Charlene Li is the co-author of the bestseller “Groundswell”, author of the New York Times bestseller “Open Leadership”, and Founder of Altimeter Group, a research-based advisory firm helps companies and industries leverage disruption to their advantage.

Explore the site and learn more about Charlene’s ideas – and how they can transform you and your organization.

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  • How To Create A Successful Social Business
    Are you a social business? By this, I mean are you aligning your social strategy to business goals? In a new Altimeter Group Report, “The Evolution of Social Business“, my co-author Brian Solis and I found that this was not the case. Only 34% of businesses we surveyed felt that their social strategy was connected to business outcomes. Brian goes into detail […]
  • Why Most Social Strategies Fail
    When I ask people what their social business strategy looks like, I usually get the following response, ”Oh yeah, we’re on Facebook.” The conversation continues apace: - Twitter account…check. - YouTube videos….yup. - People who seem to know what they doing with those accounts…kinda. - Metrics….Likes. But that isn’t a strategy – it’s a series of tactics. Hav […]
  • Obama vs Romney in Social Media: Who’s Using It Best?
    [crosslinked from LinkedIn] As someone steeped in social media, I’ve been watching each of the presidential campaigns closely to see how they are using social media well – or not. [Disclosure: I worked on Obama’s campaign in 2008 and have donated to it this election season. I also went to the same high school and business school as Romney. To the extent poss […]
  • Google+ The New Enterprise Social Network?
    by Charlene Li and Chris Silva Google announced Google+ for Enterprises today with Hangouts integration into Docs and Calendar as well as administrative controls such as default posting to only within the company. We’ve been doing some research on the topic of enterprise social networks and, with Google moving into this market, have some thoughts around why […]
  • Analysis: Why Buying Yammer Makes Sense for Microsoft
    Microsoft announced that it would buy Yammer for $1.2 billion, after a week of speculation that the deal was imminent. From my perspective, having researched the enterprise social networking space (see report), the acquisition is a continuation of current trends in the industry and makes a lot of sense for both MSFT and Yammer. Yammer CEO David Sacks wrote i […]
  • Beyond the IPO: Ten Implications of a Public Facebook
    By Susan Etlinger, Charlene Li and Rebecca Lieb The run-up to Facebook’s IPO reminds me a bit of a wedding: everyone’s attention is on the big day (expected to be Friday May 18), without much regard for the weeks, months and years afterward. Charlene Li, Rebecca Lieb, and I sat down to discuss some of the implications of a newly public Facebook: on sharehold […]
  • Webinar: A Foundation For Mobile Business
    Now for a word on mobile in the enterprise. Altimeter’s mobile analyst, Chris Silva, is working on a report that explores how managers on the business-side – not the IT – side of the organization are increasingly leading the charge to bring mobility to their workforce. A key challenge is how to build the control and security foundation for a mobile business […]
  • Report: Making The Business Case For Enterprise Social Networks
    In 2011, the US hit a milestone — more than half of all adults visit social networking sites at least once a month. But when it comes to using social-networking technologies inside organizations, many business leaders are at a loss to understand what value can be created from Facebook-like status updates within the enterprise. Some organizations have deploye […]
  • New Report: “Make An App For That: Mobile Strategies For Retailers”
    When it comes to shopping, I have a love/hate relationship with my iPhone. Some apps are actually helpful, letting me explore products or buy something immediate. But the vast majority of the retailer apps litter my screens, sitting unused after an initial, disappointing whirl. My frustration is reflected in the findings of my colleague Chris Silva‘s new rep […]
  • Jerry Yang’s departure signals a New Day for Yahoo!, the passing of an era for Tech
    My first reaction to the news that Jerry Yang is leaving Yahoo! was that this was the passing of an era. I first met Jerry in 1994 when he was still a PhD student at Stanford, before he and David Filo left to run Yahoo! full time. Through bubbles and two economic downturns, Jerry has always been omnipresent in Silicon Valley. But all good things come to pass […]