Smart Business Magazine, Jun 2012

6 Smart Business Houston June 2012 THE ART OF BUZZ The reasons people talk about products and services and the best ways to seed discussions Emanuel Rosen is the author of the national best seller The Anatomy of Buzz Doubleday 2000 and The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited Real life Lessons in Word of Mouth Marketing Doubleday 2009 Prior to writing these books he was vice president of marketing at Niles Software where he was responsible for launching and marketing the companys flagship product EndNote In this interview he brings us up to speed on the techniques for generating buzz that every small business owner must master Q Going back to fundamentals why do people talk about products and services at all A Buzzing is in our genes We are programmed to share information with friends about where to find our next meal and about the tiger whos about to have us as his next meal We talk to connect so when my daughter tells her friends about the new sweater she bought shes also establishing and maintaining her social ties We buzz to talk about ourselves If I tell you about a 10 day dog sledding trip in Alaska Im also telling you how adventurous I am Q Which comes first buzz or ink A Usually it starts with some buzz that is followed by press coverage which can take the buzz to a whole new level Grassroots support can actually help you get ink sometimes buzz is the best press release because it gives journalists this warm and fuzzy feeling that your story is for real and that theres true excitement for it Dont get me wrong if CNN calls you before your product is out dont tell them that youre waiting for some grassroots buzz to build but usually it doesnt happen that way Q Which comes first buzz or sales A Since product recommendation usually starts with product experience you need to have some people out there who use the product and hopefully get excited about it How do you get these early customers Part of it comes from word of mouth marketing methods like seeding and sneak previews but it also comes from traditional sales and marketing techniques If your product is contagious in some way then these early users will start buzzing about it Q What are the essential elements of seeding a product A The key point to understand is that although were all connected to each other information about new products rarely spreads like a wild fire Information tends to get stuck because we live in somewhat isolated social clusters To accelerate buzz companies seed their product in many different clusters The ideal seeding campaign is done on a large scale and lets people have a firsthand experience with the product You want to reduce the price barrier as much as possible so the product is given for free or at a reduced price Q What are the characteristics of a contagious product A The best buzz comes not from publicity stunts but rather from the product itself A product or service that makes you say Wow when you use it for the first time is the classic contagious product Q What is the role of old fashioned advertising these days A It is fashionable to say that advertising is dead but I dont agree Very few products can live on buzz alone Advertising can help a lot at least good advertising can help a lot First in creating awareness and building the pool of people who can buzz about the product Second a good ad can prompt me to tell my friends about the product Third a good authentic ad that brings in real people can stimulate buzz Q How has technology changed buzz and word of mouth marketing A It hasnt really changed what we talk about We still talk about ourselves we brag we seek advice we gossip we connect The Internets biggest effect is that it accelerates buzz In addition it doesnt only let us tell our friends about the products we use but also lets us show them these products through videos and photos Q How can a company effectively measure the buzz it is generating A The simplest method is to ask your customers how they heard about you You can measure the daily mentions you get on blogs and on Twitter You can supplement this with traditional marketing research to learn what customers who dont use these services are saying Whatever method you choose though you need to measure on an ongoing basis if you want to detect any effects Q Do you believe that there are key influencers on whom companies should focus because of their ability to lead a market as their wisdom trickles down A The importance of influencers varies by industry I suspect that they are more important in the pharmaceutical industry than in the yo yo industry Regarding the trickle down theory this is not the way that buzz flows especially today buzz flows in all directions I use the term hubs to describe people who talk more than average and I make a distinction between social hubs and expert hubs Both can definitely help a company spread the word but companies should encourage everyone to talk not only hubs On Point Guy Kawasaki GUY KAWASAKI is the co founder of Alltop com an online magazine rack of popular topics on the Web and a founding partner at Garage Technology Ventures Previously he was the chief evangelist of Apple Kawasaki is the author of 10 books including Enchantment Reality Check and The Art of the Start He appears courtesy of a partnership with HVACR Business www hvacrbusiness com where this column was originally published Reach Kawasaki through www guykawasaki com or at kawasaki@ garage com Click or scan to read more columns by Guy Kawasaki