Conference

June 30, 2005 | Leave a Comment

http://www.womma.com/ is the word of mouth marketing conference coming up.

I plan on being there. Buzz and word of mouth are best buddies.

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Buzzoodle 

Buzz and Multiple Channels

June 29, 2005 | Leave a Comment

This is probably obvious to larger companies with big budgets, but for companies that are smaller keep this in mind.

Often with a tiny budget you are going to try one thing and wait, hoping it works. However, the most powerful thing that will draw people in is if they have head about you from several sources. Even if it was just in passing.

Today the public expects to see a Burger King commercial 6 times a day. They do not expect to hear about a smaller business with much frequency. If you are memorable and reaching people’s eyes and ears in different ways, they are going to feel they are missing out on something popular. Something everyone else is talking about. Something trendy.

Several months ago I was sitting in a Panara having a meeting. Someone came in and knew the person I was sitting with. He greeted the person and introduced himself to me. It turned out earlier in the week another person I know had mentioned me to him.

Now he felt left out. Why do all his friends know me but he is being kept out of the loop?

The instant trust and credibility made it possible to move quickly through the process and get right to how we could help each other.

This was before Buzzoodle, but very much in line with what Buzzoodle does. It gets people more actively broadcasting messages about you.

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Blog, Marketing ROI, Small Business 

PR People and Buzz

June 28, 2005 | Leave a Comment

I got an email from a PR person last night.

He said that creating an army of people building buzz and talking about you was too generic and unfocused.

Is he right or does he feel threatened that we have created a system that makes his profession obsolete?

I think there is a place for PR and marketing professionals, especially for a big push or release. However, when is on ongoing buzz building campaign ever going to be a bad addition to your other efforts. When will it be bad to have a better connected, higher energy workforce?

Ultimately, achieving the buzz and word of mouth is going to get you better results and cost less. No wonder he thinks it is a bad idea.

To be fair to PR people though, others have said they did not sleep the night they found out about it because they were so excited about the potential.

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Blog, Small Business 

Say hi to our friend in Australia

June 27, 2005 | Leave a Comment

Please send some buzz to our friend Robert.

http://www.buzzoodle.com/buzz/steers82.buzz

He is very forward thinking and has already begun moving towards coaching companies in Australia on Buzzoodle use. We are looking forward to working with him.

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Buzzoodle 

Buzzoodle and the Feedback Form

June 27, 2005 | Leave a Comment

I got a great question from one of our Australian Buzzoodle users. He wanted to know why we did not add feedback questions such as “Would you be likely to use this product” or some such thing.

The answer is that in the paid account, you can add as many questions as you want. We have to give you some reason to upgrade. :)

Buzzoodle group accounts are able to customize the feedback banner, exit page and questions for everyone in the account.

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Buzzoodle 

David Lorenzo - Advocate

June 26, 2005 | Leave a Comment

Dave Lorenzo - What are experts saying?

David V. Lorenzo is a Partner with The Gallup Organization. He has expertise in integrated marketing communications, brand management and human capital management. As a performance management and process improvement strategist, he designs solutions for Gallup clients that produce economic, bottom-line value. His consulting insights have helped Gallup’s hospitality, retail and real estate clients boost their organizational performance by improving employee performance and increasing customer engagement.

He wrote in an email to me today “I’m a big advocate of what you are doing.”

His blog is at http://dlorenzo.blogs.com/

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Buzzoodle, Employee Advocates 

What if they say something bad?

June 26, 2005 | Leave a Comment

In case you have not noticed, we are getting a lot of Buzz.

One question people keep asking is “What if some of my employees say bad stuff?” or “My employees do not want to do that. They are not sales people”

I will write at length on this later, but keep in mind that you have control of how you use buzzoodle. I would not ask unhappy employees to use it, until they had heard from the happy ones that had been using it for a while how much fun it is.

If I am in a huge organization, I would do a test with 100 enthusiastic employees at all levels. You can measure the results and see if it works well. (It does, but judge by your own results.)

The key with Buzzoodle is it helps people evolve into better connected people that tell stories. Every employee will not use it, and some will use it poorly. The ones that do embrace it will be so powerful that you will not care much about the others.

Even if just the sales staff used it, it would build buzz they never thought they could build before.

Let me know what you think: http://www.buzzoodle.com/ronmc.buzz

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Blog, Buzzoodle, Employee Advocates, Small Business 

One Month Anniversary

June 25, 2005 | Leave a Comment

Today is the one month anniversary of Buzzoodle.

I have completed over 20 challenges personally and have more than doubled my normal sales in that thirty days.

I would really like to post some other people’s Buzzoodle success stories. Please email me and let me know how one went for you.

ron@Buzzoodle.com

Posted by Buzzoodle Ron | Filed Under Blog 

Broadcast your story

June 25, 2005 | Leave a Comment

Today was an interesting day. Two days ago I wrote a press release and submitted it. It took me 2.5 hours and I’d never done it before. Cost $30.

I also sent Seth Godan an email and he posted something on his blog about us. It took me five minutes and he had never heard of me before.

Web hits for today have gone up 1,200%. Both things I did were Buzzoodle challenges. We now have users in every continent of the globe and have doubled our client list in the last 12 hours.

If you create a good story and broadcast it in many ways, you can get great results. Don’t give up when some result in nothing. The ones that catch more than make up for it.

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Blog, Buzzoodle 

Seth Godin and Buzzoodle

June 24, 2005 | Leave a Comment

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/

Check out Seth Godin once again. He is talking about us on his blog. He is the King of viral marketing.

His book “Idea Virus” is great.

I should point out that Buzzoodle encourages each person to reach out to new and interesting people. I sent an email to Seth at lunch time today and went home to eat. I came back less than an hour later to more hits in one hour than we get in any two days.

Get outside of your comfort zone and communicate. He is not a personal friend of mine yet, but he was willing to mention us on his blog just from an email.

Find out who is influential in your industry and drop them an email. You never know unless you try.

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Blog, Buzzoodle, Interesting Buzz 

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