Reviewing the Groundswell

One danger of reviewing a book is the reality that the reviews ultimately say more about the reviewer, and the book he or she wishes had been written, than they do about the book which actually was written. It’s in that context that I offer this review of Groundswell, by Forrester Research analysts Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, published by Harvard Business Press (note: disclaimers at the end of the post).

To start with the positive: This is a really solid business book, which sets out a clear methodology (including the Social Technographics Profile and the POST method with which Forrester clients / subscribers are already familiar), walks through a broad range of well explained case studies, and situates the business benefits of the different approaches.

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Web Content 2008 Chicago

I’m in Chicago today (and yesterday) for Web Content 2008. It’s a nice, smaller conference - about 150 attendees or so, with very strong content (as you might expect) and good opportunities to meet, talk to, and network with the speakers and other attendees. The focus this year is on “Web 2.0 and it’s impact on Web Communication” so there’s been lots of interesting discussion.

I got in late yesterday due to some flight issues, but managed to catch three good presentations.
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How Lego Caught the Cluetrain

I’m often amazed at how well the Cluetrain Manifesto stands up 10 years later, and constantly recommend it to new Optaros employees or others trying to understand how companies can engage with customers in new ways.

The video below is from the “There’s a New Conversation” event in NY on Feb. 13th this year, which was put on by The Conversatin Group. It’s Jake McKee, formerly Global Community Relations Specialist for Lego, talking about how Lego learned to engage with its adult fan community during his time there.

It’s a great case study of how he overcame internal resistance and convinced Lego to connect with and benefit from fan communities rather than trying to control them or shut them down. If it were up to me this would be mandatory viewing for all marketing teams and legal teams at consumer goods companies. Of course much of it applies outside consumer goods too.

If you use Miro (and you should), use this url to add The Conversation Group’s channel: http://tcg.blip.tv/rss

Prepare for the New Openness

Optaros is sponsoring (with Red Hat) a webinar on Wednesday: Are Your Products Open or Closed? How to Respond to the New Openness

Registration (free) is required.
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Who do I have to “poke” to get a network?

What does it take to get a corporate network set up inside Facebook?

I first requested one about a year ago and recently re-requested it.

We’ve got an Optaros group, and I know we could set up a page for people to become fans of Optaros, but what I really want is for us to be a network.

Can anyone who has successfully created a network share any tips on what they did?