Run, don't walk, over to Tara Hunt's blog entry on The Future is Feminine
http://www.horsepigcow.com/2007/09/13/the-future-is-feminine/
and her slideshow on "How to Make a Gabillion Dollars with Community Marketing... or something like that"
http://www.slideshare.net/missrogue/making-a-gabillion-dollars-with-community-marketingor-something-like-that.
This uncommon marketer was one of the people I met when product testing Riya.com, the online photo search tool, and she currently runs Citizen Agency http://citizenagency.com, an interactive marketing firm based in San Francisco.
The theory of her presentation is that Whuffie http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whuffie (reputation-based social capital) may become the dominant paradigm of social exchange, and that its focus on collaboration, open-source, cooperation, and sharing will ultimately overcome our current market forces of domination, competition, aggression, and one-upmanship.
I love the idea that we all have something to offer, and the more we are able to share our special, unique properties, the more successful we are. You could look at this as you selling your book and reaching hundreds, thousands, or millions of readers with your message, or you recording and selling your CD or DVD and establishing your vision or music in the minds and ears of fans around the world, or you taking your invention into production, and sharing your great gadget or design with people who benefit and enjoy that product.
In Tara's presentation, she talks about "finding something that you can give away (without going broke)". I always recommend that other women business owners do this: it may be as a mentor on a one-on-one basis or in a group setting, it may be pro bono consulting or product samples for worthy causes, or it might be supporting someone else who really needs your assistance.
In our case, we offer a number of resources on website design, and on my ASuccessfulWoman.com blog, I'm adding a number of articles related to women's success in work, play, and life.
If "whuffie" becomes the medium of exchange, then we will all benefit from a standard where "doing good" is required to advance. This goes far beyond cause-related marketing, or targeting messages to a certain part of the consumer market. This means accumulating social capital based on your relationships, your reputation, and your good name (things that you have to earn, not buy).
What is your "whuffie" score and how are you going to earn your social network? How responsive is your company? How well will you deal with a world where relationships really make the difference? I'm curious to know readers' opinions on this.
