Should You Worry about Your 'Whuffie' Ratings?

INFORMATION INDEPTH NEWSLETTERS
Lean Supply Edition
August 2009

Should You Worry about Your 'Whuffie' Ratings?

Manufacturers wondering why they should care about social networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter only need to consider their "whuffie" ratings.

The word "whuffie" was originally Web 2.0 slang for the social capital people cultivated among their peers for being good Net citizens. It's now becoming a potent force for valuing commercial products as customers communicate their opinions via tweets, blogs, and other online postings, says Stephen Slade, Oracle senior director, applications and industries marketing.

Manufacturers in turn can use these market perceptions to make critical decisions about new product launches, production schedules, or, in unfortunate situations, damage control strategies to keep product glitches from causing long-term harm.

"If there were a thousand angry people in front of your company with pitchforks and torches, it would get your attention," Slade says. "Customers don't crowd in front of your buildings today, they comment electronically and virtually about a product. And that's your whuffie score."

A new generation of CRM technologies can help manufacturers understand and influence their whuffie reputations. For example, Oracle Social CRM Applications use the latest Web 2.0 technologies to leverage the knowledge and experiences of broad Web communities.

"CRM for social networks can directly feed the order process and ERP systems to build customer loyalty and respond to customer complaints," Slade says. "CRM historically has been service, marketing, and sales. Now, it's the new complaint department, as well as a new way for manufacturers to spot customer opinions and preferences that can turn into profitable trends as people post comments via social networking."

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