Charlene Li, founder of Altimeter Group and formerly the key social media analyst at Forrester Research, talks to Marketing Voices about the latest trends in social media and marketing. Charlene provided these insights:

1. Social media will be like “air.” It will be everywhere and used by everyone. No one will be afraid to use the tools like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter—sharing information will be second nature.

2. Every employee can be a marketer. From the manufacturing floor to the executive offices of large and small companies, everyone in the company will be using social marketing tools as a way to build brand and visibility.

3. Everyone can be a marketing channel for you. What’s most important is whether these bloggers have the right audiences and have captured the minds and hearts of others.

4. People are putting the technologies (for example, Twitter and Facebook) first—not the business objective. People must first determine what they want to accomplish rather than learn how to use these technologies.

She is writing a new book that will be published early 2010 that is called Open: How Leaders Win by Letting Go. In this book, she explains how leaders in today’s businesses need to understand the need for communication transparency, letting go and not be so controlling in order to succeed.

Related posts:

1. Charlene Li on Open Leadership: The Sandbox Covenant – Part 2 of 3 Charlene Li, Founder Altimeter Group, describes how important it is for leaders to have a sandbox covenant. She also describes the steps for an open environment with me. Her latest book, Open Leadership is a best seller in the first month of its release. ...
2. Obama, Apple, Cisco and Charlene Li of Altimeter Group on Open Leadership – Part 3 of 3 Obama got elected for his open leadership style. No matter what your political leanings, people in marketing have to admire how he used social marketing and open leadership to get elected. Charlene Li Founder of Altimeter Group and her latest book called Open Leadership discusses Obama’s style of leadership, and...
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 30th, 2009 at 12:01 am and is filed under: Marketing Voices. Tags:, Altimeter Group, Charlene Li, Facebook, Forrester Research, LinkedIn, social media, Transparency, Twitter.