Dec 20, 2008

Blook Report: Groundswell

Over the next few months (may be longer, I'm doing this in my spare time) I'm going to be producing an in-depth blog report on the book "Groundswell" researched and written by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff.

The book is broken into three parts:

Part 1: Understanding the Groundswell
Part 2: Tapping the Groundswell
Part 3: The Groundswell Transforms

Here is the table of contents.

I'm an avid reader of business books and love to learn. I read so many books, blogs, magazines and now tweets; I sometimes wonder how much I actually remember and retain! Having access to so much information is a good problem to have. We can now become subject matter experts because there is no shortage of content and people wanting to help educate you.

Yet, the problem remains the same. How can I retain and remember the many things I read each day? When I read "the" business book of the year, how will I remember what I read; let alone apply it to my business?

These questions led me to come up with the idea of producing what I call a "blook report". My goal is to use social media to the extent possible to add life to the text you read in the book. You'll need to buy the book in order to follow along (I'm not being paid to do this blook report or say this).

So what does a blook report include? At this point I focus on three things:
  • First, providing a summary blog post for each chapter on the key points that I think are important. I may relate them to personal experiences also
  • Each blog post will have a featured picture, video and links that lift the words off of the text to help build context and meaning behind the key concepts being covered in the chapter
  • and finally, there will be a series of supportive links located in a Friendfeed room where the the authors have made reference to real world examples, case studies etc
So why am I doing this? First, I am avid learner and will use this blook report as a reference tool when helping companies with their b2b programs. Second, it may help you do the same thing for your clients or your company. Third, it's a social media/groundswell experiment.

Stay tuned to this post for updates.

PART ONE: Understanding the Groundswell
Chapter One: Why the groundswell and why now?
Chapter Two: Jujitsu and the technologies of groundswell
Chapter Three: The social technographics profile

PART TWO: Tapping the groundswell
Chapter Four: Strategies for tapping the groundswell
Chapter Five: Listening to the groundswell
Chapter Six: Talking with the groundswell
Chapter Seven: Energizing the groundswell
Chapter Eight: Helping the groundswell support itself
Chapter Nine: Embracing the groundswell

7 comments:

  1. Anonymous3:30 PM

    I'm looking forward to it.

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  2. will be following your blog, also.

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  3. @Josh and @Raymond,

    Thx for the comment. It will be an interesting experiment. I hope it is of value to those that follow and contribute to this.

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  4. Chris:

    I had the priviledge of interviewing Josh on my radio show Marketing News Radio, sponsored by the American Marketing Association. You can listen to the interview at:

    http://www.wsradio.com/internet-talk-radio.cfm/shows/Marketing-News-Radio/archives/date/selected/08-06-2008.html

    What I found most interesting from reading the book and the corresponding interview was the book's POST method for being an active contributor to the groundswell: People, Objectives, Strategy, and then LAST OF ALL, Technology.

    Enjoy your read!

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  5. David,

    Thanks for the comment. I've added your interview to the Groundswell FriendFeed room.

    Chris.

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  6. Anonymous10:26 PM

    Hey Chris, I picked up this book today. Looking forward to the read as well as going through your blook report.

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  7. Ken, join in the conversation on the blog and/or in the FriendFeed room. Josh Bernoff and I chatted today and he's interested in seeing more people join the FriendFeed room and experiment with it. The FriendFeed room is a continuing story of Groundswell for two reasons.

    First, I am looking for the references he speaks about in the book. It's neat to see what's happened since the book was published. In chapter three he talks about Adult Fans of Lego. You'll notice I've added, under Chapter three in the FF room some pictures from Flikr of Battlestar Galatica lego creations.

    The second reason that is cool is this: If a person comments in the FF room that post raises to the top of the page. This can spark conversation and shows what was of interest to a specific person. Josh Bernoff has been commenting in the FF room too. Kinda cool.

    Josh did a quick post on his blog about the FriendFeed experiment. In case you want to see what his thoughts are about it. http://blogs.forrester.com/groundswell/2009/01/a-groundswell-f.html

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