Following on from the success of Twitter, the micro-blogging site which lets users publish 140 character updates, a new social network has launched that allows users to post messages that are at least 1,400 characters long. The novelty macro-blogging site Woofer, now has more than 4,600 users, many of whom have already posted several wordy ‘woofs’.

While social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, have changed the way that PROs can communicate and collaborate with colleagues, clients, journalists and industry peers, Woofer is really taking the biscuit!

Although the macro-blogging site with its 1,400 character woofs is clearly a joke, it has attracted a lot of media attention and is currently one of the most shared web pages on social bookmarking site Digg. But rather than just being a novelty site setup to point fun at Twitter, it looks like the developers have cleverly created Woofer as a digital PR stunt to drive traffic to their website ShuffleTime.

A PR stunt can be defined as the creation of a strange or sensational story that has the sole purpose of generating media and public interest in order to raise awareness of a product or business that is associated with it. That is exactly what Woofer does, but online. By developing a humorous site that ridicules one of this year’s most talked about topics they have created something that many people will be interested in and will choose to share with others online. This personal recommendation is key to helping the site to go viral and attracting yet more attention and traffic to the site.

It will be interesting to see if any more companies opt to create digital PR stunts now that the silly season is in full flow.