Spreads Like Wildfire

We’re currently in the throes of writing the book that sifts through all the social media hype and traditional world inertia and identifies the real stories and insights behind businesses that are tapping business value out of customer collaboration and engagement.

No, it’s not a social media or marketing book - although they are both in there. We are telling stories about companies that have embraced this new culture of peering and openness and gone much deeper than other content on the subject on how they’re making it work. If you are in an organization, starting a business, knee deep in the digital thickets, love the concept of customer enagagement or have an affinity for the culture of the marketplace, this is the book for you.

We’re elated McGraw Hill has decided to publish us and that Don Tapscott, author of Wikinomics and Grown Up Digital is writing the foreword.

It’s personally exciting getting to talk to and meet some of the best in the business and understanding first hand what makes their efforts tick. Our on-shelf date is in December’10 so the insights are coming fast and furious.

Here are the basic tenets of what this book is about and why it will be different:

-          Rigorous discipline - this is not a personal opinion book but substantive opinion developed from investigating hundreds of brand experiences and primary interviews with the architects behind these efforts, distilled through the lenses of the authors who have a combined forty years of experience on the progressive side of strategy, marketing, digital and communications practices

-          A balanced viewpoint - there is no axe to grind or embedded functional bias among the authors. We operate across many different worlds and come in contact with a large web of different resources and opinions.

-          How business practitioners succeed- a higher order challenge exists within companies now, not on “what to do” or “how not to mess up big time” necessarily (although we briefly touch on this) but rather “how to do it” in order to not only move individual opinion but large stakeholder groups to rally behind these efforts. We will investigate these organizations to find out what makes their efforts successful.

-          Some foundational basis on why people need to change - we have primary research and survey information not broadly revealed to the general public yet.

-          A smart way to integrate web 2.0 into their strategies and tactics for growing brands - we provide a structure across chapters, reference guide and ancillary awards, vlog and wiki that will provide role models, success stories, best practices and reference tools to make conclusions instantly translatable.

-          Credibility and support of Don Tapscott and Wikinomics - with a foreword and counsel by Don Tapscott, best selling author and highly credible “father of collaboration” and expert understanding of digital environment, in addition to the affiliated title of this book, we’ll have instant credibility from CEO/CIO/CMO audience and from the much larger business, media, communications and public audience.

-          Outside of the Echo Chamber - although we’re very well-connected, we don’t believe we’re over-exposed our insights or content to the larger community nor do we group oursleves into a number of thought leaders who tend to see the world through a partisan lens.

Join along for the ride at our Facebook group, Twitter page @wikibrands and soon to be launched blog or connect with me personally at @seanmoffitt