The book’s authors, each with more than ten years’ professional communications experience, invite communications and HR managers and directors to “come to a deeper understanding of what it means to disseminate information and collaborate effectively.” The authors accomplish this through numerous corporate examples (citing companies such as Société Générale, AXA, BNP Paribas, Southwest Airlines, Air France, AREVA, Lyonnaise des Eaux, Alcatel-Lucent and Adidas) and testimonies (from internal communication directors, expert lawyers, chief knowledge officers, community managers, consultants, agency heads, renowned experts and professional researchers).

To the benefit of all, today’s corporate employees have become their companies’ foremost media outlets. Communication and marketing no longer rely on simply multiplying the ways of getting a message out, or on the speed with which that information can be relayed. Employees and customers are no longer considered respectively as internal and external end users, but as the media themselves. Thanks to the advent of these new media opportunities, employees can become their companies’ spokespeople. They can also work more efficiently within a stronger internal network, calling on the collective knowledge available within the group and beyond. A business’s boundaries are becoming increasingly blurred, as are those of communication itself.

Taking all these new elements into account requires profound changes and brings up numerous questions. How can a company initiate this process? How can it successfully put into place an operational plan? What tools should it use? What does this mean in terms of a business’s communication, management and human resources? What type of company will arise from this (r)evolution?

Le média humain, Dangers et opportunités des réseaux sociaux pour l’entreprise Laetitia Puyfaucher and Ludovic Boursin Éditions Eyrolles 260 pages – €24

On June 8, a book launch was held at the Salons du Panthéon in Paris. Thanks to all who attended!