Posted in Week With Whuffie
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3/06 2009

Week With Whuffie: Embracing the Chaos

I have a problem. It is something that I have dealt with my entire life and no matter how many times I try to change… it never goes away. I am unorganized. I have papers everywhere and I try to keep my room clean but it never happens. Now, there is a method to my chaos and I would like to say it is being chaotically organized. I am creative! Give me a break! And I have a brilliant staff and partner at Brandswag to keep us running and me sane.

Tara Hunt, the author of the Whuffie Factor, talks about the importance of embracing the chaos when building out a social media plan and strategy:

“Embracing the chaose of community mean letting go of the need to plan everything and the fantasy that you can control any given situation. Instead of building up plans and structure, you should be building flexibility and environment awareness into campaigns. You need to be hyperaware. ” (pg 205)

Sometimes this is a hard thing for business owners to swallow.

“You mean… You want me to not plan, structure, and prioritize everything?”

It is important to remember that social media in and of itself is organized chaos. There are millions upon millions of people intermingling and communicating on a daily basis all over the world. Now, it is important to remember that strategy plays a huge role in the success of a social media plan but if you do not let the COMMUNITY drive the STRATEGY… you will be at a loss.

As marketers, business owners, advertising executives, and sales directors… we are not here to broadcast a message. We can no longer control the organized chaos of the consumer. The consumer now controls the message. If we do not let nature take its course… we will be left holding a balance sheet..

and mark my words… it will be red.

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Posted in Public Relations, Viral Marketing, Week With Whuffie, social media, social media marketing
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2/06 2009

Week With Whuffie and Negative Feedback

Continuing our dive into the world of Whuffie we are going to talk about the concept of negative feedback.

Many companies fail to adopt a social media strategy for their business because of a fear of negative feedback. I have been preaching continuously about ridding yourself and your company of that fear… because it is going to happen anyway. It is a vital part to marketing in the social media realm: reputation management.

In the book it talks about how to combat negative feedback in order to increase your social capital (or whuffie):

“The way you respond to negative feedback is as important for building whuffie as your response to positive feedback. In face, an open and nonconfrontational response to negative feeback can be even more beneficial for building whuffie than multiple responses to positive feedback. In every critic there is an opportunity to create a strong advocate for your company.” (pg. 89)

The one sentence to take away from the above excerpt (and I am going to repeat it again) is this: In every critic there is an opportunity to create a strong advocate for your company.

It is extremely important to remember that more often than not a critic is just looking for a response. They are wanting to understand reason for a specific action that brought along their negativity. Respond in kind and remember to be conscious of thier motives.

Never take negative feedback personally. Learn from your mistakes and become a better and stronger company for the future.

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Posted in Social Strategy, Week With Whuffie, small business, social networking
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1/06 2009

A Week With Whuffie and Parallel Economies

Yesterday I picked up The Whuffie Factor by Tara Hunt and needless to say… it is a pretty good read! I have been turning page after page over the past couple of hours and thought to myself… SELF you need to write some posts about the book.

I want to officially dedicate this week: WWW (Week With Whuffie) I am going to be writing a post every day this week outlining and disseminating different parts/quotes from the book.

Monday Topic: The Two Parallel Economies

In the book Tara talks about the concepts of the gift economy and the market economy:

“In the gift economy the more you give away, the more… you gain, which is completely opposite from currency in the market economy, where when you give away money, it’s pretty much gone. (pg. 5)”

The concept of the gift economy is rooted in the practices of social media. The more you give away (free content/advice) the more “social capital” you gain in return. She makes a valid point that the two economies are very valid in their own respective corners and they also work together.

“We are dealing with two parallel but valid economies here. Market capital now flows from having high social capital.” (pg. 6)

Of course this is not a new concept. Business has been built by networking and the relationships created between individuals. The idea that high social capital can make way for a currency exchange has been rooted in business since the inception of marketing.

The next couple of years are going to bring an onslaught of social marketing that is going to be focused primarily on gaining social capital. It has already begun.

Do you know your worth in social capital?

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