SXSW Report: Making Whuffie: Raising Social Capital in Online Communities

My new post on Social Studies:
Tara Hunt, from Intuit, spoke on the topic of how people interact and exchange information in online communities: through social capital, or as Cory Doctorow calls it, < a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whuffie”>Whuffie</a&gt;.

Hunt gave a thorough deep dive into the importance of online communities – both through listening to what they’re saying about brands and also engaging with them. She encouraged marketers to join online communities – but not as a researcher or marketer. Instead, marketers should transparently join, listen, learn and participate in these communities to, “figure out why they would give a damn about your brand.”

One key area is seeking the community’s feedback on brand initiatives, campaigns, new products, etc.

Here are Hunt’s 8 Commandments of Receiving Feedback from Online Communities:

1. Get advice and input from experts, but design for the broader community
2. Respond to all feedback, even when you respond by saying, “No thanks”
3. Do not take negative feedback personally; remember that when people give feedback, they are doing so because they care and have taken the time to improve their experience
4. Give credit to those whose ideas you implement; nothing says “we are open to conversation” beter.
5. When you implement a new idea, make sure that you highlight it, and ask for feedback
6. Make small, continuous changes rather than waiting to implemtn everything at once
7. Don’t just wait for feedback to come to you, go out and find it; people are probaby talking about your product elsewhere.
8. No matter how much they like you, there will be haters. Mind the haters. Don’t feed the trolls.

You can view all 318 slides here.

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