Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies

Written by Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li

Narrated by Josh Bernoff

Corporate executives struggle to harness the power of social technologies. Twitter, Facebook, blogs, YouTube are where customers discuss products and companies, write their own news, and find their own deals but how do you integrate these activities into your broader marketing efforts? It's an unstoppable groundswell that affects every industry -- yet it's still utterly foreign to most 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, Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li explain how to turn this threat into an opportunity.

In this updated and expanded edition of Groundswell, featuring an all new introduction and chapters on Twitter and social media integration, you'll learn 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

Groundswell is required listening for executives seeking to protect and strengthen their company's public image.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ascent Audio
• Release date: Apr 11, 2008
• ISBN: 9781596598423

Josh Bernoff

Josh Bernoff has been a professional business writer for more than 30 years, including two decades as a renowned technology analyst. He is the coauthor of three books on business strategy, including the bestseller Groundswell.

Reviews for Groundswell

[nickz1959 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I am an avid user of the soicial networking and this book has validated some of my thoughts on facebook. This author is very insightful and she knows what she is talking about.

[dougcornelius_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

After starting to read Groundswell, I devoured it over the last few days. Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff write a good book. If you are involved in social media you should definitely read this book.I admit that I jumped ahead to chapter 11 of the book: The Groundswell Inside Your Company. That chapter seemed the most interesting to me since I am mostly interested in the impact of social media within the enterprise. That chapter provided a great deal of insight, so I decided to jump back to page 1.Charlene and Josh group consumers into six different categories of participation: Inactives, Spectators, Joiners, Collectors, Critics and Creators. They use a paradigm of a ladder to show the level of participation and call it the Social Technographics ladder.[Photo]When designing an online community or when reaching out to your customers with social media, you should look at where they stand on the ladder. Forrester's offers a basic tool for Building Your Customers' Social Technographics Profile on the Groundswell Website.The focus of the book is not about technology, although technology has a role. The book is about listening to your customers, your clients and your employees to improve your business. The book shows that there are some new ways to do that listening and to interact with your constituencies. For full disclosure, Josh did send me a copy of the book gratis. But you should buy it. It is definitely worth adding to your bookshelf.

[jkisom · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I like this book because of all the practical examples of how businesses are using social networking technologies successfully...or not successfully. The only thing I haven't found yet is examples of very small businesses or one man shops using these technologies. Its all about very large companies who have a lot out there to monitor. However, I am still reading, so this may change.

[boycetrus-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I liked some of the ideas in this book but on the whole it sounded too much like a plug for Forrester Reasearch and their 'Social Technographic Profile' for me to really embrace it. The idea that there are levels of participation in the Groundswell (ie. Web 2.0) from listening to the groundswell, through talking with the groundswell up to energizing the groundswell is right on the money. It's just that I was hoping for some more lo-fi examples of how to put these ideas into practice. The target of the book is really major companies with significant funding (hence my impression that the book is a bit of a plug for the consulting firm the authors work for).

[dwiggs444 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Its unassuming cover is deceptive, but Forrester Research offers a fascinating perspective on new ways to segment consumers according to how they relate to technologies in Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Technologies. Filled with case study examples, Groundswell provides a way to address the question that all marketing companies are wrestling with: how to find out where their target market lives technologically and reach them accordingly. Written in remarkably simple language for a tech research company, and linked to an online tool for segmenting consumers technographically, this book is a must-add for a business or marketing library.

[rohetherington · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Excellent commentary on social technologies and the implications / opportunities for business.

[jamet123_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Groundswell is a great book providing a thorough and up to date discussion of how to use social media, and more, to connect with and energize your customers. The book approaches the discussion from the reader's objectives - listening to customers, talking to them, energizing them, empowering them - rather than from technologies or approaches. It has plenty of discussion of how to use technology like blogs, wikis, social networks, bulletin boards and more but always in the context of what you are trying to achieve. I particularly liked the way it brought in approaches not based on new technology and integrated them with the story.The book is well written and readable - a real book not a long analyst report (despite the authors being Forrester analysts). It should also remain current for a while as it is focused on problems (and how to solve them) and opportunities (and how to exploit them) rather than on the nitty gritty of a particular technology. It's examples are truly illustrative and the authors do a nice job helping the reader place themselves in the context of the opportunity to see what will work in their organization rather than providing a one-size-fits all mandate.If you are in marketing and have been wondering how all this social "stuff" is going to affect you and what you can do about it, this book will help. A lot.

[nzwaneveld_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Are you one of the 25% of online US adults that visit a social networking site at least once a month? Do you read an online journal or blog, like 52% of online Japanese?Social networks, blogs, wikis, online reviews, support forums and widgets are all part of the current online revolution, a “groundswell” that is transforming not only the internet but the way the world is working. The author states that any company that is not able to participate in this groundswell will soon be extinct. Forrester Research analysts Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff explain the concept of the groundswell, why it is occurring, what its principal tools and applications are, and most important, how your business can exploit them. In short the groundswell is “a social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations.”This book is timely, comprehensive, insightful and instructive. It is ideal for readers who want to know what they can do for their companies in the sometimes daunting online environment. The choice is simple: Join the “Groundswell” – or Get Swamped by It

[sweetiegherkin · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Let me start with this: This book could have been written just as well (make that, better) if it had been shorter. There were some repetitive bits that could have easily been cut, not to mention the many times the authors introduce a topic just to say that they will talk about it further in another chapter. Still, this book is certainly interesting, flows easily, and is a fairly quick read (it took me less than a week to read, and that was during a particularly busy time). The brief summary: the book discusses how businesses can embrace the growing trends in web 2.0 to enhance customer and employee satisfaction. The authors provide a lot of insights by using case studies (both of what worked and what didn't), making this not a book about abstract concepts with no real-life grounding or applicability. My biggest caveat: this is a book designed for corporations and businesses, not for public relations specialists like me who work in non-profit settings. Nonetheless, there is still plenty that I learned from this book and much that I will explore.