This book, with the full title “Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies” is a must-read for anyone trying to figure out how to profit from the social media phenomenon. There is only one major negative aspect of this book: it was not written 3 years ago.. Shame on Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff! (kidding of course!)

This book is perfect for anyone who doesn’t understand ‘social media’ … and for those who think they do! Provides case-based examples of how organizations have used social media to engage their users. The examples provided in the book are quite good and describe how organizations have used social media to embrace their community.

Before you go out and buy the book following my recommendation, let me make a couple of important points:

• This book does not tell you how to implement a social network.
• This book will not solve your social media problems. It will help you understand your problems and give you some ideas for solutions.

What this book will do is help you understand that there is no single answer to the question of “how to embrace social media.” The book offers many examples of social media experiments … some successful and some unsuccessful.

The book provides a wealth of information on age group and demographic differences and how age typically affects social media use. Excellent information that everyone should check out.

For me, the most interesting section of the book is the one in which the authors state very clearly that any social media project (or really any project) can be more successful if the following four steps are followed:

• First, look at your people.
• Second, set your goals.
• Third, review your strategy.
• Fourth, look at the technology.

This approach, which the authors abbreviate as POST, is no different from any proper strategic planning initiative … at least in my book. When an organization starts looking for new things like social media, it must first look at its people and its customers. Is this new strategy something that can be easily achieved? Its viable?

The second step is to set your goals for the project. What are you trying to achieve with this social media project (or any project)? The third step is to review your overall strategy, as well as determine your “go to market” strategy. The last step (which most organizations do first) is to select the technology platform that you will use to carry out your strategy. I can’t count how many times I’ve seen this process done backwards with selected technology before any real thought was put into strategy, goals, and people. Many of those projects failed miserably because of that.

The book is well reviewed … and well deserves those reviews. It is an excellent book for anyone interested in this topic. Highly recommended.