Whuffie Factor
Book: Tara Hunt. The Whuffie Factor: 5 keys for maxing social capital and winning with online communities.
Interview
"Spike: You’re writing a book. Tell me about it.
Tara: Well, it’s called The Whuffie Factor: 5 keys for maxing social capital and winning with online communities. I’ve been consulting in the community marketing area for several years now and, before that, as a guerilla/word-of-mouth marketer. The premise is that there is a great deal to be gained from companies and individuals participating in online communities, but they have to approach it right. Communities don’t work in the classic transaction-driven models, communities work on social capital, which includes trust and reputation, connections, access to resources and depth of relationships. My book reframes the approach and teaches companies and individuals how to interact in online communities." (http://blog.launchpadcoworking.com/2008/04/12/an-intervew-with-tara-hunt/)
Review
Cory Doctorow:
"a quick, insightful update to books like The Cluetrain Manifesto, the seminal work that described the means by which conversations were conducted online and advised companies on how to join the conversation without seeming smarmy or patronizing. As Hunt points out, Cluetrain preceded the rise of blogging, not to mention Twitter, social networking services, and all the other key elements of modern online conversation. Hunt's book is a lot shorter on theory and manifesto than Cluetrain and a lot longer on practicalities, devoting a lot of space to explaining how all these tools work and citing examples of different commercial and charitable organizations that have used them to good effect (as well as citing cautionary examples of companies that bungled things badly, usually by being caught out in deceit of one kind or another). Because of this, Whuffie Factor is probably easier to put into effect as soon as you crack the cover, but it's also likely to go stale more quickly, as the specific technologies cited wane (Cluetrain may have pre-dated blogging, but it had enough theory-stuff that it's still worth reading today, ten years later). On the other hand, if Hunt's book does well, she'll have a nice side-line in producing annual updated editions.
Hunt's central thesis is that participating in community and gaining social capital is the fastest, most reliable way to attain success for products, services, causes and movements than advertising and marketing are, and she sets out to re-educate executives and marketing people who haven't cottoned on to this. There's something of a holy mission in explaining the networked, twenty-first century reality to successful but out-dated people, if only so that execs get enough religion to give excited junior people rein to do experimental and exciting things online.
Hunt's book only suffers slightly from having been written before the econopocalypse (writing business books just before a global economic catastrophe is a tricky business), having a very faint air of the commercial excess of the golden days of 2008. But in the final analysis, using conversation and community to succeed is ultimately more frugal and Depression-ready than buying a lot of big, loud, glitzy Superbowl ads." (http://www.boingboing.net/2009/04/21/the-whuffie-factor-a.html)