The SQUEEZE: The use of social technologies by customers and companies has increased within recent years. Companies in the past have used various market research tools to measure the impact of the customer’s attitude towards products and services. Today, companies are realizing that advertising, customer service, and market surveys are no longer useful for controlling both customer attitudes and subsequent behavior. Instead, customers are controlling the conversation by using social media as a method for communicating their interests, expectations, and disappointments. These are the sentiments that Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff express in Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies. Li and Bernoff offer recommendations to companies, instructing them on how to survey their customers’ use of social media and create product solutions to ensure the latter stays connected to the brand through online communication and internal social applications. Groundswell offers a comprehensive analysis of corporate strategy for developing and implementing the use of social media technologies.

Notable Endorsement: “If you haven’t read the book, I would highly recommend you buy a personal copy and read it to get a comprehensive understanding of how our world is being transformed by social technologies and how you can take advantage of it.” - Business 2 Community

Common Q’s Answered by this Book:

• What is “groundswell”?
• What is enterprise social software?
• What are examples of social networks?
• What are social media technologies?
• What are examples of online communities?

About the Author: Charlene Li is the author of the New York Times bestselling book titled Open Leadership. Li is the founder of the Altimeter Group and is a leading expert on social media and technologies, and interactive media and marketing. Li served as the vice-president and principal analyst at Forrester Research. Li was also a consultant with Monitor Group. Li completed studies both at Harvard College and Harvard Business School. For more information, visit: charleneli.com/blog and twitter.com/charleneli. Josh Bernoff is the senior vice-president of idea development at Forrester Research. In the role, Bernoff is responsible for identifying, developing, and promoting the company’s forward-looking ideas. Bernoff created the Technographics® segmentation, a tool that classifies consumers according to their use and approach towards technology. Bernoff’s writings and opinions are frequently published in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Marketing News. For more information, visit: http://www.forrester.com/josh-bernoff.

Book Vitals:

Publisher: Harvard Business Review (May 2011)