If you’ve spent at least a few months reading blogs about social media (Tara missrogue Hunt writes one — Horsepigcow — herself), little in The Whuffie Factor will come as news. Consider reading it anyway, if only as a useful reminder and for a different conceptual perspective.
This may be the first business book to take its main premise and name from a science fiction novel. In Cory Doctorow’s Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, whuffie is social capital or
“the residual outcome — the currency — of your reputation. You lose it or gain it based on positive or negative actions, your contributions to the community, and what people think of you.”
Most importantly, social capital helps generate market capital. Hunt spends the book elucidating ways to do this with social media. Tips, advice, and examples abound.
Thankfully, Hunt leaves the ROI of social media debate for another time (or book?), instead focusing on the relationship- and reputation-building aspects of social media. However, the causal relationship between social and market capital is often unclear. Yes, the qualitative aspects of social media are important, but you’ll see few dollar signs in the book. In addition, the impact of social media engagement gets consideration without that of other marketing efforts.
The bigger issue The Whuffie Factor raised for me is whether blog content translates well into book content. While Hunt’s writing is as engaging as blogs get, a book is a different form, with different rules (though it’s hard to discern an author’s and an editor’s responsibility in the final product).
A blogger’s conversational tone is sometimes ill suited for a business guide. To omit references (e.g. in the section on happiness), to introduce concepts at the end (e.g. bridging/bonding social capital, community), or to advise to “find a higher purpose” in the penultimate chapter makes for an occasionally puzzling read. Seeing, for the n-th time, the examples of Threadless, Apple, or Zappos, made me skip a lot of passages.
Social media has become a staple in a marketer’s toolbox, and books like The Whuffie Factor help use it well. Because social media is more about engaging there than about reading about it in a book, to make the best of social media you’d be better off getting the advice (and experience) at the source.
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Tara Hunt, The Whuffie Factor: Using the Power of Social Networks to Build Your Business, New York: Crown Business, 2009.
