Sometimes when I look at the number of followers I have on Twitter (580, very modest by general standards) I get all excited. What a lot of people! Are they really all interested in what I’ve got to say?

If you’ve read the guest blogs from Alison Cross, then you’ll know the answer to that question is probably no! Most of these people are following me just because I’m following them, so at the moment I’m following Alison’s advice and weeding out those that I’m not really interested in.

If you’ve signed up to Twitter, and have ever wondered how to turn your followers into money, a US based not-for-profit start-up called The Whuffie Bank is behind a new idea that rewards you for your online reputation.

The number of times your name gets mentioned, and the context of those mentions, can earn you ‘Whuffies’, a new digital currency that rewards popularity.

The Whuffie Bank then lets users cash in their Whuffies to buy virtual goods, and in the future even real-life products.

Using an algorithm, the bank monitors users’ activity across websites such as Twitter and MySpace, and then assigns Whuffies to posts, comments, and other mentions.

It also looks at when there is third party support of a positive Tweet or post, such as the number of times a Facebook post is ‘liked’, or their tweets are retweeted.

Participants can also trade using their Whuffies. For example, a user might offer 100 Whuffies for anyone to retweet one of their Tweets.

The website thewhuffiebank.org shows how many Whuffies each user has accumulated, along with some graphics that shows the rate of growth over time. All ‘Whuffiers’ are placed into a league, which hopes to highlight those with the best online reputation in different fields.

Looking at the league right now, it is topped by Rev Run from Run DMC. P Diddy ranks second.

Whilst this all seems like good fun, it has an important element. We’ve spoken before about the importance of having a social media strategy: in the online world, giving and getting feedback is so much more common than it used to be. As a website owner, you can put your online reputation to work, by getting good feedback and communicating with your users through social media. Take a look at how to integrate your WebEden website with Facebook and Twitter.

If you’re interested in finding out more about TheWhuffiebank, then you can start by measuring the strength of your online reputation over at Whuffiebank.org by entering your username.

Have you got a reputation that you’d like to trade on? Want to make some virtual cash out of your followers? Is this a good way to get you thinking about your online reputation? Check out TheWhufflebank.org and leave us a comment below.