Review of Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies

Any book with "winning" in the subtitle is off to a good start for me. Groundswell didn't disappoint. If I ever write a book, it will be laid out like this--straightforward, parallel structures and packed with powerful case studies and numbers.

Groundswell (by then-Forrester researchers Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff) is divided into three sections. First the idea of "groundswell" and prominent tools like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter are defined. More importantly, the book introduces and defines technographics and their tool for measuring how different groups of consumers use social media. See the free profile tool which lets you specify age and country here. The next section explains how to tap into the groundswell and make it work for your company. There are five ways that they categorize involvement, each building on the one before:

1. Listening. Monitor the groundswell for research and to gauge overall sentiment about your brand and competitors. It's a free, always-on, completely honest focus group; you just need to know where to find it.
2. Talking. Use the groundswell to spread marketing messages.
3. Energizing. Turn brand enthusiasts into brand ambassadors.
4. Supporting. Best suited for complex brands. Mobilize your customers into a support group for one another.
5. Embracing. Bring your customers and their needs, wants, and ideas into your brand. Let them directly help you in improving your product, services, and marketing.

This section is filled with amazing case studies and action items for brands who want to get involved in these ways. The final section helps you implement groundswell techniques within your company. I recommend partnering that section with Tribes for full effect.

I also suggest having a highlighter and notepad handy while you devour this book. It's an easy read but it's saturated with statistics, tips, and sites to visit later. The only downside? The book was finished in late 2007 and published in 2008--in other words, pre-Twitter. To their credit, the authors cite Twitter as an emerging tool that they think will really explode into the groundswell. More importantly, they maintain a blog on the Forrester site to keep the conversation going and apply the content to modern case studies.

Bottom line: Read this book now, no matter what level of understanding you have of social media. Until you can get your hands on it, read the blog. Your co-workers will thank you when someone in the room can be truly knowledgeable about social media, and your brands will thank you when you approach them about entering or improving their presence in this brave new world.