Customer Reviews

Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff characterize as "the groundswell" is "a social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other instead of from companies. If you're in a company, this is a challenge...[This trend] has created s permanent, long-lasting shift in the way the world works. This book exists to help companies deal with the trend, [begin italics] regardless of how the individual technology pieces change [end italics]."More specifically, Li and Bernoff respond to questions such as these:

What unique threats does the groundswell pose?
How to turn it to competitive advantage, "like a jujitsu master"?
What are its component technologies?
What is The Social Technologies Profile and what does it offer?
What is the four-step POST process for creating strategies?
What are the five primary objectives for a groundswell strategy?
How to create customers who are evangelists for you?
How to establish and support relationships between and among your customers?
How can the same trends that empower customers also empower employees?

Throughout their narrative, drawing upon a wealth of data accumulated by Forrester Research as well as by their own studies, Li and Bernoff include a number of real-world examples - in the form of mini-case studies -- that demonstrate key points. They offer lessons to be learned from Mini USA, the American arm of BMW's Mini Cooper brand (how to listen through brand monitoring, Pages 89-93), Ernst & Young (how to communicate in social networks, Pages 104-106), Hewlett-Packard (how to communicate with customers through blogging, Pages 108-112), eBags (how to energize with customer ratings and reviews, Pages134-140), Constant Contact (how to energize by creating a community, Pages 140-145), the Lego Group (how to energize an existing community, Pages 145-147), and BearingPoint (how to use a wiki to reassure clients, Pages 165-168). Granted, not all of these lessons are directly relevant to a reader's own organization. However, they help to create a context for each key point as well as a frame of reference for what Li and Bernoff describe as a "permanent, long-lasting shift in the way the world works."

They conclude this brilliant book by offering some advice, not on what to do but on how to be: ever-mindful that the groundswell is about person-to-person activity, a good listener, patient, opportunistic, flexible, collaborative, and humble. Guided and informed by the information and counsel provided by Li and Bernoff, readers will be able to formulate and then execute strategies to achieve a competitive advantage. "You'll be able to build on your successes, both with customers and within your own company. And then, as the groundswell rises and becomes ubiquitous, you will be ready."

Those who share my high regard for this volume are urged to check out Rob Cross and Andrew Parker's The Hidden Power of Networks: Understanding How Work Really Gets Done in Organizations. Also Gary Hamel's The Future of Management (with Bill Breen) and Ram Charan's Leaders At All Levels as well as Enterprise Architecture as Strategy: Creating a Foundation for Business Execution co-authored by Jeanne Ross, Peter Weill, and David Robertson, Richard Ogle's Smart World: Breakthrough Creativity and the New Science of Ideas, and Global Brain co-authored by Satish Nambisan and Mohanbir Sawhney.

The book covers all aspects of understanding and participating with the groundswell, providing case studies and demographics in each section so you can get a full understanding of what's being discussed. It stats by explaining what the groundswell is and makes the important point that while there are many key technologies (blogs, wikis, etc) it's more about people, conversation and interaction. There are then several sections explaining how to work with the groundswell from different perspectives in order to benefit from it. Finally, a few sections explain how the groundswell will affect your organisation.

However, I must deduct 2 stars for the fact that this is one of the most tediously boring books I've ever read. In the time it took me to read Groundswell I managed to read 7 other management books. I really wish the authors had spent some time to inject some humour in to the book and improve it's readability. When I finally reached the last 30 pages I prayed for someone to staple my kneecaps together in order to relieve the boredom. I'm writing this review as a break before forcing myself to read the last 5 pages. I'm pretty sure they could have condensed this book in to about 1/4 the content by weeding out all the dull chaff.

For many businesses who have still yet to venture into the world of social media. "Groundswell" is a must read. The book cites a number of case studies which illustrate how companies are gaining insights, increasing revenues, lowering costs and engaging their customers within today's Web 2.0 world.

Forrester analysts, Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff have produced the most up-to-book on the subject and present their findings in a clear and easy to understand format. Both demonstrate their expertise as analysts and writers and provide numerous data examples throughout the book.

What is a Groundswell?

Charlene and Josh define the Groundswell as:
"...a social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions".

The authors discuss why it important to participate in the "Groundswell" and why the "Groundswell" is happening now. The book begins with an overview into what "social media" actually is, and discusses many of the successes and the pitfalls that a company can go through during its journey. The book then offers steps that a business should follow to implement a successful social media strategy.

The book essentially examines how such tools threaten institutional power, and how individuals can use them to empower themselves and their businesses.

Many businesses foolishly believe that participating in social media is as simple as creating a blog, or being active in Facebook. Groundswell does a great job at explaining that creating a successful social media strategy is probably one of the most difficult things that a business can do and takes time and commitment

Hopefully by reading this book the business person will be well on their way to mastering the new dynamics of social media.

Truly, a well presented and written book that is a must read for anyone who wants to learn and utilise Internet marketing, as it exists today and will exist tomorrow.

So much so, I would say this is the most important book to be released since The Cluetrain Manifesto and Naked Conversations.

Buy it!

great starter for thinking about Social Media strategically..

Covers both an internal and external business levels.
And has ideas for selling it to your colleagues/management.

The book is pretty much as described above. So it's okay, at the very least. But most of the cast studies are pretty banal - if you actually use the internet yourself.

And even if you don't use the internet and this information is in some sense new, then you might be far better off using the three hours or so it takes to read this book visiting so-called web 2.0 sites yourself.

Reading this book - which exhorts everyone to get involved in the web revolution sweeping the globe woo ha yeah - seems to me a deferral activity rather than engagement.

This book has one or two useful ideas: that when thinking about implementing a groundswell approach your thinking should be in the order POST (people, objectives strategy, technology) ie with technology last; the social technographics tool and/or approach.

None of the case-studies came up with any tremendous surprises and the lessons / conclusions are of the sort that would occur to a reasonably web literate person if you asked them to spend 30 mins jotting down what they thought a book on this topic would offer in that line.

To my mind the big test of any book is:- if I lost my copy would I fork out for another copy - for this book the answer's "no".

Before I read this book I had spent two years out of the marketing loop while social media raged around me in my new role in TV. I'd ask teenagers what's cool and what isn't and generally found myself feeling very exposed in conversations with clients who were equally confused. So, using the Amazon recommendations, I settled on this book (also having worked with Forrester Research in the past and finding them to be excellent). It's worth the 5 stars. I am so pleased I bought this book - suddenly social media isn't an unfathomable new world, it's just part of the strategy of building great relationships.In fact, you choose whether it's worth it or not. But with this book you'll have the tools. I'm going to buy 'Empowered' next.

Do you visit a social networking site at least once a month, like "one in four online American adults"? Do you read an online journal or blog, like 52% of online Japanese? Social networks, blogs, wikis, tags, online reviews, support forums and widgets are all part of the latest online revolution, a "groundswell" that is transforming not only the internet but the way the world works. Companies that lack the vision to join this groundswell will soon be dinosaurs. Forrester Research analysts Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff explain the groundswell, why it is occurring, what its principal tools and applications are, and how your firm can exploit them. getAbstract finds this book 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.

I was a little worried by the opening chapter or two that this book has dated as it's been on my wishlist for some time but I hadn't got around to reading it until this week.

If you're part of Web Culture and in particular social media culture then the first parts of this book will be no surprise - in fact books like We Think, Crowdsourcing and Socialnomics are more vibrant and have fantastic, up to date examples.

Keep on going though because it's Parts 2 & 3 of Groundswell that truly shine. They are technology agnostic but talk about ways you can engage your customers further through the groundswell (Bernhoff & Li's term for Social Media) and also determine which activities will be best suited for your customer based on on their social technographics profiles.

From this you can then start to calculate ROI from your activities which will give you the ammunition you need to get a new project over the line with business colleagues who can't see how or what to do.

Packed full of large scale, detailed case studies - many from Forrester's client base, this book is perfect for someone who needs good solid examples and plans to be able to effect business change.

I really enjoyed reading that book. In many instances it feels too corporate to read however if you are in one, you'll probably like it.
It's a great place to start if you are just entering this space and in a way a, it would be considered as the "history" of ever changing social media.