Pinged Any Good Whuffie Lately?

I met Tara Hunt, author of the new book “The Whuffie Factor: Using the Power of Social Networks to Build Your Business” through Brian Obkerich’s podcast and was so taken with her, I was compelled to ping her whuffie. 

Now when I was a kid, if you pinged a girl’s whuffie without asking permission first, you’d have gotten smacked across the face.  But nowadays, you can ping anyone’s whuffie, and all it takes is a couple strokes of your keyboard. 

Whuffie isn’t what it sounds like.  It’s social capital, or online reputation, and it has real value.  According to Tara, who borrows the term from a science fiction novel by Boing Boing blogger Cory Docotrow, whuffie is currency in digital world.

When I pinged Tara’s whuffie, which in this case just meant that I Googled her name in quotes for an exact phrase match, I found all kinds of content she had created, and that others had created about her.  And those search results formed the basis of Tara’s reputation.  According to research [PDF] from Tom Smith, search is now the most popular way people source opinions on products, brands and services.  But in this case, my perception of Tara’s personal brand was shaped by an amalgamation of blog posts, podcasts, video and other tidbits, all of which I found through search.

The fact is, someone’s probably pinging your whuffie right now, and you don’t even know it.   Because in the digital world much of what you’ve done, and how others feel about it, is being collected, stored and made public.  The only thing you can do about it is be nice, so there’s not that much bad stuff people can say about you.

It all made good sense to me, and I was so intrigued by Tara, aka @missrogue’s way of looking at social media that I placed an advance order for her book (it wasn’t out yet) and invited her to present at my New Media Master Class via Twitter, which she graciously accepted.  When she showed up, she was so compelling that I recommended her to PRSA  to speak at the Digital Impact Conference (#PRSAdi)  as well, which is where I am now, and where she has just completed giving the afternoon keynote about, what else, but The Whuffie Factor.

Here are some things she said that caught my attention, which we’ll talk about more at today’s strategic recap session:

• Turn that bullhorn around.  People don’t want to be treated like numbers, which is why they go to their friends for advice.  It’s about trust.  Your friends aren’t trying to sell you something.  Friend aren’t impersonal.  Your firends care about you.
• Turn it around now, because news travels faster through social networks than any other channel.  Check out Direct2Dell, which turned the whuffie deficit from the Jeff Jarvis Dell Hell blog storm, to a whuffie making machine.
• The web is killing mass marketing. because you can’t effectively address the interests of individuals with a message that appeals to the broadest possible audience.
• These are my words, not hers, but my take way is that when everyone’s an influencer, how you do business is more important that the business that you. 
• Inject fun into the experience people have with your brand.  Hide hypothetical “easter eggs” on your website for people to find, and talk about.  Do something like Flickr’s International Talk Like a Pirate Day.

This session, and others from the PRSA Digital Impact Conference will be available as podcasts in the coming weeks and you can stream them online, subscribe via RSS or pull them right into iTunes.

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Social Media Marketing with Rachel Happe at the PRSA Digital Impact Conference 2009

Coming up to speed on social media communications can be really overwhelming, because in addition to learning new tools and concepts, you have to learn a whole new language as well.

I always feel a little guilty when I blurt out “Google your top three keywords, pull RSS feeds for those queries in Google News and Google Blog Search, add them as subscriptions to Google Reader, share worthwhile items, synchronize your Google Reader with your Friendfeed and Tweet out interesting articles to your followers.” The response I get back, particularly when I’m teaching a New Media PR Boot Camp, is one of either uncertainty or fear.

According to Korn Ferry EVP Don Spetner, who’s firm searches for executive job candidates to fill senior level communications posts at multibillion dollar organizations, you need to be fluent at social media communications, but you need to know how to read a balance sheet as well.

But when I work with executives on how to integrate social media communications into organizational communications, after the initial excitement and fascination with these emerging channels subsides, the realization sets in that social media is labor intensive, and that it’s not something they can do in their spare time.

One of the ways of coping with the fear of scope creep that a tour through the whole wired world usually provokes, is by acknowledging that social media communications tasks need to be distributed across various departments, rather than owned entirely by PR, corporate communications and marketing.

Rachel Happe just finished a session addressing functional strategies for integrating social media communications across the organization at the PRSA Digital Impact Conference in NYC (#PRSAdi) and she says social media is like the traffic in India:

• Social media is self organizing, like the way traffic flows on the streets in India. It’s takes an army to organize chaos. One traffic cop won’t do.
• In India, cows stop traffic in the streets. But people just move around them, because they’re sacred.
• No insurance for drivers in India. You might get hurt, but you have to work it out and move on.
• Suspend your disbelief. It looks like it won’t work out, but some how it always does, whether you participate or not.

What you need to do:

• Find your informal voice. Learn to interact informally with your customers.
• Be as responsive to your customers as their friends are to them.
• Try driving in India. Practice these processes internally before moving externally.

Brian Solis keynoted this morning about “Putting the Public Back in Public Relations,” Marketing Over Coffee hosts Christopher S. Penn and John Wall did session on using Social Media PR and UK-based social media researcher Tom Smith, who authored “When Did We Start Trusting Strangers [PDF]” when he was at Universal McCann presented hard numbers on global adoption rates by new media channel.

All these sessions will be available as podcasts in the coming weeks and you can stream them online, or subscribe via RSS or iTunes.

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Putting the Public Back in Public Relations

If you’re a newcomer to the world of social media communications, it is my pleasure to introduce you to prolific social media specialist Brian Solis.

I’m writing from PRSA Digital Impact Conference, which just officially opened in NYC this morning with a keynote from Brian, co-author the new book “Putting the Public Back in Public Relations” with Deirdre Breckenridge.

Brian spoke about how social media is enabling wired public relations practitioners to demonstrate ROI through direct communications with every day people, and here’s what a got from his talk:

• Media relations is no longer enough.  Are you a publicist, or a communications expert?
• Who are you writing for, journalists or the public?  If you’re writing for the public, the press release format isn’t going to cut it.
• Using interns to tween (twinterns) is a bad idea, because they have the least amount of investment in your organization.
• Community managers are competing against public relations.
• Social media gives you the ability to be as influential as the people you want to reach.
• Social media gives PR people the ability to change behavior, and measure those activities.
• Tastemaker relations, which involve pitching influential consumers instead of journalists, is among the most successful tactics he’s currently employing, but tastemakers don’t respond to press releases.
• Social media clients like Friendfeed and PeopleBrwser, which aggregate social media activities from multiple social networks, are the future of online PR.
• We used to think about the best time to put out a press release, but now we think about when the best time to Tweet is.
• The social web requires a human voice, which is very different from the voice of the press release, which is the voice of the committee.

In addition to live blogging some of the sessions at the PRSA Digital Impact Conference, I’m tweeting with the hashtag #PRSAdi (formerly #digimpact) and will be uploading pictures to Facebook.

This is my second year chairing the conference.  This year I have the honor of co-chairing with blogger Elizabeth Albrycht.

This session, and others from the PRSA Digital Impact Conference will be available as podcasts in the coming weeks and you can stream them online, subscribe via RSS or pull them right into iTunes.

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Are You Digital Ready?

After teaching hundreds of PR and communications professionals all over the world social media communication skills, I know there is huge demand for digital fluency in the workplace.  But just which skills are most important to employers, and how are those skills demonstrated to hiring mangers during the interviewing process?

To find out, iPressroom, Trend Stream, Korn Ferry and PRSA Job Center are teaming up to conduct the first Digital Readiness Study. 

If you’ve hired public relations or marketing personnel in the last 12 months, or plan to in the next 12 months, help us help you by completing this survey.

We intend to reward participants by making sure they’re among the first to receive the resulting research at no charge.

Thanks in advance for participating in this important industry research.  What digital communications skills do you think are most important in the workplace?

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