Fellow blogger Graeme Harrison recently dropped me an email asking me to contribute to his list of Timeless Classics, a list of a list of books that have shaped the advertising and marketing communications landscape.

An impressive list of bloggers have contributed to the list so far including Seth Godin, Chris Anderson, Helge Tennø, Adam Richardson, Russell Davies, Neil Perkin, Jon Steel, Eoan Pritchard, and last but certainly not least, Katy Lindemann.

I’ve been thinking about which book should be included in this wonderful list over the past couple of weeks, and have finally settled for THE social media bible, Groundswell.

Right now your customers are blogging about you, creating spoofs on YouTube, complaining about you on Twitter, and hating you on Facebook. As a Brand Manager you can either a) get scared and quit your job, or b) turn social media into an opportunity. I choose the latter…

Companies are increasingly turning to PR agencies (thank you for keeping me employed!) to help them with their online WOM, and this book should be on every bookshelf across the country world. With Google soon to index Twitter updates, Social Media is something that can no longer be ignored. Groundswell explains how organizations need to adjust to remain relevant to consumers, and how can they actually benefit from this trend.

Although the platforms we use may change in the years to come, web 2.0 marks an important shift in the way we use the Internet, and communicate in our daily lives.

The search continues – what’s your Marketing Timeless Classic? Let me know in the comments alternatively write a blog post linking back to Graeme’s blog.