The title of my new book is SocialCorp: Social Media Goes Corporate. Early in the book, I include the SocialCorp Readiness Quiz, a series of 20 questions designed to help corporate communicators assess the strengths and weaknesses of their companies as they might affect social media adoption.

You can take the online version of the quiz:

The quiz is also available in PDF format. Feel free to download and distribute.

Use the following scoring* guidelines to help you determine your organization’s readiness:

• 18–20: Your company is already a SocialCorp. Congratulations.
• 15–17: You have the right culture, leadership, and other conditions in place to allow your company to become a SocialCorp, with great potential for broad social media adoption.
• 12-14: The fundamentals are good, and you’re well on your way to becoming a SocialCorp, but to be successful you’ll need to carefully factor those areas in which the company might not be perfectly aligned for success.
• Less than 12: Don’t despair. Your responses indicate only that there are some barriers to social media adoption in your organization and that there might be certain social media strategies that won’t work in your company or industry.

Thanks to all of my good friends on Twitter who contributed questions, and to Todd Hoskins of Networked Insights, who allowed me to include a couple of questions from his company’s Readiness Assessment Tool.

Feel free to comment here on what you thought about the quiz, and whether it helped you gain any insights into your company’s social media readiness. You can freely reproduce, distribute and reuse the quiz, but please keep the copyright notice and credits intact.

Thanks!

* Note that the scoring differs between the online and written (PDF) versions of the quiz. For the PDF version, use the scoring method outlined in the document.

Tags: SocialCorp, Social Media Readiness Quiz, corporate communications, assessment

If you’d like to get a review copy of SocialCorp: Social media goes corporate, to write a review for your blog or other publication, let me know. The good people at Peachpit, my publisher, suggested I make this offer early so that they can get reviewers on a list to get their copies as quickly as possible when the book become available in December.

Contact me at joel-at-socializedpr-dot-com if you’re interested.

Tags: socialcorp, social media, corporate communications, peachpit, new riders, review, book

Peachpit Press, who will publish my book SocialCorp later this year, are making the book available through Safari Books Online, a service that lets corporate subscribers and others search and read electronic versions of published, and soon-to-be-published books in tech, business, design, software, etc.

I decided to give Safari a try. Peachpit’s research says online sales not only don’t cannibalize sales of the printed book, but actually improve them. I’ve always felt that there are people who want an online version of a book and people who want a printed version, and they have different needs, so why not accommodate both?

Companies can purchase only the online version of the book, or a bundle with the online version now and the printed book when it is out later this year. Safari also allows early readers of the book to comment, which will help fine tune the book for publication.

Tags: socialcorp, ebook, new riders, peachpit, safari books online

I’m looking for a social media manager/blogmaster/blogmistress and two research associates to help with my new book SocialCorp. These are unpaid positions but will include recognition on the blog, and for key contributors, in the book. This is a great opportunity for an extended summer internship requiring 5-10 hours a week between now and November. There will be cash bonuses for people who stick it out and are with the project through publication.

If you’re interested, or know someone who might be, check it out!

Thanks!

Joel

Tags: socialcorp, internship, interns, social media, jobs

Today I started work on SocialCorp, a new book on how smart companies are adopting social media. I believe that somewhere in between total brand surrender (the idea that the consumer now owns your brand and you are powerless to control it) and corporate conservatism lies an amazing, and largely untapped opportunity to engage openly and authentically with influencers, without compromising the goals and obligations of the corporation. SocialCorp will provide the roadmap.

Peachpit imprint New Riders approached me about writing a social media book, and now the contracts are in place and we are off and running. We had a great launch call this morning. We talked about marketing, audiences for the book, promotion, and a great deal about, no surprise, using social media to develop and promote the book. (And with any new book, one of the first things you talk about is the cover.)

The book will include profiles of Corporate Socializers, in-house and independent/agency communicators who have launched innovative and successful social media initiatives in every part of corporate communications, marketing and public relations. I’ll be looking to all of you to help identify these people and their work, and I welcome (need) submissions for inclusion from all sources. (There will be a more formal process for this shortly.)

I’m thinking about starting a blog for the book, to go along with the other three blogs I have, and most likely a wiki for chapter and topic development.

Stay tuned for more. The book is scheduled to be out In November, so I’ve got to get moving NOW! Oops, isn’t NOW GONE? Oh well…

Tags: socialcorp, peachpit, new riders, joel postman, corporate, social media