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"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 Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff define "the groundswell" as a social structure in which technology puts power into the hands of individuals and communities, not institutions. We see examples of this all around us: Second Life, You Tube, Twitter, etc. The technology that is enabling this has created a permanent, long lasting shift in the way the world works. This compelling and research-based book will not only identify the emerging components of this shift, but will also help companies build their businesses around it, regardless of what specific new technologies come along. The word on social computing has been out for a while. It's game changing. Books like Wikinomics begin to describe what the networked world has become. But institutions of all kinds need more than descriptive context. They need tools to navigate the shift in power that social computing and web communities have created. They need data on how their customers use and perceive new media, and guidance about what it means to their business. More than that, they need sophisticated advice that tells them how to turn this new reality to their advantage. This book provides that data and advice. Li and Bernoff, well-known thought leaders in the area of social technology, have used their considerable resources at Forrester Research to generate hard consumer data that quantifies a viable business opportunity. Based on their work with dozens of companies presented in the book, the authors are able to credibly describe how business can participate in the new social medium in order to communicate with, energize, support, and learn from their customers. More importantly, their work offers proof that prepared organizations can reap significant financial benefits in product development, marketing, PR, sales, and customer retention. They will use their own proprietary data and additional survey research to illuminate the strategies appropriate for specific brands, media, outlets, institutions, and nations. About The Author San Francisco-based Charlene Li is vice president at Forrester Research where her focus is on social computing and consumers. Previously, she developed interactive media for newspaper companies, and was a strategy consultant for Monitor Company. Boston-based Josh Bernoff, a longtime Forrester vice president, created Technographics segmentation - a breakthrough classification of consumers based on how we approach technology. Josh is also known as a top TV industry analyst; he led Forrester's research on top industry figures, their management teams, and the changes forced on the industry by devices and applications like HDTV and YouTube. Table of Contents Introduction Part I: Understanding the Groundswell Chapter 1: Why the Groundswell ' and Why Now' Chapter 2: Jujitsu and the Technologies of the Groundswell Chapter 3: The Social Technographics Profile Part II: Tapping the Groundswell Chapter 4: Strategies for Tapping the Groundswell Chapter 5: Listening to the Groundswell Chapter 6: Talking with the Groundswell Chapter 7: Energizing the Groundswell Chapter 8: Helping the Groundswell to Support Itself Chapter 9: Embracing the Groundswell Part III: The Groundswell Transforms Chapter 10: The Groundswell in your Company: Marketing Chapter 11: The Groundswell in your Company: IT Chapter 12: The Future of the Groundswell