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 show how leading companies are gaining insights, generating revenues, saving money, and energising their own customers. Whether you’re in marketing, research, support, sales, development, or even running the whole enterprise, there’s targeted advice here for you, backed up with real-world ROI to prove it works.
Groundswell is based on hard consumer data and experience with dozens of companies, large and small, from Procter & Gamble to Ernst & Young to a tiny but wildly successful winery in South Africa. Hoping to learn how to take advantage of communities, blogs, wikis, Facebook, or YouTube? We’ve got lots of examples with proof they work.
You can’t ignore this trend. Read Groundswell and learn how to ride the wave. There’s no going back.
Here’s what people are saying about Groundswell:
“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
“This is recommended reading for people in any kind of web marketing role.”
— Guy Kawasaki
“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 realise 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 Systems
“Internet-style communication tools change organisational communication completely, providing a means for workers to run organisations more effectively. Groundswell describes how this can happen in any organisation, focusing on the human issues, which is the hard part.”
— Craig Newmark, Founder, craigslist.org
“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
“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
