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Grouped: How small groups of friends are the key to influence on the social web (Voices That Matter) by Paul Adams
The web is undergoing a fundamental change. It is moving away from its current structure of documents and pages linked together, and towards a new structure that is built around people. This is a profound change that will affect how we create business strategy, design, marketing, and advertising. The reason for this shift is simple. For tens of thousands of years we’ve been social animals. The web, which is only 20 years old, is simply catching up with offline life.
From travel to news to commerce, smart businesses are reorienting their efforts around people – around the social behavior of their customers and potential customers. In order to be successful, businesses will need to understand how people are connected, how their social network influences them, how the people closest to them influence them the most, and how it’s more important for marketers to focus on small, connected groups of friends rather than looking for overly influential individuals.
This book pulls together the latest research from leading universities and technology companies to describe how people are connected, and how ideas and brand messages spread through social networks. It shows readers how to rebuild their business around social behavior, and create products that people tell their friends about.
From travel to news to commerce, smart businesses are reorienting their efforts around people – around the social behavior of their customers and potential customers. In order to be successful, businesses will need to understand how people are connected, how their social network influences them, how the people closest to them influence them the most, and how it’s more important for marketers to focus on small, connected groups of friends rather than looking for overly influential individuals.
This book pulls together the latest research from leading universities and technology companies to describe how people are connected, and how ideas and brand messages spread through social networks. It shows readers how to rebuild their business around social behavior, and create products that people tell their friends about.
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First published January 1, 2011
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August 10, 2016
Paul Adams is an insightful guy. I was wowed by his early thoughts on online social networks from back when he was trying to plug his ideas at Google. http://www.slideshare.net/padday/the-...
So I've been waiting to read (and just finished) "Grouped", and here's a brain dump.
It is a fast read, and feels a lot like an "Elements of Style" for online social marketing. There isn't much discourse on theory, rather a list of expanded bullet points on what goes on in online networks, with a focus on marketing. The list of references at the end of each topic is excellent, and worth pursuing.
Should you read it? Whether or not you choose to read this book, here's his perspective:
"[To stay relevant] a new knowledge set is required [for] designers, marketers, developers and advertisers: social behavior, networks, and how people think."
The book distills his thoughts on these topics into self-contained chapters, and coming from a guy who's probably had as many scars here as anyone else, it'll be a useful reference for a practitioner to spark ideas and avoid some mistakes.
The underlying ideas are things that he's been thinking and talking about for a while, and you can get the general flavor from one of his recent talks. http://vimeo.com/29576241
Some of the homilies that stayed with me:
1. The social web is not merely a buzz. It will gradually become what we think of as just "the web."
2. Think of the social web like electricity -- you don't have an "electricity experience" in a product, it invisibly drives everything and you just use it.
3. Center your products around people, not the technology or even the content. Or somebody else will, and eat your lunch to boot. (The video above has a example about Facebook photos and why it grew, interesting perspective for any ’fish readers. Also interesting examples from Etsy, nytimes and so on.)
4. The myth of the highly influential few. Highly connected does not mean highly influential. He points out the situation in social groups is more nuanced -- basically a rebuttal to the tipping point thesis as applied to social marketing.
So I've been waiting to read (and just finished) "Grouped", and here's a brain dump.
It is a fast read, and feels a lot like an "Elements of Style" for online social marketing. There isn't much discourse on theory, rather a list of expanded bullet points on what goes on in online networks, with a focus on marketing. The list of references at the end of each topic is excellent, and worth pursuing.
Should you read it? Whether or not you choose to read this book, here's his perspective:
"[To stay relevant] a new knowledge set is required [for] designers, marketers, developers and advertisers: social behavior, networks, and how people think."
The book distills his thoughts on these topics into self-contained chapters, and coming from a guy who's probably had as many scars here as anyone else, it'll be a useful reference for a practitioner to spark ideas and avoid some mistakes.
The underlying ideas are things that he's been thinking and talking about for a while, and you can get the general flavor from one of his recent talks. http://vimeo.com/29576241
Some of the homilies that stayed with me:
1. The social web is not merely a buzz. It will gradually become what we think of as just "the web."
2. Think of the social web like electricity -- you don't have an "electricity experience" in a product, it invisibly drives everything and you just use it.
3. Center your products around people, not the technology or even the content. Or somebody else will, and eat your lunch to boot. (The video above has a example about Facebook photos and why it grew, interesting perspective for any ’fish readers. Also interesting examples from Etsy, nytimes and so on.)
4. The myth of the highly influential few. Highly connected does not mean highly influential. He points out the situation in social groups is more nuanced -- basically a rebuttal to the tipping point thesis as applied to social marketing.
November 10, 2013
This is what ideal business book should look like! Concise and straight to the point. A must read for anyone who is engaged in social media. It helps to understand the wider prospective of social media and our relationships with people, and provides good tips from professional and personal perspective. The book also provides list of references regarding certain topics for those interested to learn more. Loved it!
August 24, 2012
Paul Adams’ Grouped: How Small Groups of Friends Are the Key to Influence on the Social Web (New Riders; 2011) is a primer on social behavior as it applies to the future of business. Adams summarizes the latest research on topics like influence, networking, and decision making, and then breaks down this information into ten easily digestible chapters. The premise of this book is that since the web is shifting from content to people, in order to be successful on the web, businesses need to understand not just why the web is being rebuilt around people, but they also need to understand the underlying behavioral patterns responsible for this shift. This line of reasoning makes perfect sense, and personally, I couldn’t agree more.
Here are my top two take-aways from Grouped:
• Only a couple years ago one of the buzzwords for online marketers was “influentials;” we were supposed to find the influencers of a certain channel and then direct much of our marketing efforts at them, but it turns out this tactic is ineffective. “Influentials,” for the most part, are mythical. The people deemed “influential” generate only about 30% of the content online, which means that everyday ordinary people like you and I account for 70% of online conversations. Marketers must shift away from this idea of the “influential” and direct their efforts towards reaching small networks of close friends.
• Out with interruption marketing, in with permission-based marketing. Adams writes, “[I]nterruption marketing is a race to the bottom” (pg 130). Well said. Just don’t do it. Not only is it très annoying, it’s also incredibly counter-productive. Web-savvy consumers will filter out the me-me-me marketers and ignore your pitch completely. Instead of pushing your content down people’s throats, marketers should focus on building trust and long-lasting relationships with their customers. In other words, marketers should treat people like people. (What a novel concept, eh?) If consumers are interested in hearing what you have to offer, and if they end up liking what you have to offer, then you will get your desired reach by relying on these people to tell their friends about your brand.
One possible criticism of Grouped is its brevity. But actually, I think the shortness of this book is one of its benefits. As I mentioned, this book is a primer. It’s not meant to give the reader an extensive detailing of every of every social research study known to mankind. It provides an introductory foundation of social behavior as it relates to business, and in this regard, Adams does a brilliant job.
On a related note, if you want to know more about any of the topics presented in this book, then I suggest you check out the “Further Reading” lists Adams provides at the end of every chapter. For these resources alone, the book is beneficial even to those who are already well-versed in the subjects presented in this book.
I would recommend Grouped to anybody who works for a business that in any way, shape, or form deals with customers online. Since most businesses communicate with people online, even if that means the business has only a website and an e-mail address, that pretty much means I’d recommend this book to anyone at all.
Here are my top two take-aways from Grouped:
• Only a couple years ago one of the buzzwords for online marketers was “influentials;” we were supposed to find the influencers of a certain channel and then direct much of our marketing efforts at them, but it turns out this tactic is ineffective. “Influentials,” for the most part, are mythical. The people deemed “influential” generate only about 30% of the content online, which means that everyday ordinary people like you and I account for 70% of online conversations. Marketers must shift away from this idea of the “influential” and direct their efforts towards reaching small networks of close friends.
• Out with interruption marketing, in with permission-based marketing. Adams writes, “[I]nterruption marketing is a race to the bottom” (pg 130). Well said. Just don’t do it. Not only is it très annoying, it’s also incredibly counter-productive. Web-savvy consumers will filter out the me-me-me marketers and ignore your pitch completely. Instead of pushing your content down people’s throats, marketers should focus on building trust and long-lasting relationships with their customers. In other words, marketers should treat people like people. (What a novel concept, eh?) If consumers are interested in hearing what you have to offer, and if they end up liking what you have to offer, then you will get your desired reach by relying on these people to tell their friends about your brand.
One possible criticism of Grouped is its brevity. But actually, I think the shortness of this book is one of its benefits. As I mentioned, this book is a primer. It’s not meant to give the reader an extensive detailing of every of every social research study known to mankind. It provides an introductory foundation of social behavior as it relates to business, and in this regard, Adams does a brilliant job.
On a related note, if you want to know more about any of the topics presented in this book, then I suggest you check out the “Further Reading” lists Adams provides at the end of every chapter. For these resources alone, the book is beneficial even to those who are already well-versed in the subjects presented in this book.
I would recommend Grouped to anybody who works for a business that in any way, shape, or form deals with customers online. Since most businesses communicate with people online, even if that means the business has only a website and an e-mail address, that pretty much means I’d recommend this book to anyone at all.
March 19, 2012
الكتاب صراحة اروع ما قرأت فيما يمكن ان أسميه "سوسيولوجيا الشبكات الاجتماعية" او ديناميكية الجماعات داخل الشبكات الاجتماعية، أو اي اسم اخر (العنوان معبر عنه). حيث يتحدث الكتاب عن التأثير داخل الشبكات الاجتماعية وكيف ان فكرة وجود "المؤثرين" قديمة وغير صحيحة بل كل فرد في الشبكات الاجتماعية هو مؤثر وأفكار اخرى مثل تحليل سلوك الافراد داخل مجموعات وكيف انه يتأثر بالمجموعة وأيضا فصل عن كيف تتأثر عقولنا وقراراتنا بسلوكنا في الشبكات الاجتماعية وهكذا، تجدون المزيد من الأفكار والملخصات في المراجعات أدناه من الآخرين أو من مراجعات الامازون. الكتاب موجه لحقين البزنس وبالدرجة الأولى للمسوقين.. لكنه مفيد للغاية لغيرهم لأنه في نهاية كل فصل (وهذا مايميز الكتاب) يعرض مجموعة من الأبحاث والأوراق التي اعتمد عليها وكلها في الحقيقة مفيدة جدا لأنها من مجالات علوم النفس والاجتماع وعلوم الادراك وغيرها.
بول آدامز كاتب مرموق وهو موظف سابق في قوقل وحاليا في الفيس بوك. لغة الكتاب جدا مقروءة وليست صعبة على الإطلاق.
وقد سرقت منه نجمة لأني شعرت في بعض الأحيان أن هذا دليل عملي موجه للمسوقين بما يستدعي التسطيح والاختصار وأنا أريد التعمق أكثر. نجمة وحدة ماتضر
:)
بول آدامز كاتب مرموق وهو موظف سابق في قوقل وحاليا في الفيس بوك. لغة الكتاب جدا مقروءة وليست صعبة على الإطلاق.
وقد سرقت منه نجمة لأني شعرت في بعض الأحيان أن هذا دليل عملي موجه للمسوقين بما يستدعي التسطيح والاختصار وأنا أريد التعمق أكثر. نجمة وحدة ماتضر
:)
December 19, 2011
If you're working on products, and you think you want to do anything social (you do) please read Grouped. One of my big pet peeves recently has been the overwhelming feeling that to make something "social" you just post to Twitter or Facebook. That isn't what social is. Grouped does a great job of explaining how you can use peoples' connections to actually create value, and deals with the topic at a much deeper level. I'm not going to try to summarize everything here, because the book is already concise and more eloquent than I am.
If you read the book and want more (or can't wait for the book to arrive) he has fantastic insights around how social interactions will shape the web in a deck here: http://www.slideshare.net/padday/the-... or in this fantastic talk from the Adapative Path UX week: http://vimeo.com/29576241
Please. For my sanity if I ever have to work with you on something, read this book.
If you read the book and want more (or can't wait for the book to arrive) he has fantastic insights around how social interactions will shape the web in a deck here: http://www.slideshare.net/padday/the-... or in this fantastic talk from the Adapative Path UX week: http://vimeo.com/29576241
Please. For my sanity if I ever have to work with you on something, read this book.
February 24, 2017
The book was mention in the Chaos Monkey, the previous book that I read before this book. Paul Adams was Senior User Experience Researcher at Google before becoming Facebook’s global head of brand design. He left FB again in 2013 to join Intercom, a start-up that offers tools for online businesses to track every interaction with a customer and to use that data to deliver personalized messages and offers. In short, this is the guy who understands social networking, branding, and targeting advertising.
It's a short book (170 pages with large font) that can be read in 1-2 sitting. The first part of the book was good. The second was like a overview or crash-course on Influences that one would be much better reading Influences by Robert Caldini or the books by Dan Ariely. The good part is after every chapters, there are tonnes of references and additional readings (books) for one to explore further in each topics. Dan Ariely's books frequently made it in the list.
The central ideas of the book are:
[1] the old style of advertising: the "interruption advertising" no longer work in the new world due to too much information. Thus, the author advocates for "permission advertising" where users specifically give permissions (eg via Likes) to brands/companies to see their updates (via Newsfeed). It's more likely that users will "Like" their message, and that message will be appear on their friends' Newsfeed. And influences from trusted friends are stronger than from advertisers.
[2] people are social creatures and form small groups (<10). Each person tend to have multiple separate groups that only connect via that 1 person. Influences are strong in each group. Advertisers should target these small groups rather than the powerful influencers cos they don't work. People are more likely to be influenced by their close friends/family members than a celebrity.
It's a short book (170 pages with large font) that can be read in 1-2 sitting. The first part of the book was good. The second was like a overview or crash-course on Influences that one would be much better reading Influences by Robert Caldini or the books by Dan Ariely. The good part is after every chapters, there are tonnes of references and additional readings (books) for one to explore further in each topics. Dan Ariely's books frequently made it in the list.
The central ideas of the book are:
[1] the old style of advertising: the "interruption advertising" no longer work in the new world due to too much information. Thus, the author advocates for "permission advertising" where users specifically give permissions (eg via Likes) to brands/companies to see their updates (via Newsfeed). It's more likely that users will "Like" their message, and that message will be appear on their friends' Newsfeed. And influences from trusted friends are stronger than from advertisers.
[2] people are social creatures and form small groups (<10). Each person tend to have multiple separate groups that only connect via that 1 person. Influences are strong in each group. Advertisers should target these small groups rather than the powerful influencers cos they don't work. People are more likely to be influenced by their close friends/family members than a celebrity.
March 26, 2012
Paul Adams' 'Grouped' is more of a summary or starting point to marketing in an online world. He himself admits this in the introduction, suggesting further reading for specific points and chapters. His book builds a good foundation for you to build on, diving into each topic more.
The four main points that I took away are:
1) The idea that there are go-to-influencers who can create an adoption wave is not a solution for the vast majority of products and services. I liked Gladwell's 'Tipping Point', but the social web has given everyone a voice of influence and while it may not reach as far as some, it carries more weight in certain, albeit smaller, circles.
2) People have influence over a small circle of trusted friends/family. As networks scale, influence weakens, however information does spread since a person is involved in differing groups that are usually based on life stages or events. It's important to think of this when creating consumable content you want shared.
3) Adams convincingly writes consumer models are erroneously built on the assumption we use our rational brain to make decisions, but its our emotional brain that's the decision-maker.
4) In '99, Seth Godin popularized the idea we need to shift towards permission marketing as interruption marketing is outdated. The social web is built for permission marketing, where customers can choose to engage a brand. With this and its something Adams unfortunately didn't touch upon, the relationship now becomes a two-way conversation, whereas interruption marketing (billboards, print, tv) was a one-way dialogue. While brands and consumers are engaging with one another online, the social web has made the most powerful marketing tool, word-of-mouth, measurable where before it wasn't.
The four main points that I took away are:
1) The idea that there are go-to-influencers who can create an adoption wave is not a solution for the vast majority of products and services. I liked Gladwell's 'Tipping Point', but the social web has given everyone a voice of influence and while it may not reach as far as some, it carries more weight in certain, albeit smaller, circles.
2) People have influence over a small circle of trusted friends/family. As networks scale, influence weakens, however information does spread since a person is involved in differing groups that are usually based on life stages or events. It's important to think of this when creating consumable content you want shared.
3) Adams convincingly writes consumer models are erroneously built on the assumption we use our rational brain to make decisions, but its our emotional brain that's the decision-maker.
4) In '99, Seth Godin popularized the idea we need to shift towards permission marketing as interruption marketing is outdated. The social web is built for permission marketing, where customers can choose to engage a brand. With this and its something Adams unfortunately didn't touch upon, the relationship now becomes a two-way conversation, whereas interruption marketing (billboards, print, tv) was a one-way dialogue. While brands and consumers are engaging with one another online, the social web has made the most powerful marketing tool, word-of-mouth, measurable where before it wasn't.
June 3, 2012
Paul Adams worked at Google during the formative days of Google+. He recognized that everyone involved with social media is trying to figure out how it works and why we're drawn to it. He put together a fairly massive slide stack in 2009-2010 or so that provided his insights to that point.it lead to a book. It also led to him being recruited by Facebook. When he decided to leave Google for Facebook, his earlier book had not even published. Google went to court to stop publication, citing trade secrets gleaned as a employee of the firm. They successfully blocked publication.
Now at Facebook, Adams wrote Grouped, which examines the nature of human networks and how social media works best and is most satisfying when it conforms to our naturally developed networks.
I downloaded the slide stack (you can probably find it by Googling "Paul Adams Slide stack) and bought the book a few weeks later.
It's fascinating stuff if you're trying to understand he ways that social media might be used to communicate and spread ideas.
Really liked this book!
Now at Facebook, Adams wrote Grouped, which examines the nature of human networks and how social media works best and is most satisfying when it conforms to our naturally developed networks.
I downloaded the slide stack (you can probably find it by Googling "Paul Adams Slide stack) and bought the book a few weeks later.
It's fascinating stuff if you're trying to understand he ways that social media might be used to communicate and spread ideas.
Really liked this book!
February 24, 2013
Wow, what a great book. In a nutshell; market using the social web, and your message will be heard by millions, by their most trusted sources, their friends. This book cherry picks some of the most interesting and applicable findings from the social sciences i.e. cognitive and social psychology and behavioral economics, and deftly applies them to marketing and public relations in the age of social media. The book is very readable, succinct, its sources are very well cited and each chapter is bullet summarized with a comprehensive summery in the concluding chapter. This book is fast paced, lean on fluff and extremely useful as a reference (perfect for busy people like you and just about everyone else). Great read even if you don't give a rats ass about marketing (which you should, because you will fail and they will own you if you remain ignorant). Well worth the 4 hours it takes to read it cover to cover. Maybe I drank too much coffee today, but I'm gonna go ahead and give er 5 stars.
February 13, 2012
This book challenges current marketing strategies and gives insight to new models like passive sharing. The social web is not a fad and Paul clearly lays out what will probably happen in the next five years, the companies who adapt and those who don't. The consumer is not looking towards businesses for information, they are trusting their friends advice and recommendations on products and services. Paul talks about how to get in the middle of those conversations and become a trustable and valuable resource that will create a new loyal customer.
An extremely valuable resource to the new marketers out there that have embrace the Social Web.
A revolution to those who have been reluctant to embrace the new media channel.
An extremely valuable resource to the new marketers out there that have embrace the Social Web.
A revolution to those who have been reluctant to embrace the new media channel.
May 22, 2012
Interesting read about about the internet and social networks, a little bit annoying about how it always mentions facebook all the time though. The idea that we are in the '3rd' stage of the internet is a good one- basically our lives are now being transferred to everything online. 1st stage-we put stuff on the internet, 2nd stage- we share stuff on the internet, 3rd stage we become robots (only joking!!) I wish this book went into more detail about the 3rd stage though.
January 6, 2013
Very cool insight in the ways groups work in social media how we are not necessarily influenced by "influentals" but much more by our environment, friends, family etc. This book, written by a former manager at Facebook and now working for Google+ is easy to read and really interesting.
February 12, 2013
So this book is pretty useful. Pragmatic information, much of it common sense and some of it already in the cultural zeitgeist, but it's a great synthesis of some good research available on social connecting, persuasion, and how the mind works. It is a quick read (I listened to it on Audible and it only takes 3 1/2 hours) so it won't use up that much of your time. Adams summarizes succinctly, translates information that would normally be arduous to wade through, and offers you the resources to go look up more in-depth information on your own if you're interested. It's a really great model for how to be a third-space translator between the research and the people who need the research but have difficulty accessing it or lack the expertise to understand it.*
That said, I gave it a three because it falls short of drawing out some obvious implications that this same body of research points out:
1. The book could have done more to help businesses orient toward more innovative and effective marketing strategies that are also more socially ethical and that would help make our world a better place. Adams does include some of this information--he stresses positivity, openly sharing information, cutting down on the noise of advertising ("interruption marketing is a race to the bottom" amen), and not deleting negative Facebook comments from your page because they give you more credibility and because "we should seek to rectify and not hide negative feedback" (Applebee's should have taken note)--but if he would have included more of this kind of information by demonstrating how a more ethical approach to the world is also the more efficacious approach, this book would be much more important to read than I currently rank it. If you're going to teach people how to exert influence, you better also teach ethics along with it, and he could have done even more of this.
2. Along the same lines as #1, the research he synthesizes indicates the importance of cultural diversity yet fails to emphasize this point. That is, Adams points out how our human instinct toward homophily (surrounding ourselves with others like us) actively prohibits more widespread sharing of information. But he doesn't take the next step to take the reader toward the conclusion that you can therefore exert more influence if you actively work *against* the instinct of homophily and instead build friendships and work-based networks by surrounding yourself with people who are different from you. An "actionable" strategy for businesses looking to increase their influence would be to hire a more diverse range of employees, consciously recruiting across separations of race, socioeconomic class, education, age, geography, sexual orientation, and across different approaches to building networks.
3. Adams seems to accept at face value that most people don't have crossover between friendship groups and that this is simply the way things are. That is, he explains how we often keep groups of friends in separate spheres and we are the "unique" connector. At one point he explains that this can lead to awkward moments at weddings or other get togethers where our worlds collide. Yet our lives don't have to work like that (and I even question the extent to which they do). The author doesn't even go into the possibility that we can individually exert more influence by cultivating more overlap amongst our social groups and nor does he point out the obvious idea that therefore events that bring together one or two people's various and often disconnected social networks would be especially useful places for idea spreading.
4. There was a tendency to focus way too much on the online world and either ignore or underestimate the influence of our offline networks and in-person interactions (even though he points out that we use our online networks to strengthen already existing ties). For example, even though I bought and listened to this book online, I discovered it offline while in an independent bookstore (yeah, I know, "see it here, buy it here, keep us here," but I did buy other books there, and this book in particular is one of those kind that are more useful for me to listen to while walking my dogs). Businesses who want their ideas to spread faster would be advised to help us cultivate and seek out more culturally diverse neighborhoods and in-person living/playing spaces. Even though there is attention paid to more efficient marketing targeting, in some ways this book overlooks the in-person world. Perhaps this was a methodological obstacle, but Adams emphasizes environmental cues so much that I'm surprised how little he talks about our physical world as an influencer of our online world.
5. I grew weary of the categorizing and in some cases either/or information that we are supposed to simply accept at face value. Instead, we could have been encouraged to think about developing more intentional approaches to the way we use our networks. The book becomes rather repetitive and in some places Adams appears to have only read the abstract of the research in question and failed to actually check out the methods. For example, in the Berger/Milkman research about which NYT articles get shared the most, he didn't appear to read too closely into how the researchers coded their articles according to emotion, but just accepted their conclusions and that the peer review process works. I'm not saying that the peer review process does not work, and I'm not necessarily critiquing these researchers' methods, but simply a sentence or two's worth of attention to reflecting on why/how he picked certain research to highlight might have helped me to trust his ability to negotiate and accurately summarize the research.
6. His vocabulary about how he talks about the brain could use some precision. For example, even though he debunks a myth or two about how our brains are "hard-wired," at times he uses the word "hard-wired" or "naturally" when I would prefer that he use the word "instinctual" in order to indicate that we don't have to accept some of our evolutionarily-inherited behaviors and emotionally-reactive beliefs as just the way things are. We can change them. We can evolve, and this is the point of his book, I think, and in some ways he is instructing us on how to evolve. I guess I just worry about teaching people how to adapt without considering and pointing out as many of the accompanying ethical implications as possible.
*Bonus observations:
I love how the book begins by insulting the academics who aren't his target audience, but who might read the book because it contains summaries of their research (or because they are in a different yet related field, or because they, too, are busy creating products and building companies). To me, this is a fun strategy, like getting someone to buy you oysters by saying you think they're overrated, and it also serves to ward off some pedantic critique by people who might otherwise miss the value of what he's trying to do here.
Pages vii and viii read:
"The academic reader may at times feel that I have oversimplified, overgeneralized, and talked about causality when we may be dealing with correlation. But this simplification is necessary to make research actionable to business. In this case, I believe that perfect is the enemy of good. People who are busy creating products and building companies don't have time to read full research papers, never mind try to synthesize them to find the larger patterns."
I like how Adams emphasizes the power of our emotions and desires to influence our beliefs. If you want to get someone to be more receptive to influence, target them when they are already happy or make them happy, he advocates. He also points out some of the problems with our entrenched Platonic (analytical and generic) ways of thinking. The book repeatedly urges us to abandon the "law of the few" who exert a lot of influence over the many. Although I like Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers book, it appears that Adams is trying to argue against some of Gladwell's ideas and I also like the counterpoints offered here.
Quick nugget: Don't try to persuade people that their current choices are wrong, because it might only serve to more deeply entrench them in their previous beliefs. Adams's summary of how we seek to resolve cognitive dissonance explains this dilemma well. Instead, he urges us, seek to alter behavioral patterns.
That said, I gave it a three because it falls short of drawing out some obvious implications that this same body of research points out:
1. The book could have done more to help businesses orient toward more innovative and effective marketing strategies that are also more socially ethical and that would help make our world a better place. Adams does include some of this information--he stresses positivity, openly sharing information, cutting down on the noise of advertising ("interruption marketing is a race to the bottom" amen), and not deleting negative Facebook comments from your page because they give you more credibility and because "we should seek to rectify and not hide negative feedback" (Applebee's should have taken note)--but if he would have included more of this kind of information by demonstrating how a more ethical approach to the world is also the more efficacious approach, this book would be much more important to read than I currently rank it. If you're going to teach people how to exert influence, you better also teach ethics along with it, and he could have done even more of this.
2. Along the same lines as #1, the research he synthesizes indicates the importance of cultural diversity yet fails to emphasize this point. That is, Adams points out how our human instinct toward homophily (surrounding ourselves with others like us) actively prohibits more widespread sharing of information. But he doesn't take the next step to take the reader toward the conclusion that you can therefore exert more influence if you actively work *against* the instinct of homophily and instead build friendships and work-based networks by surrounding yourself with people who are different from you. An "actionable" strategy for businesses looking to increase their influence would be to hire a more diverse range of employees, consciously recruiting across separations of race, socioeconomic class, education, age, geography, sexual orientation, and across different approaches to building networks.
3. Adams seems to accept at face value that most people don't have crossover between friendship groups and that this is simply the way things are. That is, he explains how we often keep groups of friends in separate spheres and we are the "unique" connector. At one point he explains that this can lead to awkward moments at weddings or other get togethers where our worlds collide. Yet our lives don't have to work like that (and I even question the extent to which they do). The author doesn't even go into the possibility that we can individually exert more influence by cultivating more overlap amongst our social groups and nor does he point out the obvious idea that therefore events that bring together one or two people's various and often disconnected social networks would be especially useful places for idea spreading.
4. There was a tendency to focus way too much on the online world and either ignore or underestimate the influence of our offline networks and in-person interactions (even though he points out that we use our online networks to strengthen already existing ties). For example, even though I bought and listened to this book online, I discovered it offline while in an independent bookstore (yeah, I know, "see it here, buy it here, keep us here," but I did buy other books there, and this book in particular is one of those kind that are more useful for me to listen to while walking my dogs). Businesses who want their ideas to spread faster would be advised to help us cultivate and seek out more culturally diverse neighborhoods and in-person living/playing spaces. Even though there is attention paid to more efficient marketing targeting, in some ways this book overlooks the in-person world. Perhaps this was a methodological obstacle, but Adams emphasizes environmental cues so much that I'm surprised how little he talks about our physical world as an influencer of our online world.
5. I grew weary of the categorizing and in some cases either/or information that we are supposed to simply accept at face value. Instead, we could have been encouraged to think about developing more intentional approaches to the way we use our networks. The book becomes rather repetitive and in some places Adams appears to have only read the abstract of the research in question and failed to actually check out the methods. For example, in the Berger/Milkman research about which NYT articles get shared the most, he didn't appear to read too closely into how the researchers coded their articles according to emotion, but just accepted their conclusions and that the peer review process works. I'm not saying that the peer review process does not work, and I'm not necessarily critiquing these researchers' methods, but simply a sentence or two's worth of attention to reflecting on why/how he picked certain research to highlight might have helped me to trust his ability to negotiate and accurately summarize the research.
6. His vocabulary about how he talks about the brain could use some precision. For example, even though he debunks a myth or two about how our brains are "hard-wired," at times he uses the word "hard-wired" or "naturally" when I would prefer that he use the word "instinctual" in order to indicate that we don't have to accept some of our evolutionarily-inherited behaviors and emotionally-reactive beliefs as just the way things are. We can change them. We can evolve, and this is the point of his book, I think, and in some ways he is instructing us on how to evolve. I guess I just worry about teaching people how to adapt without considering and pointing out as many of the accompanying ethical implications as possible.
*Bonus observations:
I love how the book begins by insulting the academics who aren't his target audience, but who might read the book because it contains summaries of their research (or because they are in a different yet related field, or because they, too, are busy creating products and building companies). To me, this is a fun strategy, like getting someone to buy you oysters by saying you think they're overrated, and it also serves to ward off some pedantic critique by people who might otherwise miss the value of what he's trying to do here.
Pages vii and viii read:
"The academic reader may at times feel that I have oversimplified, overgeneralized, and talked about causality when we may be dealing with correlation. But this simplification is necessary to make research actionable to business. In this case, I believe that perfect is the enemy of good. People who are busy creating products and building companies don't have time to read full research papers, never mind try to synthesize them to find the larger patterns."
I like how Adams emphasizes the power of our emotions and desires to influence our beliefs. If you want to get someone to be more receptive to influence, target them when they are already happy or make them happy, he advocates. He also points out some of the problems with our entrenched Platonic (analytical and generic) ways of thinking. The book repeatedly urges us to abandon the "law of the few" who exert a lot of influence over the many. Although I like Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers book, it appears that Adams is trying to argue against some of Gladwell's ideas and I also like the counterpoints offered here.
Quick nugget: Don't try to persuade people that their current choices are wrong, because it might only serve to more deeply entrench them in their previous beliefs. Adams's summary of how we seek to resolve cognitive dissonance explains this dilemma well. Instead, he urges us, seek to alter behavioral patterns.
April 24, 2020
Para aquellos que hemos leído libros como Influence de R.Cialdini o Tipping Point de Malcolm Gladwell, este libro llega como una confirmación compacta de todos esos conceptos.
Primero, las redes sociales están trasladando nuestra vida offline a la online.
Aunque ahora podamos estar conectados con millones de personas, el 90% de nuestras interacciones son con el mismo grupo de 5 o 10 personas que tenemos en la vida offline.
Por eso, desde un punto de vista de marketing, alcanzar a las masas no es tan complicado si logramos que las personas interactúen y compartan nuestros contenidos con sus amigos (ellos son los verdaderos influencers).
Recordemos que confiamos en las opiniones de nuestros amigos mucho más que en las opiniones de expertos.
Segundo, la mayoría de nuestras decisiones las tomamos con nuestro cerebro emocional. Por eso nuestros mensajes deben conectar más con las emociones que con el cerebro racional.
Tercero, las empresas deben seguir apostando por el marketing del permiso. A nadie le gusta que lo interrumpan cuando está charlando con amigos o bailando en una fiesta. Lo mismo pasa cuando estamos en YouTube, Netflix o viendo DIRECTV. NADIE QUIERE PUBLICIDAD.
Creemos contenido que ATRAIGA a las personas que hagan que se suscriban en nuestros boletines o nos sigan en nuestras redes sociales, ahí vamos ganando puntos de confianza y credibilidad que eventualmente pueden ser canjeados por una venta.
NADIE ESTÁ PENDIENTE DE UNO. Solo nos toca seguir construyendo y confiar en el proceso.
Primero, las redes sociales están trasladando nuestra vida offline a la online.
Aunque ahora podamos estar conectados con millones de personas, el 90% de nuestras interacciones son con el mismo grupo de 5 o 10 personas que tenemos en la vida offline.
Por eso, desde un punto de vista de marketing, alcanzar a las masas no es tan complicado si logramos que las personas interactúen y compartan nuestros contenidos con sus amigos (ellos son los verdaderos influencers).
Recordemos que confiamos en las opiniones de nuestros amigos mucho más que en las opiniones de expertos.
Segundo, la mayoría de nuestras decisiones las tomamos con nuestro cerebro emocional. Por eso nuestros mensajes deben conectar más con las emociones que con el cerebro racional.
Tercero, las empresas deben seguir apostando por el marketing del permiso. A nadie le gusta que lo interrumpan cuando está charlando con amigos o bailando en una fiesta. Lo mismo pasa cuando estamos en YouTube, Netflix o viendo DIRECTV. NADIE QUIERE PUBLICIDAD.
Creemos contenido que ATRAIGA a las personas que hagan que se suscriban en nuestros boletines o nos sigan en nuestras redes sociales, ahí vamos ganando puntos de confianza y credibilidad que eventualmente pueden ser canjeados por una venta.
NADIE ESTÁ PENDIENTE DE UNO. Solo nos toca seguir construyendo y confiar en el proceso.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 28, 2021
"There are three primary ways of encouraging people to change their behavior:
1. Change people’s environment; this is the most powerful way to effect change. Environment stimulates specific behaviors so it’s much easier to try something new in a new environment.
2. Increase the benefit relative to the cost of a new behavior. People seek to minimize costs and maximize benefits. Minimizing costs translates to breaking things down into small tasks, making the new behavior easier to perform, resulting in maximized benefits. Performing easier things makes them more likely to be repeated, which will lead to a new habit forming.
3. Ensure that people observe others doing the desired behavior and then see others being rewarded for it. We learn new behaviors by observing the people around us."
1. Change people’s environment; this is the most powerful way to effect change. Environment stimulates specific behaviors so it’s much easier to try something new in a new environment.
2. Increase the benefit relative to the cost of a new behavior. People seek to minimize costs and maximize benefits. Minimizing costs translates to breaking things down into small tasks, making the new behavior easier to perform, resulting in maximized benefits. Performing easier things makes them more likely to be repeated, which will lead to a new habit forming.
3. Ensure that people observe others doing the desired behavior and then see others being rewarded for it. We learn new behaviors by observing the people around us."
March 1, 2020
Fantastic introduction to social networks for undergraduates. Perfectly explains the fundamental concepts, and then it's up to the intructor whether/how far beyond the text they want to nudge their students. The supplementary reading notes at the end of every chapter and helpful to design that segment too. Thanks Paul Adams!
July 17, 2019
A more pragmatic view on human social networking, swimming a bit against the grain of established thought in this domain. But with the author working for Facebook and building his cases on behavioral research of 700 FB users, who is to argue with the facts?
September 7, 2017
like a copy of paper. like ads for facebook.
August 8, 2018
This is worth 5 stats if only for the books and papers referenced. A gold mine for anyone interested in social networks.
November 16, 2018
Short book. I didn’t learn anything that could really be useful to me.
February 26, 2016
Recommendation from a friend....Thanks for the guidance Alan. (Just picked this up...)
Great read! Thanks again Alan for the suggestion. Paul Adams certainly made me think differently about how the social web functions. He sets a lot of accepted truths about influence and trust on their ear.
If you are curious about the remaking of the web to connect people (instead of things) and how those connections influence adoption of products this is really a must read. There were several points thought this book that I had to stop and rethink my "understanding" of things Web 2.0 related.
One of the interesting side steps Paul makes is to talk about the current distrust of companies (read advertisers/marketers). Ever find your self getting into a really good movie (or as Great Grandma Piccone called them "her stories") only to be YANKED from your blissful alternative universe so some company can peddle their wares? Adams, very plainly discusses the fallacies of interruption based marketing (cited above) vs. the advantages of permission based marketing. In a nutshell, we as humans have limited cognitive capacity and honestly dump a large portion of the information being flowed to us based on a simple gating system of "relevant & familiar" vs "non relevant & unfamiliar". Adams says it takes something like 27 separate viewings of a commercial for it to stick in our heads --- so what do advertisers do? SHOW IT MORE TIMES - interrupting "your stories" more frequently and driving the overall cost of a product up to pay for the Snake Oil Show. Which leads to annoyed consumers. Permission based advertising allows you to select things that are relevant to you and then you by word of mouth (i.e., Facebook) spread that you like (or are interested in) this product. Your friends see that you like it and they trust you so they try it. According to Adams its much more effective and ultimately will cost less...hey then maybe they can cut the advertising budgets and lower the cost of products....AMAZING!
I do recommend this book as one not ladened with technobabble. Simple language make this very readable and digestible. Enjoy!
Great read! Thanks again Alan for the suggestion. Paul Adams certainly made me think differently about how the social web functions. He sets a lot of accepted truths about influence and trust on their ear.
If you are curious about the remaking of the web to connect people (instead of things) and how those connections influence adoption of products this is really a must read. There were several points thought this book that I had to stop and rethink my "understanding" of things Web 2.0 related.
One of the interesting side steps Paul makes is to talk about the current distrust of companies (read advertisers/marketers). Ever find your self getting into a really good movie (or as Great Grandma Piccone called them "her stories") only to be YANKED from your blissful alternative universe so some company can peddle their wares? Adams, very plainly discusses the fallacies of interruption based marketing (cited above) vs. the advantages of permission based marketing. In a nutshell, we as humans have limited cognitive capacity and honestly dump a large portion of the information being flowed to us based on a simple gating system of "relevant & familiar" vs "non relevant & unfamiliar". Adams says it takes something like 27 separate viewings of a commercial for it to stick in our heads --- so what do advertisers do? SHOW IT MORE TIMES - interrupting "your stories" more frequently and driving the overall cost of a product up to pay for the Snake Oil Show. Which leads to annoyed consumers. Permission based advertising allows you to select things that are relevant to you and then you by word of mouth (i.e., Facebook) spread that you like (or are interested in) this product. Your friends see that you like it and they trust you so they try it. According to Adams its much more effective and ultimately will cost less...hey then maybe they can cut the advertising budgets and lower the cost of products....AMAZING!
I do recommend this book as one not ladened with technobabble. Simple language make this very readable and digestible. Enjoy!
February 17, 2012
i encourage anyone getting started in (on-line) social networks to begin with this book. it's a neat, well-written and easy-to-read survey of the state-of-the art in the field, authored by a person who's apparently very familiar with the area. read it!
having said that, i also encourage anyone wanting to dig a little deeper to actually check out the sources used in the book; i guess there's more than one controversy lurking in what is here presented as facts. for instance, the notion of one being influenced by the actions of people up to three degrees away in your network, as introduced by christakis and fowler (referenced multiple times in "grouped"), has been contested (see, e.g., http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/spp.2...).
having said that, i also encourage anyone wanting to dig a little deeper to actually check out the sources used in the book; i guess there's more than one controversy lurking in what is here presented as facts. for instance, the notion of one being influenced by the actions of people up to three degrees away in your network, as introduced by christakis and fowler (referenced multiple times in "grouped"), has been contested (see, e.g., http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/spp.2...).
April 28, 2012
Great little book giving an overview of a wide array of research on social networks and how information passes through them. Though near the end it gets a little too evangelical for permission marketing IMHO, I think it is a great starting point for learning about the social aspects of building web products today. Many of the cases in the book might be familiar to you if you read a lot of new business books, or books on decision-making and/or popular psychology. Adams does a good job highlighting these cases and tying them together for the web entrepreneur.
I listened to the audiobook which was a quick and easy listen. I am going to pick up a text version so I can explore the footnotes.
I listened to the audiobook which was a quick and easy listen. I am going to pick up a text version so I can explore the footnotes.
June 29, 2012
Practical, concise and full of insight, Grouped draws on findings from Facebook and some very credible research sources. Case studies in the book are biased towards campaigns (and erm... Facebook), but the principles are highly relevant to many services, websites or applications.
If you work in marketing, development or design then some of the themes will be very familiar, but what makes this book so useful is that it explains the human psychology that underpins those themes in a very memorable way.
Because the emphasis of the book is on behaviour a lot of it will not date. That kind of justifies the price. Great little book.
If you work in marketing, development or design then some of the themes will be very familiar, but what makes this book so useful is that it explains the human psychology that underpins those themes in a very memorable way.
Because the emphasis of the book is on behaviour a lot of it will not date. That kind of justifies the price. Great little book.
June 30, 2012
How we use the internet to research, communicate and connect is undergoing a fundamental change. The fact that Google is now a verb and is part of our new vocabulary is a strong indicator of this change. It is moving away from its current structure of documents and pages linked together and towards a new structure that is built around people. This is a profound change that will affect how we create business strategy, design, marketing, and advertising. The reason for this shift is simple... People are Social and long to keep connected (on their own terms...)
April 11, 2012
A great read for anyone who is (or will be) attempting to market a product to the masses. This book teaches you why traditional interruptive marketing is inferior to targeting small groups of friends. A lot of the book is just summarized topics from research papers, which serves as a high-level overview that is easy to read. It is a pretty short book that goes out of its way to repeat and summarize topics, so don't expect in-depth analysis or details on the backing research papers.
May 7, 2012
Paul Adams dissects social media statistics, arguing against elite "influencers" as a means to change.
He sprinkles the book with quick tips and chapter summaries, making the paperback useful as a reference for later review.
He also digests practical advice garnered from brain research that takes the guess work out of a lot of marketing decisions. In all, Grouped is a great encapsulaed look at strategies that would ordinarily require a reading of 10 to 20 other books.
He sprinkles the book with quick tips and chapter summaries, making the paperback useful as a reference for later review.
He also digests practical advice garnered from brain research that takes the guess work out of a lot of marketing decisions. In all, Grouped is a great encapsulaed look at strategies that would ordinarily require a reading of 10 to 20 other books.
May 15, 2015
I read this book for my research paper and it provided many details explaining how groups of teenagers are able to take matters into their own hands via social networking. Through these websites they self each themselves skills such as promotion, design, and marketing. It also discusses why we as a society are so reliant on this form of communication. I thought it was a very informative read and am glad I picked it up for my research.
March 14, 2012
En 2012, pour faire du bon Web, il faut comprendre comment fonctionnent les relations humaines en ligne et aussi dans la vraie vie. C'est ce que Paul Adams croit et il est assez convaincant dans son exposé des faits (il cite méticuleusement les sources des centaines d'ouvrages qu'il a consulté) pour me convaincre aussi.
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