JT on EDM

I have just finished reading Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies. Groundswell is a great book providing a thorough and up to date discussion of how to use social media, and more, to connect with and energize your customers. The book approaches the discussion from the reader’s objectives – listening to customers, talking to them, energizing them, empowering them – rather than from technologies or approaches. It has plenty of discussion of how to use technology like blogs, wikis, social networks, bulletin boards and more but always in the context of what you are trying to achieve. I particularly liked the way it brought in approaches not based on new technology and integrated them with the story.

The book is well written and readable – a real book not a long analyst report (despite the authors being Forrester analysts). It should also remain current for a while as it is focused on problems (and how to solve them) and opportunities (and how to exploit them) rather than on the nitty gritty of a particular technology. It’s examples are truly illustrative and the authors do a nice job helping the reader place themselves in the context of the opportunity to see what will work in their organization rather than providing a one-size-fits all mandate.

If you are in marketing and have been wondering how all this social “stuff” is going to affect you and what you can do about it, you should probably buy this book. You might also want to check out two posts of mine on decision management and social media -Web 2.0, Social Media and Decision Management and Glib, me?