Groundswell: winning in a world transformed by social technologies, by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff (Harvard Business Press, $29.95)

Blogs-turned-books claiming to offer cutting insights about what the internet means for business have become a fixture in the publishing world.

The trend that began in 2000 with The Cluetrain Manifesto - the original marketer's call to arms for the internet age - and continued in 2006 with Chris Anderson's The Long Tail, can now claim a new adherent.

In Groundswell, Forrester Research analysts Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff offer the latest twist on the idea that the internet is changing everything. Li and Bernoff spent a year researching, analysing and blogging about the social technolgies - blogs, social networks, and other "Web 2.0" sites, that are changing the way companies and consumers interact.

The resulting book is not so much a manifesto or a dissection of online culture as it is a how-to manual for executives and mid-level managers trying to navigate this fast-changing and often confusing environment.

What Groundswell lacks in pop culture pizzazz it makes up for in wonkishness. Li and Bernoff present an array of charts, facts and case studies to help readers understand "the Groundswell" - their catchphrase for the "spontaneous movement of people using online tools to connect, take charge of their own experience, and get what they need…from each other", rather than from corporations. The foundation of Groundswell's empirical approach is what Li and Bernoff call the "social technographics" of internet users.

Groundswell's authors divide web surfers into six broad categories of interest to companies - from "users" who create content by publishing blogs or uploading audio or video to social networks; to "critics" who post product reviews or comment on others' blog posts; to spectators, who may skim blogs and watch content uploaded by other users but don't make contributions of their own.

Analysing the "social technographics" of these users can provide companies with clues about who is likely to interact with their products online, and how they are likely to do it, the authors argue. For example, an analysis of the social technographics of so-caleld "alpha moms" - mothers with an annual income of $50,000 or more, a college education and favourable attitudes towards technology - reveals that they are less likely than average internet users to create content, but more likely than average to engage in online critiques of a company's products or services.

Li and Bernoff dedicate the rest of the book to outlining ways for companies to take advantage insights such as these. They outline a series of strategies for "tapping the groundswell", to rally consumers around a company's products and brand, and offer numerous case studies of companies that have successfully engaged with online audiences using a variety of online tools.

One company singled out for praise is Dell, the computer maker, whose Direct2Dell blog helped transform the company's service model. As usual, Li and Bernoff argue, successful online efforts often hinge on support at the top of a company. They point to Michael Dell, the computer maker's founder and chief executive, whose personal support of the Dell blog project was instrumental to its success.

They close the book by offering tips for companies on how to create an internal culture that will allow them to continue to adapt as online tools and web surfing habits evolve.

Groundswell's focus on an empirical approach towards online strategy means that the book may struggle to capture a crossover audience of general and business readers. But for Groundswell's intended audience - managers struggling to answer questions such as "should my soap company have a presence on Facebook?" or "why isn't anyone reading our company blog?" - the emphasis on data and analytics is not a bug - it's a feature.