Corporate executives are struggling with a new trend: people using online social technologies (blogs, social networking sites, YouTube, podcasts) to discuss products and companies, write their own news, and find their own deals. This groundswell is global, it's unstoppable, it affects every industry -- and it's utterly foreign to the powerful companies running things now.When consumers you've never met are rating your company's products in public forums with which you have no experience or influence, your company is vulnerable. In Groundswell, Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff of Forrester, Inc. explain how to turn this threat into an opportunity. Using tools and data straight from Forrester, you'll learn how to:· Evaluate new social technologies as they emerge· Determine how different groups of consumers are participating in social technology arenas· Apply a four-step process for formulating your future strategy · Build social technologies into your business -- including monitoring your brand value, talking with the groundswell through marketing and PR campaigns, and energizing your best customers to recruit their peersTimely and insightful, this book is required reading for executives seeking to protect and strengthen their company's public image