Adam Penenberg
Social Media in Business Expert, Author & Professor of Journalism
Adam L. Penenberg is a journalism professor and assistant director of the Business and Economic Program at New York University, and author of Viral Loop. A contributing writer to Fast Company, he has also written for Inc., Forbes, The New York Times, Slate, Wired, The Economist, Playboy, and Mother Jones. At NYU, Penenberg is the assistant director of the Business & Economic Program, heading the department’s ethics committee. A sought after expert and keynote speaker, Penenberg has appeared on NBC’s Today Show, CNN’s American Morning and Money Line, FoxNews, MSNBC, NBC, CNBC, and NPR and has been quoted about media and technology in the Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, Wired News, Ad Age, and Marketwatch, among many others.
Adam L. Penenberg is a journalism professor and assistant director of the Business and Economic Program at New York University, and author of Viral Loop: From Facebook to Twitter, How Today’s Smartest Businesses Grow Themselves. A contributing writer to Fast Company, he has also written for Inc., Forbes, The New York Times, Slate, Wired, The Economist, Playboy, and Mother Jones. At NYU, Penenberg is the assistant director of the Business & Economic Program, heading the department’s ethics committee. He also teaches multimedia, magazine writing, and hard news and investigative reporting to graduate and undergraduate students.
In Viral, Penenberg names and explains the paradigm-busting phenomenon that is the essence of how the most successful Web 2.0 companies – from Google to PayPal – are growing. Each designed its product with a viral loop at its core: to use it, you have to spread it. The result: Never before has there been the potential to create wealth this fast, on this scale, and starting with so little. Penenberg explains that numerous companies are powered by something called a “viral expansion loop,” which is accomplished by incorporating virality into the functionality of their products. In plain English, it means a company grows because each new user begets more users. Just by using a product they have to spread it.
A former senior editor at Forbes and reporter for Forbes.com, Penenberg garnered national attention in 1998 for unmasking serial fabricator Stephen Glass of The New Republic. Penenberg’s story was a watershed for online investigative journalism and is portrayed in the film Shattered Glass (Steve Zahn plays Penenberg).
Penenberg’s first book, Spooked: Espionage in Corporate America, was excerpted in the Sunday New York Times Magazine and received a starred review in Publishers Weekly. His second, Tragic Indifference: One Man’s Battle With the Auto Industry Over the Dangers of SUVs (HarperBusiness, 2003) was optioned for the movies by Michael Douglas and excerpted in USA Today.
A sought after keynote speaker, he has spoken at colleges and at businesses like Lockheed-Grumman and AIG. Penenberg has appeared on NBC’s Today Show, CNN’s American Morning and Money Line, FoxNews, MSNBC, NBC, CNBC, and NPR and he has been quoted about media and technology in The Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, Wired News, Ad Age, and Marketwatch, among many others.
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3. Social Networking to Boost Your Business
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2. The Future of Print: What Books, Magazines, and Newspapers of the Future Will Be Like
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1. Viral Loop: From Facebook to Twitter, How Today’s Smartest Businesses Grow Themselves in Record Time
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October 2009Viral Loop: From Facebook to Twitter, How Today's Smartest Businesses Grow Themselves
In this game-changing must-read, Viral Loop tells the fascinating story of the entrepreneurs who first harnessed the unprecedented potential of viral loops to create the successful online businesses -- some worth billions of dollars -- that we have all grown to rely on. The trick is that they created something people really want, so much so that their customers happily spread the word about their product for them. All kinds of businesses, from the smallest start-ups to nonprofit organizations to the biggest multinational corporations, can use the paradigm-busting power of viral loops to enable their business through technology. Viral Loop is a must-read for any entrepreneur or business interested in uncorking viral loops to benefit their bottom line.
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November 2003Tragic Indifference
Tragic Indifference is the gut-wrenching account of the biggest product liability case in history: the Ford-Firestone fiasco, where delaminating Firestone tires caused Ford Explorers to lose control and crash at highway speeds. The result was a massive recall, consumer panic and congressional hearings. It all culminated in a lawsuit that would become a watershed for all future auto safety lawsuits. More than a courtroom drama, Tragic Indifference reveals the web of individual stories beneath the national headlines. Weaving together harrowing depictions of the accidents and their consequences with the stories of men and women who labor to police the auto industry and its reckless cost-cutting, Tragic Indifference will transform the way you view the government, the courts and the media.
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June 2000Spooked: Espionage In Corporate America
Through narrative accounts of corporate spies within companies such as IBM, Microsoft, and Motorola, Spooked dramatically brings to life one of America's fastest-growing industries: Corporate Intelligence. In this page-burning exposé, Adam Penenberg and Marc Barry uncover and describe in thrilling detail the alarming regularity of espionage in industry. They offer an unsettling portrait of America's publicly traded companies, and unravel the truth and hypocrisy behind the multi-billion dollar corporate intelligence industry.
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