Groundswell – Worth A Read
In order to prepare for an off site this week with Forrester, I picked up the new book Groundswell and gave it a quick read. My expectations going in were pretty low – I’ve been on a social technologies/networks/media kick as of late and found that the majority of experts are really just saying the same thing over and over again. Everyone has the same examples of success and failure (my favorite is still willitblend.com) and nobody really offers concrete information on how to work in the space.
Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, the co-authors of Groundswell, provide a text book analysis of social technologies and give key examples of strategies that can be designed to suit any brands needs.
What I really enjoy about the novel (still getting through it), is that they have their head around one key fact: think about your consumers first, not the latest technology trend.
By using social technologies, you can find out insights about your consumers that you can’t get anywhere else. Shocking (I know), but when you actually think about how your target uses social media (do they create content, engage with it, or just read it?) it can help you determine the best way to approach them.
All in all, it’s an easy read but a worthwhile one.
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