Groundswell: New Tools in a New World

By Stacy Graiko
January 12, 2009

Groundswell, Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff **** / 4 of 5 stars
Enjoyable Reading: 4/5
Applicable to Business: 5/5
Behavioral Insight: 5/5

In the book, the “groundswell” is defined as “a social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations.” For example, on eBay consumers buy from each other without needing a store; Craigslist lets you find a job or apartment without searching through the newspaper, Rotten Tomatoes lets users read movie reviews from other regular people, and BitTorrent lets users get music from each other- similar to Napster- without going to a store. Very simply, the “groundswell” is about social networking on web 2.0 – and this book will help you understand what exactly that is.

Li and Bernoff explain that social networking is both a movement and a set of tools. They clearly separate the two, pointing out what the movement is all about (people relying on people instead of corporations to get what they need) and what the tools are (web properties like Facebook, LinkedIn, Craigslist, MySpace, RottenTomatoes, BitTorrent, del.icio.us, and many more are discussed in detail).

The authors emphasize that knowing the tools alone won’t help managers; the real actionable insight here is in understanding why people feel the need to connect with each other, and what is behind their reluctance to rely on corporations to give them information. They want us to come away from reading the book with an understanding of the cultural trends at play that have created the groundswell – and to understand that while consumers exchanging information with each other in peer forums can be damaging in some cases, smart companies can use the groundswell to their advantage.

Managers looking to tap into web 2.0 for marketing their own brands will find a foundation of knowledge about both the movement and the tools available. It’s a comprehensive manual for what’s out there, how it can be used, and what’s emerging, as well as predictions for 2009 and beyond.

The book includes a short section about using the web to conduct research which will be interesting to readers involved in the industry. We found their synopsis of our industry a bit inaccurate – “Market research is very good at finding answers to questions. It’s just not so effective at generating insights.” Ouch. But the authors include only traditional market research methods such as surveys and focus groups in their review and they don’t consider the kind of innovative research approaches used more commonly today. A rather outdated view of the industry, in our opinion, and a surprising stance, coming from such a progressive company that consumes and uses market research. Overall though, the book is a handy guide to social networking and the web 2.0 environment we’re living in. It’s a must-read for marketing managers, product managers, researchers and consumers.

Watch a YouTube interview with the authors here.

Related: Clay Shirky’s book “Here Comes Everybody: What’s Next On The Web.” Read and listen to the NPR interview with Shirky here.

As always, your opinions are welcome- please let us know what you thought of the book by commenting here.

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