What are the differences between eNewsletters and Blogs? Which one is best for you? Both.

There are advantages to both technologies and the savvy Buzz Builder will publish in both mediums.

Blog Advantages:
Blogs are easier to write for. They lend themselves to being less formal and more forgiving. I spend much less time creating much more content on this blog than in our eMagazine. Also, readers can visit it when they want and do not have to give me information.

eNewsletter Advantages:
With a well defined eNewsletter, you will capture more information and pull people back in on a regular basis. They need more attention to detail, and careful thought to additional details like the subject line, subscription, etc.

In an ideal world, you can publish a monthly eNewsletter and create a high traffic blog. In our publication, we have added a category called “From the Blog” that allows us to utilize content we have already created. It draws more attention to the blog and enhances the newsletter.

Who do you trust? Who shares clients in common with you? Who has the cajones to tell you people are saying bad things behind your back?

You may think all your clients are all happy. How do you find out if they really are?

1. Listen carefully. Often times complaints will come your way but be padded by good stuff. Read between the lines and ask questions if people are not sending you 100% happy comments.

2. Ask questions like “What do you think we can do better?” or “What is the biggest weakness when working with us?”

3. Ask partners and business acquaintances if they are hearing buzz about you. Today I had to tell a good partner that I have been hearing negative things from multiple sources. I was not keen on telling them, but finally did. I know it is due to growing pains, but she has now gone straight back to the office to focus and resolve the issues. – And I am so happy she took it so well.

4. Always look for opportunities to make someone’s day better. Deliver more than what is expected and you will create positive buzz.

5. Don’t take on charity cases unless you can deliver quality. When you cut your rate and help someone it can back fire when you do not deliver as high of quality services. You can try to do someone a favor and end up hurting your word of mouth.

Mystery is a fun buzz tool.

We still get people commenting on the way we did our release party, three months ago.

Our registration form displayed the name, title and company of each person that was signed up.

All they knew was it was something called Buzzoodle and involved WOM. They had to come to find out.

I worked my network through email, we were on a Capitalist Cleveland radio show, and all our business acquaintances were talking about it. It was a big success because of the Buzz. The Buzz was because of the mystery.

Try creating a little mystery for your business. Do you have an upcoming new product, feature or service? Start a list for people to sign up and get a preview. Make it exclusive and limited and you will not have trouble filling the place.

You can have more than one phone number, more than one email address, and yes, you can even have more than one website or blog.

We tend to work with a lot of professionals that would like to stand out. They are often surprised when we mentioned they can keep their website (the corporate brochure) and build another one that engages people more. Just today we talked with two different professionals that are looking at building resource centers to engage their existing clients more, get them to know each other, give them opportunities for free exposure (the PR kind) and other helpful things.

Because they will not be selling themselves blatantly, it will be much more along the lines of Viral Marketing and will get people talking.

SEO Strategies vary. One important aspect is the inbound links.

Buzz and word of mouth is an essential element of yor SEO strategy. On an ongoing basis, you need to have a website or blog worth visiting, you have to SEO optimize it, you have to have a call to action (get the visitor to do something) and you have to have the solid plan to keep promoting it, grow it and create buzz about it.

Our other company, Outstanda has made our proprietary buzz strategy part of the overall SEO strategy that helps people stand out on the web.

Whether you use an SEO strategy or do it yourself, you should be creating a little buzz about your site every week on the web. It will build up and couple that with the other strategies and you will have a powerful site and powerful results.
Even without a link the name is out there.

Find out what is being said about Buzzoodle on blogs all over at Technorati

To create a link to Technorati with your business search defined, do this:

http://www.technorati.com/search/yourcompanyname as the link.

This allows people to see what is being said about you on your blog and others.

I just had a bit of a brain storm while I was meeting with a realtor today.

I suggested he create a blog entry for every property he sold and invite the buyer or seller to post testimonials in the comments. It is an online journal of their success, in the words of their clients, and is a great information source for anyone that is thinking about working with him.

This is a great, no cost way to promote what you do. Be sure to link to your main realtor website if you use a hosted blogger service.

I just got this book this weekend and it seems very good as I hop around and skim parts. For those of you looking to create buzz on the web, this is a very comprehensive resource.

Buy The Virtual Handshake here

Visit the The Virtual Handshake Blog and Resource Site

By David Teten and Scott Allen

The Robert Novak incident got me thinking about rapid blog response, or RBR, as I am now calling it.

I looked at Technorati and saw that Novak was coming up a bunch. I then saw what happened with him walking off and then I thought… how can I write something about Novak? People will be searching for things about him today and tomorrow.

Find out what it hot and work it into your blog post to drive more traffic to your blog.

If you cannot do that, at least use an incident like that to touch base with a few people.