Improve your social capital, influence and make whuffie
April 6, 2009 by Suzi Dafnis
One of my favourite presentations at South by South West was called Making Whuffie - Raising Social Capital in Online Communities, presented by Tara Hunt.
According to Tara whuffie is social capital, connections (both strong and weak) and influence, amongst other things. (Ok, that’s the super short version… and probably doesn’t do her topic justice.)
Whuffie is your reputation. It’s a score (that can go up and down) on your relationships and is the new order of connecting with your community.
Her new book (The Whuffie Factor) is out on 21 April. I’ve preordered mine… and am chomping to get my hands on it and share it with my own community.
A couple of question that Tara posed:
- Are your connections to your community strong or weak?
- Regardless how many friends you have on Facebook or Twitter… how connected are you to those people?
- If your whuffie score is high the recommendations you make will be seen as credible. How high is your whuffie score?
Some tips for making whuffie:
• Creating whuffie takes time and building trust.
• It involves listening (rather than broadcasting)
• It includes taking feedback on board
• Become a part of the community you serve (not as a voyeur, not to sell anyone anything and give them a reason to give a damn
• Create amazing customer experiences
• Embrace the chaos (SD: I love this one cause it challenges my need for order!!!) In the book she gives you great ways to embrace the chaos including this one… “Stop moving and look around you until you see everything clearly.” (this to me means Be Present!)
• Find your higher purpose
Being whuffie-rich makes sense. Everyone wins.
I am really looking forward to the book.
Tara Hunt | Suzi Dafnis
A great post - thank you! I’ll keep my eye out for “The Whuffie Factor”
This is also something I’ve been pondering lately, as I take my slow and steady steps through Facebook and Twitter.
In Facebook, it means taking the time to read other people’s posts and respond or comment.
In Twitter it means visiting each new follower’s Twitter page and website or blog (if they have one), finding something that resonates for me, then … and only then …. following back and sending a personal DM to acknowledge my appreciation of something I read.
Already this is proving to take more time than I sometimes can spare - meaning I lag behind in the immediacy of my contact with people.
I’m certainly wondering how on earth those with thousands of followers or friend are actually making any durable connections at all, except perhaps with a select few.
But it’s definitely reassuring to learn that, according to Tara’s dot points, I’m doing all I can to ‘make whuffie’ as best I can.
Thanks Sue. One of the ways to manage a swarm of followers is to use one of the applications that allow you to sort people into groups.
E.g. I have groups for Australian Businesswomen’s Network members (cause I want to be able to catch their tweets), People to Watch (for thought-leaders that I follow) and another for Friends.
You may want consider one of these free tools.
Twhirl —- http://www.twhirl.org)
Seesmic Desktop —- http://www.seesmic.com)
Tweet Deck —- http://www.tweetdeck.com/beta/
Thanks for the great write up Suzi! And nice meeting you at SXSW!
[...] grows and what diminishes your online reputation and how to educate and empower your connection. (Here’s a post I wrote about this book when it was first released.) Trust [...]