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.
All in all this was a throughly 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.
Simon’s Rating – 4 out of 5 – Highly Recommended Go Buy It
You can follow Tara on twitter @missrogue or visit her wonderfully named website Horsepigcow
Hi Tara, thanks for the review. I am always interested in this kind of books. Now I’m trying to use facebook to promote my blog, hope it works
Hi Henry, Thanks for the feedback, although I am not Tara!!!
Thanks again, Simon
Hey wait! I’M Tara!
Thanks for the review and I’m really glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for taking a chance on the crazy name!
Thanks for the comment Tara. It was a most enjoyable read! I am glad I took the punt on the crazy name.
Oh…and p.s. Good luck with your challenge! I was looking at a bunch of you making this challenge for yourself and thought, “That is something I really need to do” My book consumption seems to have slowed down over the years (bad! I used to read at least one book/month, now I’m luck if I read one book/3 or 4 months).
Thanks for the Support. I agree, at best I was doing a book every six months last year which was very disappointing. Hopefully I can keep the momentum going! Thanks again for your support.
Hey Simon! This book is also going on my “must read” books list, the other one was recommended by Jodi “Linchpin by Seth Godin”. I see that you are planning to read more books.. I would suggest you to go through “Viral Loop by Adam Penenberg”
Thanks Maynak for the comment and the reading suggestion. The Whuffie Factor is a great read, I am sure that you will enjoy it. I will add that book to my list