Free Buzzoodle Buzz Marketing

October 31, 2005 | Leave a Comment

Announcement: As part of our changes to make Buzzoodle more accessible to everyone, we have opened up the advanced features at no charge.

As of November 1st, 2005, all current features in Buzzoodle are absolutely free. Group accounts for creating and tracking Word of Mouth Marketing with an organization’s advocacy base is now open to everyone.

What else is now free?

  • Word of Mouth Team Management
  • Event Calendar Posting
  • Custom Buzz Challenges
  • Advanced Buzz Reports

Buzzoodle is able to offer these services for free because the demand for custom word of mouth marketing campaigns has been high and the Buzzoodle staff will generate more revenue from these Word of Mouth Marketing consulting projects.

The Buzzoodle staff continues to make improvements that will enhance the Buzzoodle community. On the horizon are the ability to measure buzz for multiple products, advanced buzz measurement features and the ability to meet other people using Buzzoodle in the Buzzoodle system.
Sign Up Here

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Buzzoodle 

Accidental Viral Marketing that creates a buzz

October 31, 2005 | Leave a Comment

Viral Marketing Heaven: Homemade Video Gets 2.5 Million Downloads

Here’s a viral-by-mistake marketing story you gotta love: This summer alt pop band OK Go were getting ready for a tour to promote their second album.

So, there they were in a Chicago-area backyard practicing a dance routine to go with one of their songs, ‘A Million Ways’. The problem with practicing a dance routine in a back yard (as opposed to, say, in a dance studio) is there are no mirrors, so you can’t see how you look.

Which is why the guys decided to tape the thing on a video camera set up on a tripod. They did their three-minute routine a few times and then checked the video.

One of their girlfriends thought the video looked so fun that she begged them to release it as their official video instead of the “real” video they were planning to do with a professional director. The band laughed at her. Thereupon, she posted the video online and emailed a couple of friends to get a second opinion.

Two point five million downloads later……… Read All

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Viral Marketing, Interesting Buzz, Blog 

Duct Tape Marketing Advice

October 31, 2005 | Leave a Comment

Duct Tape Marketing has some excellent advice. Make every piece of communication a marketing piece. Or you could make every communication buzzworthy.

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Branding, Small Business, Blog 

Managing Expectations

October 30, 2005 | Leave a Comment

Sometimes something seems very simple to you. Sometimes something you do does not seem like a big deal but to the person you do it for, it is a big deal.

This Halloween, I am reminded of this by my daughter. About a block away, there is a house that for the last three years has done something extraordinary for the kids that stopped by. One year the person gave out a bucket of candy to each kid and one year he gave out those super sized candy bars.

He made a point of asking “Have you been to the good house yet?”

“Which house?” the kids would ask.

“Wait, my house is the good house.”

So this year, when we went down to his house, which is out of the way, we were surprised that the light was not on. I could see they were home, but not doing it this year.

We still had a great time, but it did let the air out of the experience a bit. Expectations were high.

Now think of your customers as kids at Halloween and think about what they walk away thinking.

Porch light out: They don’t care about me.
One Tootsie Roll: They are doing the minimum to get by.
Take a couple of things, sweetie: Generous and care about me.
Full size candy bar: I will remember to come back to this house next year, along with 50 of my friends.

If you are going to be special, be ready to make special a SOP [standard operating procedure] because once people think of you as special, ordinary will be very disappointing.

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

Customer Service and Buzz

October 28, 2005 | Leave a Comment

Today I will illustrate the difference between good customer service and bad, with real world examples.

Example of Bad Customer Service Resulting in Bad Buzz
David Lorenzo in NYC has had issues with TypePad for a week or so and if you go back through the posts you can see his level of frustration and the desire to simply get some clear answers.

Example of Good Customer Service Resulting in Good Buzz
I recently said some critical things about GoBig in the Virtual handshake Blog Comments and was very impressed with the 15 minutes it took the Go Big Network people to find the post, reply to the message and drop me an email. Turned negative to positive.

Do your employees that are answering the phone, doing support and training people know that caring about the customer experience is essential to creating positive buzz? Make sure they do.

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

HR and Employee Buzz

October 27, 2005 | Leave a Comment

Thanks to Regina Miller for what she is adding to the discussion on employees buzzing about where they work.

She has a very nice HR blog and oddly enough, people regularly say the Buzzoodle is as useful in HR as marketing, because of the positive effect it can have on employees in an organization.

I couldn’t agree more about giving them something to Buzz about. It only works in a great place to work.

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

Grow your organization through creating buzz for others

October 27, 2005 | Leave a Comment

In a recent post I suggested building other people’s personal network as being a key to expanding your own.

That also applies to organizations. If you want to increase membership to a chamber of commerce, a country club, a networking group or other type of group that wants businesses to join it, a great thing to do is give them some PR before asking them to join.

Today I went to a breakfast and the local chamber of commerce, where I had just done a speech the month before, and they mentioned us as a local innovator to a large crowd. Not focusing on us, but working us into the presentation about regional success.

At some point I just have to return the love, even though we are an internationally focused company.

Likewise, I get Crain’s Cleveland because they write about us, not because I have time every week to read it.

In fact, if I were a publisher I would find ways to write about more people more frequently because that is a great way to increase readership in a shrinking market.

Help businesses grow and give them free exposure, and you will get their gratitude and involvement in your effort more times than not.

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Networking, Blog 

Word of Mouth Catch Up

October 27, 2005 | Leave a Comment

I just had lunch with someone who has been the CEO of several large, international companies and his point of view was this:

If P&G is doing word of mouth marketing, everyone else better be doing it soon, or the marketing professionals will lose their jobs.

He also did not seem concerned about the current negative backlash in the news for word of mouth and P&G.

Good news for us on the cusp of this trend.

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Word of Mouth Marketing, Blog 

7 Employee Buzz Creation Incentives

October 25, 2005 | Leave a Comment

Why would an employee want to create buzz for the place they work? First off, the success of an organization is the responsibility of every person who gets a paycheck. Assuming buzz is not part of a job is like assuming showing up at the scheduled work time is optional.

It is important that employees understand the advantages of creating buzz for an organization. There are the obvious advantages an employer may wish to do, such as monetary incentives, rewards or bonuses based on increased business or stepped up buzz efforts.

Here is a brief summary of some of the other employee buzz creation incentives.

Employee Buzz Creation Incentive #1: Successful companies can give bigger raises.

Employee Buzz Creation Incentive #2: Job Security. Companies will be less likely to outsource the jobs of employees that are creating positive word of mouth and buzz.

Employee Buzz Creation Incentive #3: When employees become better connected and create more word of mouth, they are going to know more people and be recognized as a valuable resource. This may lead to other opportunities in the future.

Employee Buzz Creation Incentive #4: Secure company future by helping build it’s reputation and visibility.

Employee Buzz Creation Incentive #5: Become a more influential person by learning how to create buzz and word of mouth about the organization as well as about other things they care about.

Employee Buzz Creation Incentive #6: Increase friendships and industry connections as they reach out to create more buzz and build their personal network.

Employee Buzz Creation Incentive #7: Stand out in the eyes of peers and managers as someone who goes beyond the normal scope of a job and is dedicated to the success of the organization.

This is an incomplete list of employee incentives and benefits for creating buzz for their place of employment. The truth is that each employee will have a different experience that will have a different set of benefits to that person. Employers must keep positive, illustrate the benefits and continue to create buzz about creating buzz by recognizing top employee buzz performers.

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Buzzoodle, Employee Advocates, Word of Mouth Marketing, Blog 

Create Things People Will Talk About

October 25, 2005 | Leave a Comment

I was driving back from Solon to Kent, through Twinsburg, which was the mid point of where I was headed and I got a call. It was from a potential client that was located in Twinsburg. He wanted to bounce some ideas off of me.

It just so happened that I was 2 blocks from their office, so 30 seconds after the call I was walking through their door. Keep in mind I’d never been in their office before, but had noticed the sign in the past.

Why is this important? I took advantage of a random occurrence to create something they will be telling other people about. I could have handled it by phone, but this was a chance to be memorable.

Posted by Buzzoodle Ron | Filed Under Blog 

Next Page »