I am occasionally late, but try not to be.

Today I was at a group meeting and someone walked in late. Not for the first time, it was both times he has come. He always seems to show up right when everyone else finishes talking about their business and just in time to get to talk about his. Since the meeting started at 7:00 AM, it is not that he had something else before it.

Being occasionally a few minutes late is fairly excusable. But in an instance like this, it seemed so disrespectful that he is not only not being effective, he is creating a serious amount of negative feelings towards him that could result in negative buzz.

First do no harm, is a good rule in networking.

Jackie Huba from Church of the Customer had such a good comment in an earlier post, I am pulling it out here to make sure you all notice it.

Ron,
I think employees are a bit more like customers. If we want employees to spread the word that our company is a great place to work, then we have to create a work experience that is worth talking about.All of the six tenets of customer evangelism that we talk about for customers, also works when thinking about employees:

1. Customer plus-delta: Continuously gather employee feedback.
2. Napsterize knowledge: Make it a point to share knowledge freely inside the company.
3. Build the buzz: Expertly build word-of-mouth networks inside the organization
4. Create community: Encourage communities of employees to meet and share.
5. Make bite-size chunks: Devise specialized, smaller offerings of your products that employees can use themselves (and can give to friends, family and peers)
6. Create a cause: Rally employees on making the world, or your industry, better.

Thanks for the insight.

COSE and others did a nice job at the business plan competition blowout last night in Cleveland. Back stage access and performers, elaborate costumes and such. It was a nice change to the normal business blaw.

The most fun part for me was taking a business student to his first business event, and telling him they are all like that. They all should be.

Excellent post over at the Church of the Customer blog: Corporate Evangelism vs. Customer Evangelism

I would like you to consider how Employee Evangelism effects the mix. Are they more a Corporate or more a Customer?

What are some of the advantages of crafting a solid Buzz and Word of Mouth Marketing campaign?

1. Word of Mouth is shown to be more effective than traditional marketing, per dollar spent, and the message is stronger if it is coming from someone you trust.

2. Word of Mouth Marketing is inclusive of other kinds of marketing. Everything you do should be made buzzworthy to turn up the volume on your marketing.

3. Word of Mouth Marketing is not seen as an intrusion (unless poorly done) by the recipient of the message. In fact, people like useful, fun information that they can spread the word on.

4. Even facilitated Word of Mouth will not go far if the quality of the product and service do not back up the hype. If your word of mouth continues to spread, you are doing something right.

5. Word of Mouth Marketing has a lower cost to produce. It is more a philosophy to make everything remarkable, than it is a series of campaign initiatives.

I am sure there are some other benefits, and please feel free to add yours to the comments.

When writing or speaking, some good advice I heard lately was to be specific and take a stand on something.

This is true if you want to get noticed. If you try to write to appeal to everyone you will end up with a cold bowl of oatmeal.

This is 4 times more true if you want to create a buzz.

Decide what you believe and state it, clearly, simply and unequivocally. Chances are their are exceptions and times when it is not 100% true, but worry about that later. To begin with, figure out what you stand for and stand for it.

Everyone may not agree with you, but they will notice you and talk about you.

What makes Word of Mouth Marketing innovative is not that the concept is new. It is the fact that many old forms of marketing are seen as less and less effective and the form of “message communication” that is trusted the most is word of mouth, from someone you know and like.

What makes Word of Mouth Marketing innovative is that it allows someone outside the company to control the message, and forces the company to craft the message by being remarkable with their products, services and customer support.

What makes Buzzoodle innovative is that it turns every employee in an organization into a broadcast center by challenging them to create more word of mouth, just by talking and writing about their job more and becoming a little better networked, as a part of their normal, everyday life.

However, not all employees are created equal. The following illustration shows the four quadrants of employees.

Employees in Quadrant A do not feel positive or engaged at work. This group also tends to not have a large social circle, which means that even if they are complaining about the workplace, it will have limited effect. However, do not underestimate these people as many of them many not be extremely social in person but are social on the internet, where they can have an enormous impact. Especially if this group has tech skills, work hard to make them feel engaged and frequently ask them what they like about the job.

Employees in Quadrant B generally like the job and have a positive opinion of it, but do not care to share that fact with a wide circle. This group should be encouraged to speak about the job more. If they are not comfortable with engaging more people in person, you can make them an online advocate of the company and train them in blogging, social networks and other online social tools where they can meet more people without feeling uncomfortable. They can also be mentored to go to more public events.

Employees in Quadrant C are dangerous to your company. These highly social but negative people will spread negative stories, talk about company weaknesses and flaws in management. In the best of situations, you should try to move these employees to a more positive feeling for the company. Care must be taken that these people do not get left unchecked until they have severely damaged the company image, which as a social insider, is not difficult to do.

Employees in Quadrant D should get paid double. These are the people that add energy and excitement to the company and they act as a latent but effective salesperson whenever they encounter someone. These are the people that, even years after they have left your business, will still be talking about it to new people.

The key with employees in D is to recognize them, encourage them and challenge them to do even more. Give them the stories and access to information that will make it even easier for them. Turn up their volume.

Here is a post at our parent company about Web 2.0 and if it is real or just a buzz word to generate more investment.

Not that being a buzz word is bad. That is why we rebranded this site as an Innovation Laboratory.

Selling is Dead authors asked me to take a look at nominated names for their new eNewsletter they are going to launch. If you want to help them name it, check out their post and the rules.

It is going to be an election, once the top nominees are selected. Should be fun.

Just as there are many websites, but few good authoritative website, there are many blogs but few blogs people visit regularly.

To start generating traffic, you must post frequently, say short things that are valuable but easy to digest, and have a clear theme/topic of your blog, that some like minded people will want more information on.

If you keep at it, you will find that your traffic is level, with periodic jumps that make your graph look more like stairs than a slide.

This blog is on the third step. The first one was a baby step, then we started getting 50ish people per day, and then we got noticed by some amazing bloggers, newsletters and websites. We seemed to hit a critical mass in the last couple of weeks which is generating a lot of traffic.

Yesterday WOMMA had a link to us in their email newsletter, and we appreciate that. They are an important resource we use.

Blogs really are like exercise.
20 minutes a day, once a month does no good.
20 minutes a day 4-7 days a week and you are going to be pleased with the results.