounts for much of everyday life, the way in which companies have to interact with their customers changes. The use of social networks, viral videos, blogs and forums is important. This book really helps to understand, decide what is relevant for a certain situation, and act on this different world.
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