Groundswell. Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies

Strategic Direction

ISSN: 0258-0543

Article publication date: 22 June 2010

8562

Citation

Li, C. (2010), "Groundswell. Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies", Strategic Direction, Vol. 26 No. 8. https://doi.org/10.1108/sd.2010.05626hae.002

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2010, Emerald Group Publishing Limited


Groundswell. Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies

Article Type: Suggested reading From: Strategic Direction, Volume 26, Issue 8

Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff,Harvard Business Press, 2008, ISBN: 978-1-4221-2500-7, US$29.95, 304 pp.

During the last years, the use of Web 2.0 applications for the generation, dissemination and sharing of user-generated content (UGC), social and business networking and collaboration, as well as the creation of new value added service has become enormous. Web 2.0 tools have tremendously changed the way people search, find, read, gather, share, develop, and consume information, as well as the way people communicate with each other and collaboratively create new knowledge. UGC and Web 2.0 are also having a tremendous impact not only on the behaviour and decision-making of internet users, but also on the e-business models that organisations need to develop and/or adapt their way of operations in order to survive.

Although many firms see the phenomenon of Web 2.0 as a threat, one has also to realise that Web 2.0 also provides many opportunities. This book illustrates these business opportunities by identifying and discussing more than 65 examples and 25 full case studies of firms that have effectively exploited the UGC and networking capabilities of Web 2.0. To achieve this aim, the book is structured in three major parts. The first part identifies and describes the different tools and applications of Web 2.0 as well as provides a social technographics tool that firms can use in order to analyse the Web 2.0 usage profile of their clients. After explaining the phenomenon of Web 2.0 (i.e. the groundswell), the second part provides a four step process framework for developing five Web 2.0 strategies. The last part of the book explains how to use the Web 2.0 within a firm and what organisational changes are required in order to make Web 2.0 a success.

The book is reader-friendly (demonstrated in its writing style and language) and well-structured into logical sequenced parts and chapters. A collection of 12 chapters offers an excellently presented, comprehensive, and timely synthesis of the essential issues that a firm needs to know in order to effectively exploit and adopt Web 2.0 in its daily operations and strategic planning. All chapters are based on the implications and lessons learned from real-life examples and case studies, and each concludes by providing a summary of the major points.

The first part of the book includes the three first chapters. Chapter One explains the importance and significance of Web 2.0 by showing how the groundswell can threaten institutions like companies and brands, while Chapter Two identifies the different Web 2.0 technologies and then, it analyses each one of them based on the following topics: how the technology works; how it enables participation and relationships among users; how the technology threatens institutional power; and how firms can use the technology. Chapter Three provides a key data tool that firms need to use for segmenting their customer base based on their use of Web 2.0 technologies – the social technographics profile. This categorizes users into six groups: creators, critics, collectors, joiners, spectators, and inactives. Understanding customers’ use of Web 2.0 and segmenting them based on this profile is the primary element before drafting and implementing any groundswell strategy.

The second part of the book starts with Chapter Four, which analyses a four-step POST process for creating Web 2.0 strategies – people, objectives, strategy and technology. This process demonstrates that it is a mistake to start a strategy with technology, while defining the strategic objectives is of paramount success. Five groundswell strategic objectives (listening, talking, energising, supporting and embracing) are provided and discussed in detail in the following chapters, while a framework for measuring their Return On Investment is presented:Chapter Five explains how to use the groundswell for listening to your customers and conducting market research such as forming private communities and brand monitoring. Case studies from National Comprehensive Cancer Network and the car company Mini are provided to explain the above mentioned.Chapter Six demonstrates how the groundswell can be used for talking to customers and implementing marketing and public relations. Techniques such as user-generated video, blogs, and communities are analysed by using the case studies from Ernst & Young in Facebook, HP’s blogs, and Procter & Gamble’s community for young girls (beinggirl.com).Chapter Seven explains how a firm can energise its best customers and enable them to recruit new customers from peers and social networks. Techniques discussed include ratings, reviews, and communities, illustrated through the use of the case studies from the online retailer eBag, the e-mail services company Constant Contact and the toy company Lego.Chapter Eight focuses on how the groundswell can be used for helping customers by enabling them to support each other. Technologies and techniques to achieve this objective are provided by discussing the case studies of CarePages (a network for hospital patients), the Dell’s community forums, and a wiki from the big consulting company BearingPoint.Chapter Nine describes how to accomplish the most powerful goal of all, i.e. to include and enable customers to collaborate and participate in business operations such as new product development. Customer collaboration examples are analysed from Del Monte Pet Products, the Canadian grocery retailer Lodlaw, the sales application company salesforce.com, and the French bank Credit Mutuel.The third part of the book includes the last three chapters and focuses on strategy implementation issues. Chapter Ten discusses transformation issues for embracing groundswell thinking. The Dell and Unilever cases are used for demonstrating the advantages gained by implementing and incorporating Web 2.0 techniques into multiple settings and operations. Chapter Eleven examines how the same trends that empower customers in the groundswell also empower employees in a company. The chapter analyses how wikis, blogs, and social networks within companies can enhance the productivity of a global organisation by discussing the examples of Best Buy, Organic, Bell Canada, Avenue A/Razorfish and Intel. Chapter Twelve concludes the book by forecasting the next steps in the groundswell trend. The aim of this chapter is to prepare firms for what is coming by discussing how the demographic and technology forces will create a disaggregated, collaborative, fluid world within the next ten years.

Overall, this is an excellent, well-written and easy-to-read book that provides a holistic and comprehensive process to a very topical issue, i.e. the emerging and mushrooming phenomenon of Web 2.0. The book provides rich practical implications and guidelines on designing and implementing Web 2.0 exploitation strategies by compiling and analysing numerous business cases and real life examples. References to the limited, so far, related textbooks as well links to many interesting web site resources are provided. The book analyses the exploitation of the groundswell from multiple business operations perspectives, and so it provides the required background and the tools for any staff either in marketing, research, support, sales, R&D or operations. Therefore, the book constitutes a comprehensive guide and useful source of references and case studies to graduate students as well as business professionals alike.

Reviewed by Marianna Sigala, Department of Business Administration, University of the Aegean, Chios, Chios Island, Greece.

This review was originally published in Journal of Consumer Marketing, Volume 26 Number 2, 2009, pp. 136-8.

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