SXSW Report: Making Whuffie: Raising Social Capital in Online Communities
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, Whuffie.
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:
- Get advice and input from experts, but design for the broader community
- Respond to all feedback, even when you respond by saying, “No thanks”
- 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
- Give credit to those whose ideas you implement; nothing says “we are open to conversation” better.
- When you implement a new idea, make sure that you highlight it and ask for feedback
- Make small, continuous changes rather than waiting to implement everything at once
- Don’t just wait for feedback to come to you, go out and find it; people are probably talking about your product elsewhere.
- 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.
Tags: online communities, social media, tara hunt
