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Companies spend millions on advertising, but with so many products jostling for attention, shouting at people isn't nearly as effective as it used to be. More to the point, social technologies have revved up the word-of-mouth dynamic, increasing the influence of regular people's comments on your product while diluting the value of traditional advertising. In this chapter, social media strategy leaders Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff will show you how to use the groundswell for marketing and PR, with techniques like user-generated video, blogs, and on-line communities. They also present vivid case studies from Blendtec, the company behind willitblend.com and its viral videos starring CEO Tom Dickson; Ernst & Young's Facebook presence and its success in engaging and recruiting recent college graduates; Hewlett-Packard's executive blogs, which enable customers to engage directly with company experts on virtually any aspect of HP's vast product line; and Procter & Gamble's Web site for girls, beinggirl.com, where P&G's youngest consumers of feminine care products have found a safe, fun, and supportive on-line community. This chapter was originally published as Chapter 6 of ‘Groundswell, Expanded and Revised Edition: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies.’ This chapter is excerpted from ‘Groundswell, Expanded and Revised Edition: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies'.