Yoosk Talkin’ to Me?

I’m intrigued by the launch of Yoosk (hat tip to Stephen Davies), a new social media site describing itself as an “interactive magazine and community where the members are the reporters.” I’d describe it as “Digg: The Inquisition.” Users post questions aimed at assorted public figures, and the Yoosk team works with journalists and public relations teams to filter the questions directly to the target for an answer.

Users rate the questions, “Digg style,” with only the most popular questions passed on to their intended target. Targets so far range from Hillary Clinton to Pakistani cricket players, with answers just beginning to trickle in, gathered mostly from news interviews rather than direct responses from the target.

It will be interesting to see—if this site gets as much attention as I think it could—what the consequences will be for those questioned. While the rules call for questions to adhere to a certain level of taste, they are definitely not your watered down, moderated softballs. Site founder Tim Hood hopes that as the site increases in popularity, the pressure for targets to respond will increase in kind. Even brand new, the site has already compiled a broad list of targets; could corporations and prominent executives be far behind?

Yoosk has the potential to become another important tool in the corporate communications professional’s arsenal—and yet another social media site to watch for the flare-up of potential crises. Used correctly, newsmakers could use the site to address concerns while directly interacting with the consumer, and stamping out problems before they start.

As the news cycle makes public important corporate announcements (scandals, conflicts, lay-offs, recalls and stock blips), the blogosphere will often respond with a spike in posts about a particular figure, company, or product. I predict Yoosk behaving in much the same way, earning it a bookmark in a communications team’s media monitoring efforts.

Politics dominates the current crop of questions, naturally, as it is the realm best suited to the interactive nature of social media. I will be watching how politicians respond, as their reaction may set the precedent for responses from other corners of the Web 2.0 world. If Barak Obama, who has already responded to one of his queries, makes a point of replying to all of his questions and gets a bit of ink for his effort, will that send Hillary scrambling her spokespeople to contact the Yoosk team with a rundown of answers as well?

It’s not hard to imagine. Who would have predicted (aside perhaps from Howard Dean) that a blog, YouTube presence and a MySpace page would become mandatory for the modern presidential candidate? Should Yoosk capture the public interest, I can envision each candidate assigning a press flunkie as a dedicated Yoosk monitor, sifting through questions.

The social media landscape continues to expand, and the accountability of those in the public eye along with it. It will be quite interesting to monitor Yoosk’s progress, and savvy communicators should do the same.

Technorati Tags: Yoosk, Stephen Davies, Digg