Reading: Groundswell

Groundswell, by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, is a book about social technologies.

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. (page 9)

The book focuses on helping businesses understand the impact of the social web on them, what they need to watch out for and how to leverage it. The key take aways so far are:

• it is about people, not technologies
• clear objectives have to be defined before jumping in
  
• you have to know who want to reach and the kind of online relationship they want to have with you
• it is more about enabling your members/customers to interact with you and each other than you making pronouncements to them
  
• the social web is not fad or going away, but only going to grow because of the level of empowerment it gives to people to collectively influence what they want to see happen
• start small and work on getting it right, then expand your efforts - it is an evolutionary endeavor
• Six types of users: 1) Creators, 2) Critics, 3) Collectors, 4) Joiners, 5) Spectators and 6) Inactives
• Reasons for participation: relationships, desire to contribute, curiosity and desire to be recognized

More to come as I work my way through the book....

Also, see my post on CU Village social web strategies, more to come on that too.