I recently completed The Whuffie Factor: Using the Power of Social Networks to Build Your Business
I must confess that when I first saw this book on Amazon I thought what the hell is “Whuffie” in fact I was so intrigued I went ahead and bought it.
So what is Whuffie?
To quote the entry on Wikipedia
Whuffie is the ephemeral, reputation-based currency of Cory Doctorow‘s science fiction novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. This book describes a post-scarcity economy: All the necessities (and most of the luxuries) of life are free for the taking. A person’s current Whuffie is instantly viewable to anyone, as everybody has a brain-implant giving them an interface with the Net.
In this book Tara takes this concept and relates it social and business realities. In simplistic terms this book is essentially a guide to social media concepts for people in business. Tara draws on her experience of using Whuffie to highlight to the reader both the highs and lows of leveraging social media for the benefit of both your business and its customers. Numerous case studies are included covering such examples as the US Library of Congress using Flickr to open up their extensive photo archives and how Tara utilised social media to get her book cover designed. The whole book is written in a clear and concise manner, without overloading you with meaningless jargon or generalization tactics so often seen in books on this subject. All of the steps presented are simple to follow and she does a first class job of detailing the rationale behind them.
Who is this book for?
This book is ideal for anyone new to the whole social media scene as it is written in a language that is easy for novices to grasp, having said that this book is a useful reference for people that have been involved in the social media scene as it provides interesting case studies and a raft of hints and tips that will complement your social media activity. I for one certainly took a lot from the book and am now using some of the information in my social media work
Summary
All in all this was a thoroughly enjoyable read that is both articulate and easy to follow and I would say that it is a welcome addition to anyone using or looking to use social media in their business or even personally.
Simon’s Rating – 4 out of 5 – Highly Recommended Go Buy It
To find out more about the author, Tara Hunt you can follow her on twitter @missrogue or visit her wonderfully named website Horsepigcow
This review was originally posted on my personal blog Simonbunker dot co dot uk