A complete guide to effective modern business writing that helps you cut the bull and get to your point faster.Writing Without Bullshit is the first comprehensive guide to writing for today''s world: a noisy environment where everyone reads what you write on a screen. The average news story now gets only 36 seconds of attention. Unless you change how you write, your emails, reports, and web copy don''t stand a chance.In this practical and witty little book, you''ll learn to front-load your writing with pithy titles, subject lines, and opening sentences. You''ll acquire the courage and skill to purge weak and meaningless jargon, wimpy passive voice, and cowardly weasel words. And you''ll get used to writing directly to the reader to make every word count.At the center of it all is the Iron Imperative: treat the reader''s time as more valuable than your own. Embrace that, and your customers, your boss, and your colleagues will recognize the power and boldness of your thinking.Transcend the fear that makes your writing weak. Plan and execute writing projects with confidence. Manage edits and reviews flawlessly. And master every modern format, from emails and social media to reports and press releases.Writing Without Bullshit is The Elements of Style for the Internet era, an essential tonic for the career of every serious businessperson.

Corporate executives struggle to harness the power of social technologies. Twitter, Facebook, blogs, YouTube are where customers discuss products and companies, write their own news, and find their own deals but how do you integrate these activities into your broader marketing efforts? It''s an unstoppable groundswell that affects every industry -- yet it''s still utterly foreign to most 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, Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li explain how to turn this threat into an opportunity.In this updated and expanded edition of Groundswell, featuring an all new introduction and chapters on Twitter and social media integration, you''ll learn 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 businessGroundswell is required reading for executives seeking to protect and strengthen their company''s public image.

It''s the new normal. Now all of your employees are Twittering away and friending clients on Facebook. Not to mention customers--who feel obligated to update your Wikipedia entry with product complaints.In this new world, dealing with empowered employees and customers --Insurgents -- is only going to get more challenging. Employees are using this technology in the workplace and customers are using it in the marketplace, and neither obey the rules you set up.This chaos is your future as a manager. You could try to shut it down and shut it off. Or you can harness it and reap the business benefits.According to Josh Bernoff and Ted Schadler of Forrester Research (the organization that brought you Groundswell), your defense against insurgents is to enable them. At its heart, this is a book about how to scale the management of insurgency, both the innovation of insurgent employees and the energy of insurgent customers. The key is a process Forrester calls E Triple S, for the four elements of managing insurgents effectively: empowering, selecting, scaling, and socializing.While it''s based in current trends, the core concept of Managing Insurgents -- that the next management and innovation challenge is harnessing individuals empowered by mobile, social, and connected technology -- is a new idea. In the wake of Groundswell, dozens of social-technology-for-business books cropped up. And there are plenty of books on improving your customer service. But there''s no serious business book about management, marketing, and innovation in the throes of this trend. When Insurgency hits, it will be perceived not just as a sequel to Groundswell but as the start of a new management philosophy.

Joining the ranks of classics like The Elements of Style and On Writing Well, Writing Without Bullshit helps professionals get to the point to get ahead. It's time for Writing Without Bullshit. Writing Without Bullshit is the first comprehensive guide to writing for today's world: a noisy environment where everyone reads what you write on a screen. The average news story now gets only 36 seconds of attention. Unless you change how you write, your emails, reports, and Web copy don't stand a chance. In this practical and witty book, you'll learn to front-load your writing with pithy titles, subject lines, and opening sentences. You'll acquire the courage and skill to purge weak and meaningless jargon, wimpy passive voice, and cowardly weasel words. And you'll get used to writing directly to the reader to make every word count. At the center of it all is the Iron Imperative: treat the reader's time as more valuable than your own. Embrace that, and your customers, your boss, and your colleagues will recognize the power and boldness of your thinking. Transcend the fear that makes your writing weak. Plan and execute writing projects with confidence.Manage edits and reviews flawlessly. And master every modern format from emails and social media to reports and press releases. Stop writing to fit in. Start writing to stand out. Boost your career by writing without bullshit.

Since Groundswell was published in April of 2008, two things have happened: The global economy has gone into the dumper; and at the same time, marketers have fallen in love with social technologies." So states author Josh Bernoff in his introduction to Marketing in the Groundswell, which offers vital information that everyone involved in marketing or in communicating with customers' needs to know. The book includes three core chapters from the original bestseller that focus on market research, marketing, and spreading word-of-mouth among your best customers. Sure, you already know that customers are writing about your products on blogs or talking about your brand on Twitter and Facebook. Now, turn that interest into opportunity and profit. In these economic times, marketers like you are increasing their investment in social technologies, while cutting back on more traditional expenses. Why? Because they work--no matter the economic climate. Marketing in the Groundswell shows you how you can build social applications, measure their results, and use the social technology movement to your company's advantage.

Is Your Company EMPOWERED for Success? You know it's happening within your organization. Your people, armed with cheap, accessible technology, are connecting with customers and building innovative new solutions. But who are these creative problem-solvers? How can you be one? And just as important--how can you lead them? We call them HEROes: highly empowered and resourceful operatives. Your company needs them because in the age of Twitter, iPhones, Facebook, YouTube, and an ever-evolving torrent of Web information, your customers now step up to the counter armed with more data and access than ever before, and in many cases, your company is overmatched. In Empowered, Forrester's Josh Bernoff--coauthor of the pioneering book Groundswell--and Ted Schadler explain how to transform your company by unleashing the mighty force of these HEROes. Like John Bernier and Ben Hedrington at Best Buy, who built an army of 2,500 tweeting employees to reach out to customers online. Or Ross Inglis, who tapped into Internet computing resources to open an entirely new customer channel for Thomson Reuters.Or John Stadick, who equipped 600 sales staff with iPhones and boosted profits at his construction rental company. The truth is, one in three of your information workers already use easily accessible technologies that your company does not sanction. Empowered gives you a prescription for embracing this covert innovation. At the heart of a HERO-powered business is a new pact between these critical employees, company managers, and the IT department: HEROes build new solutions to meet customer needs, management sets clear rules while encouraging more experimentation, and IT expands its role to both support and secure these business solutions.Fueled by data from Forrester Research, Empowered is packed with the business tools and information necessary to move your organization several steps ahead of the competition: * Statistical analysis of the 16% of customers who account for 80% of the online influence * The four-step IDEA process to transform customer-facing service, marketing, and mobile applications * A tool to score HERO projects on value and effort, to offer guidance on which projects to support * The HERO index: A scorecard of the industries and departments with the most--and the fewest--HEROes * Roadmaps for collaboration systems that stimulate and support HERO innovation * The game plan for IT's new role as a key partner in technology ideas throughout the company * Dozens of case studies and examples from firms in every industry, from retail to business services Armed with an arsenal of exciting and valuable new technologies, your employees are already transforming the way you do business. You can lead them or block them--it's your choice. Empowered will help you make the right decision.

A complete guide to effective modern business writing that helps you cut the bull and get to your point faster.Writing Without Bullshit is the first comprehensive guide to writing for today''s world: a noisy environment where everyone reads what you write on a screen. The average news story now gets only 36 seconds of attention. Unless you change how you write, your emails, reports, and web copy don''t stand a chance.In this practical and witty little book, you''ll learn to front-load your writing with pithy titles, subject lines, and opening sentences. You''ll acquire the courage and skill to purge weak and meaningless jargon, wimpy passive voice, and cowardly weasel words. And you''ll get used to writing directly to the reader to make every word count.At the center of it all is the Iron Imperative: treat the reader''s time as more valuable than your own. Embrace that, and your customers, your boss, and your colleagues will recognize the power and boldness of your thinking.Transcend the fear that makes your writing weak. Plan and execute writing projects with confidence. Manage edits and reviews flawlessly. And master every modern format, from emails and social media to reports and press releases.Writing Without Bullshit is The Elements of Style for the Internet era, an essential tonic for the career of every serious businessperson.

Corporate executives struggle to harness the power of social technologies. Twitter, Facebook, blogs, YouTube are where customers discuss products and companies, write their own news, and find their own deals but how do you integrate these activities into your broader marketing efforts? It''s an unstoppable groundswell that affects every industry -- yet it''s still utterly foreign to most 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, Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li explain how to turn this threat into an opportunity.In this updated and expanded edition of Groundswell, featuring an all new introduction and chapters on Twitter and social media integration, you''ll learn 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 businessGroundswell is required reading for executives seeking to protect and strengthen their company''s public image.

It''s the new normal. Now all of your employees are Twittering away and friending clients on Facebook. Not to mention customers--who feel obligated to update your Wikipedia entry with product complaints.In this new world, dealing with empowered employees and customers --Insurgents -- is only going to get more challenging. Employees are using this technology in the workplace and customers are using it in the marketplace, and neither obey the rules you set up.This chaos is your future as a manager. You could try to shut it down and shut it off. Or you can harness it and reap the business benefits.According to Josh Bernoff and Ted Schadler of Forrester Research (the organization that brought you Groundswell), your defense against insurgents is to enable them. At its heart, this is a book about how to scale the management of insurgency, both the innovation of insurgent employees and the energy of insurgent customers. The key is a process Forrester calls E Triple S, for the four elements of managing insurgents effectively: empowering, selecting, scaling, and socializing.While it''s based in current trends, the core concept of Managing Insurgents -- that the next management and innovation challenge is harnessing individuals empowered by mobile, social, and connected technology -- is a new idea. In the wake of Groundswell, dozens of social-technology-for-business books cropped up. And there are plenty of books on improving your customer service. But there''s no serious business book about management, marketing, and innovation in the throes of this trend. When Insurgency hits, it will be perceived not just as a sequel to Groundswell but as the start of a new management philosophy.

Joining the ranks of classics like The Elements of Style and On Writing Well, Writing Without Bullshit helps professionals get to the point to get ahead. It's time for Writing Without Bullshit. Writing Without Bullshit is the first comprehensive guide to writing for today's world: a noisy environment where everyone reads what you write on a screen. The average news story now gets only 36 seconds of attention. Unless you change how you write, your emails, reports, and Web copy don't stand a chance. In this practical and witty book, you'll learn to front-load your writing with pithy titles, subject lines, and opening sentences. You'll acquire the courage and skill to purge weak and meaningless jargon, wimpy passive voice, and cowardly weasel words. And you'll get used to writing directly to the reader to make every word count. At the center of it all is the Iron Imperative: treat the reader's time as more valuable than your own. Embrace that, and your customers, your boss, and your colleagues will recognize the power and boldness of your thinking. Transcend the fear that makes your writing weak. Plan and execute writing projects with confidence.Manage edits and reviews flawlessly. And master every modern format from emails and social media to reports and press releases. Stop writing to fit in. Start writing to stand out. Boost your career by writing without bullshit.

Since Groundswell was published in April of 2008, two things have happened: The global economy has gone into the dumper; and at the same time, marketers have fallen in love with social technologies." So states author Josh Bernoff in his introduction to Marketing in the Groundswell, which offers vital information that everyone involved in marketing or in communicating with customers' needs to know. The book includes three core chapters from the original bestseller that focus on market research, marketing, and spreading word-of-mouth among your best customers. Sure, you already know that customers are writing about your products on blogs or talking about your brand on Twitter and Facebook. Now, turn that interest into opportunity and profit. In these economic times, marketers like you are increasing their investment in social technologies, while cutting back on more traditional expenses. Why? Because they work--no matter the economic climate. Marketing in the Groundswell shows you how you can build social applications, measure their results, and use the social technology movement to your company's advantage.

Is Your Company EMPOWERED for Success? You know it's happening within your organization. Your people, armed with cheap, accessible technology, are connecting with customers and building innovative new solutions. But who are these creative problem-solvers? How can you be one? And just as important--how can you lead them? We call them HEROes: highly empowered and resourceful operatives. Your company needs them because in the age of Twitter, iPhones, Facebook, YouTube, and an ever-evolving torrent of Web information, your customers now step up to the counter armed with more data and access than ever before, and in many cases, your company is overmatched. In Empowered, Forrester's Josh Bernoff--coauthor of the pioneering book Groundswell--and Ted Schadler explain how to transform your company by unleashing the mighty force of these HEROes. Like John Bernier and Ben Hedrington at Best Buy, who built an army of 2,500 tweeting employees to reach out to customers online. Or Ross Inglis, who tapped into Internet computing resources to open an entirely new customer channel for Thomson Reuters.Or John Stadick, who equipped 600 sales staff with iPhones and boosted profits at his construction rental company. The truth is, one in three of your information workers already use easily accessible technologies that your company does not sanction. Empowered gives you a prescription for embracing this covert innovation. At the heart of a HERO-powered business is a new pact between these critical employees, company managers, and the IT department: HEROes build new solutions to meet customer needs, management sets clear rules while encouraging more experimentation, and IT expands its role to both support and secure these business solutions.Fueled by data from Forrester Research, Empowered is packed with the business tools and information necessary to move your organization several steps ahead of the competition: * Statistical analysis of the 16% of customers who account for 80% of the online influence * The four-step IDEA process to transform customer-facing service, marketing, and mobile applications * A tool to score HERO projects on value and effort, to offer guidance on which projects to support * The HERO index: A scorecard of the industries and departments with the most--and the fewest--HEROes * Roadmaps for collaboration systems that stimulate and support HERO innovation * The game plan for IT's new role as a key partner in technology ideas throughout the company * Dozens of case studies and examples from firms in every industry, from retail to business services Armed with an arsenal of exciting and valuable new technologies, your employees are already transforming the way you do business. You can lead them or block them--it's your choice. Empowered will help you make the right decision.