Everywhere: Comprehensive Digital Business Strategy for the Social Media Era [Hardcover]

Larry Weber (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 29, 2011

Put digital business strategy at the center of your business

Welcome to the social media age. Although its impact was first felt in the marketing department, the social web is spreading across all business functions, impacting the way they communicate, operate, organize, and create value. A comprehensive digital strategy is essential for businesses hoping to build this new form of competitive advantage.

Everywhere explains how to put your digital strategy at the center of how your organization communicates, operates, organizes itself, and creates value.

• Develop a comprehensive digital strategy for your organization
• Put your online business strategy at the center of your customer's experience, and at the heart of everything you do
• Larry Weber's W2 Group is helping companies like Sony, IBM, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, and the government of Rwanda, craft new online business strategies

The Web is not just another marketing channel. Put social media, email, Web, and other digital interactions Everywhere in your business, and make digital business strategy the heart of your thriving enterprise.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Social media has upended the way the world communicates. No longer just the focus of marketing departments, the conversations taking place online have the power to drive innovation, perceptions, and sales in every industry. From research and development to human resources, from the trenches all the way up to the top brass, social media has transformed how businesses communicate, operate, organize, and create value.

Everywhere explains how to put your digital strategy at the center of your organization. Social media taps into the collective intelligence of people who are already actively engaged with your company. It sounds an early alarm on trends, issues with your products, and ideas for improvements. Social media allows you to engage honestly and openly with stakeholders in a way that your competitors aren't.

Internally, social media tools can foster conversations among employees, enhance strategy execution, and turn silo thinkers into bridge thinkers. Product development can take dramatic leaps through the use of proactive and vocal consumers, cross-functional collaboration, innovation brokers, and partnerships. Information that used to take a year to gather can now be sourced and fed into strategy almost instantaneously. Everywhere gives you the information you need to:

• Determine who your most valuable constituencies are, find them on the Web, and monitor them without invading their sense of privacy
• Understand how the social web has changed the consumer purchase journey
• Decide who should represent your company online and what type of internal infrastructure is needed to maximize the value of these external communities
• Look at reporting structures, company policies, and procedures to determine what helps and what hinders collaboration internally and externally
• Discover social tools that can improve communication between employees
• Learn how social media engagement is changing talent recruitment, training, and retention

Social media engagement improves companies, empowers employees, and wins customers. It creates highly efficient enterprises, able to reallocate inventory, capital, and talent on a real-time rather than quarterly basis. The social media age is upon us. Implement your digital strategy now, and your company will thrive in this new reality.

From the Back Cover

Praise for Everywhere

"Larry Weber clearly grasps the impact of ubiquitous social technology on companies—the unprecedented opportunities as well as the challenges. Companies that understand this new reality, and are building a comprehensive digital strategy to benefit from it, are already differentiating themselves from their peers. Take advantage of his foresight to make sure that your company is capitalizing on this new source of competitive advantage."
—Dr. JAMES CASH, Emeritus James E. Robison Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School

"Everywhere is a leader's guide to creating—and getting—value from social media. Larry Weber understands the media and message of connectedness."
—ELLIOT SCHRAGE, Vice President of Global Communications,Marketing and Public Policy, Facebook

"Ongoing dialogue with customers, employees, and other stakeholders will soon be the way every successful company does business. We'll come in to work and turn on the lights, turn on the heat, and turn on the voice of our customers. In Everywhere, Larry Weber has written another visionary book, making a compelling case for the type of collaborative company that will have true competitive advantage in the future."
—DIANE HESSAN, President and CEO, Communispace

"Once again, Larry Weber takes the highly complex and dynamic digital world and gives a useful and practical guide for making it become an important part of your business . . . as it should be. As we all encounter the many impacts that digital media, social networking, and digital communities are having on our businesses, make sure you access his keen thinking."
—MARK NUNNELLY, Managing Director, Bain Capital

"Weber really gets that social media is a lot more than a set of tools that people use to chat with their friends and family. Those conversations are valuable sources of market intelligence, inputs into product and service development, and sources of employee recruitment—and, ultimately, lead to competitive advantage. At TripAdvisor, we live and breathe this stuff, as social media has been the foundation of the company. Everywhere is a must-read for business."
—STEPHEN KAUFER, founder, President, and CEO, TripAdvisor

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (March 29, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470651709
• ISBN-13: 978-0470651704
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 0.9 x 9.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #126,466 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Larry Weber is founder and chairman of W2 Group, a next-generation marketing services ecosystem organized to help marketing officers in their new roles of online community builders and content aggregators. W2 Group companies Digital Influence Group, Racepoint Group and Two Martinis are leaders in social media marketing in paid and unpaid media. For the past thirty years, Larry has advised hundreds of companies of all different sizes and industries, helping them to navigate a wide spectrum of business challenges and marketing opportunities. Along the way, he founded Weber Shandwick, one of the largest public relations agency in the world. His experience has afforded him a crow's nest view of the evolution of marketing, reputation management, influence and brand that inspires his vision today. Larry lives with his wife and three children in Massachusetts.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars "Everywhere" - Digital Business Strategy For Survival-Oriented / Serious Social Media Era Builders!!!... December 19, 2011

By Michael Sykes

Format:Hardcover

>>>...Social Media has changed the way of Business Communication!!!...No longer just the Focus of Marketing, Conversations are taking place "Everywhere", etc. that have the Power to drive Innovation, Perceptions and Sales, etc. in every Sector & Industry, etc. from Top to Bottom to Top!!!...Social Media has transformed how Business Communicates, Operates and Create Value, etc.!!!..."Everywhere" will help You put Your Digital Strategy at the Center of Your Business!!!...Everywhere: Comprehensive Digital Business Strategy for the Social Media Era
>>>..."Everywhere", from Larry Weber, Authority, Author, Thought & Team Leader, etc. has put together a Comprehensive Digital Business Strategy for our Social Media Era that will allow those Serious Builders to Implement our Digital Strategy...Now / Today...and Thrive & Reap the Benefits & Rewards in this New Reality!!!...>>> However, Author Larry Weber indicates, in Part 4, Chapter 10 - The Future of the Social Enterprise, "It Is Not Necessary To Change!!!...Survival Is Not Mandatory!!!..." >>> For Those Going Forward, Your Journey Starts Now!!!...
>>>..."Everywhere" has 4 Parts, 10 Chapters and 260+ pages of Rich Knowledge, Context & Content, etc.
>>>..."Everywhere" starts with Dedication, Contents, Acknowledgments, Preface, MustRead InDepth Introduction Sections, prior to Part 1!!!...>>> Now, On to Part One.
>>>...Part 1 - The Evolving Social Web has 1 Chapter.
>>>...Chapter 01 - The Social Enterprise : A New Source of Competitive Advantage.
>>>...Part 2 - On Becoming A Social Enterprise has 3 Chapters.
>>>...Chapter 02 - Toward a Comprehensive Digital Business Strategy.
>>>...Chapter 03 - Building Enterprise-Wide Engagement Capability.
>>>...Chapter 04 - Developing a Digitally Driven Company : Culture, Structure, and Leadership.
>>>...Part 3 - Across The Business Universe has 5 Chapters.
>>>...Chapter 05 - Marketing, Sales, and Service, Step 1 : Organize Around Customer Engagement.
>>>...Chapter 06 - Marketing, Sales, and Service, Step 2 : Converse with Your Customers.
>>>...Chapter 07 - Innovation : Commit to Openness, Speed, and Crowds.
>>>...Chapter 08 - Strategy Execution : Capitalize on What Your Organization Already Knows.
>>>...Chapter 09 - Human Capital : Expect Real-Time Resumes and Create a Twenty-First Century Workplace.
>>>...Part 4 - The Future OF The Social Enterprise has 1 Chapter.
>>>...Chapter 10 - Next...Next closes with a Section entitled "It Is Not Necessary To Change" - "Survival Is Not Mandatory."
>>>..."Everywhere" closes with Notes and the ever helpful Index!!!...
>>>...>>> A Suggestion for Survival-Oriented, Serious Builders, InvestPurchase in "Everywhere"...Now / Today...Get It, Read It, Absorb It, Implement It!!!...>>> Be A EarlyAdopter, Nimble, Agile, Flexible, Competitive Business, etc. Aligned with the Social Media Era!!!...Time is of the Essence / Time is our only Non-Recoverable Resource!!!...Carpe Diem / Seize The Day!!!...Michael!!!...

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Social Media really is Everywhere in your Organization! May 15, 2011

By Paul Dunay

Format:Hardcover

I just finished this book and it does a great job describing the dynamic now in play at every organization regarding social media. It illustrated how social media is going on a whirlwind tour throughout your organization touching areas I never expected it to touch. It's not like the early days of the internet - where you can hire a bunch of coders, stick them in a corner and have them create your website and do all things web - its much more involved and truly touches "everywhere" in your organization. Because of that you need a comprehensive strategy that will involve the whole organization and leverage the human network and human capital typically trapped in organizations of all sizes. This book does an excellent job of explaining and then illustrating with real world examples how to create a strategy that will unlock the power hidden everywhere in your organization. Excellent read - thank you Larry!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars insightful and well written overview of corporate use of social media April 23, 2011

By Peter Henderson

Format:Hardcover

As a marketing executive, I found "Everywhere" to be a very useful tool to understand how companies are leveraging social media to be closer to their customers and other stakeholders. The book abounds with useful examples of what companies are doing today to apply social media strategies to be more competitive in their respective markets. Everywhere offers a refreshing perspective on how the business world is changing because of social media and where it can be applied-- within and beyond marketing-- to make a difference. High marks for a well written and insightful overview.