Groundswell was written by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff of Forrester and has become one of the most influential book about usining social media for business success.

Highlights from the book:

Social media planning using POST strategy:
1. Profile: profile the people who will visit your website

The 6 types of people who will use your site:

1. Creators: Least in number but most powerful. They will make the videos, podcasts, blog posts, reviews that others will consume.
2. Critics: People who rate products and write reviews, respond to posts, or videos.
3. Collectors: Who collect and categorize content related to their interest. Users of social news sites such as Reddit.com for example.
4. Joiners: Whom will join all forms of socila networking sites to maintain their profile, upload pictures, link to family and friend profiles, etc.
5. Spectators: These are in the majority. They will consume the videos, the posts and comments, podcasts, forum material, etc created/collected by others.
6. Inactives: Who will merely browse your site and never bother to even update their information regularly.

2. Objective: Decide which of 5 tactics will meet your organizational objectives. The five tactics are:
1. Listening: hearing what people are saying about your organization online using tools such as Google Blogsearch, Technorati, Google Alerts etc.
2. Talking: Create brand awareness by starting a conversation with and within your target audience by using tolls such as blogs, videos. podcasts, Twitter etc.
3. Energizing: Get people to talk about your product using tools such as review and rating systems.
4. Supporting: Creating an active online presence focused on create a support system for your target customers, using product forums, faqs, tips & tricks on using your product, letting users share useful information related to your product, etc.
5. Embracing: Using the collective wisdom, knowledge, and ingenuity of your audience to improve your product or service.

3. Strategy: Develop a strategy to meet your objectives.
Ask questions like,
- What resources need to be put in place for support?
- Will the social technologies be incorporated into your organization's website of live offsite?
- Who will lead the charge?
- What performance indicators can be put in place?
- How often do you assess the tactics?

4. Technology: Choose a technology and partner to make your social media plan a reality.
Whatever you choose, make sure the technology is scalable and flexible as circumstances and strategy change for your business.

[From the Great Books  Series. Also see The Success Manual  - Encyclopedia of Advice, which contains summaries of 100+ Most useful books.]