If you speak Portuguese, here is a translation of buzzoodle: Marc & Sheep.

It is a Portuguese translation of our article on creating traffic for your blog, found here.

Word of Mouth Marketing and Buzz Marketing are often talked about with terminology borrowed from religion. Corporate Evangelists and Advocates to just name two.

So as I was driving to work this morning, I asked myself, “Do you participate in the organization?” I started mulling over how people participate and I thought of how people could be categorized as participating in their religion.

• I have to go because I always have.
• I go because it is the right thing to do.
• I go because I don’t know what else to do.
• I go because there are free donuts

Now Consider these:

• I go because I am a valued member of the community and people there are counting on me.
• I go because I am so excited about the vision and where the organization is going.
• I would not think of missing because it is part of who I am.
• I look forward to going as a highlight of my week.

It is easier to understand this in a religious setting. Your job as a leader is to inspire people to be on the second list, and those people will create word of mouth and buzz for you.

Now, as a business leader, ask yourself where your employees and clients fall on this list.

Create raving fans who are engaged with the organization and buzz will grow.

Went shopping today.

Major Store and sooo many things didn’t have prices. Do they think I will be in a wild frenzy and not care? I actually put 4 things back on the shelf because I could not figure out the price and did not want to load up on things that I would not want at the register.

I guess we will call that down selling.

Have you ever gone to someone’s house and the kitchen is spotless? You think, “Wow.” Then something happens and you have to open the microwave and the facade is over. There you see tiny bits of left overs from the past year sprayed all over.

If your customers are wowed on the sales end, and then find your product or service less stellar than the initial glance, then you are killing buzz and people are just staying with you grudgingly because they said yes, or have not had a chance to move yet.

I am on the road a lot today, but just a snapshot of what I am planning.

We get calls from all kinds of prospects, from churches to some of the largest companies in the world. Each type and size of organization has some different issues for creating buzz. There are common denominators, but I will try to go into some more specifics on how they vary.

Thanks for reading and stop back.

Thanks to Kristofer for summarizing some Buzzoodle in Swedish.

He has a nice looking blog and he is just one of the international people we have talked to about the international language of Buzz.

Buzz is not only a marketing function.

• Product development probably plays one of the biggest roles in buzz. Create a remarkable product and you will have all the buzz you can handle.
• Manufacturing plays a role in buzz. Poor quality will result in negative buzz, and solid, quality products do get praise.
• Customer service plays a critical role in buzz because it directly relates to bad buzz, good buzz or just what I would expect.
• Human resources is paramount to buzz. Happy employees do a better job, and if Buzz creating is made part of the corporate culture, HR will be training employees in how to talk about the company and encouraging everyone to create buzz.
• Executive Teams should know all the great stories, connect with the customers and create buzz in many extraordinary ways.
• Shareholders should be talking about all the great stories they hear coming out of the company that they own stock in.

Ultimately, every person in an organization should be taught the importance of buzz and know stories they can use when opportunities arise. Buzz is the job of the entire organization, not of the Buzz Marketers.

Buzz is not only a marketing function.

• Product development probably plays one of the biggest roles in buzz. Create a remarkable product and you will have all the buzz you can handle.
• Manufacturing plays a role in buzz. Poor quality will result in negative buzz, and solid, quality products do get praise.
• Customer service plays a critical role in buzz because it directly relates to bad buzz, good buzz or just what I would expect.
• Human resources is paramount to buzz. Happy employees do a better job, and if Buzz creating is made part of the corporate culture, HR will be training employees in how to talk about the company and encouraging everyone to create buzz.
• Executive Teams should know all the great stories, connect with the customers and create buzz in many extraordinary ways.
• Shareholders should be talking about all the great stories they hear coming out of the company that they own stock in.

Ultimately, every person in an organization should be taught the importance of buzz and know stories they can use when opportunities arise. Buzz is the job of the entire organization, not of the Buzz Marketers.

If you have not checked out Squidoo yet, you may want to. There is definitely an advantage to being an early adopter.

Here are my Lenses, and they are driving some serious traffic our way:

http://www.squidoo.com/buzzoodle/
http://www.squidoo.com/employees/
http://www.squidoo.com/outstanda/
http://www.squidoo.com/clients/
http://www.squidoo.com/ronmcdaniel/

Obviously, my biggest focus is on the Buzzoodle lense, and it is paying off with a lot of good blog traffic. Although still in Beta, it is working pretty well with only minor issues.

WOMMA – The Word of Mouth Marketing Association is having a WOM basic training in Florida this January. You can get all the details here if you are interested. I would love to attend, but will not be able to.

If you are not visiting their site regularly, it is a great resource for those interested in word of mouth.