SmallBizPod – a small business blog with podcasts from the UK, interviewed me here. Alex Bellinger is doing a great job of using Podcasts to meet more people and create a buzz for himself.

I start about 16 minutes into it, but he has some interesting stuff before that, including comments on sending audio messages that I have to give a try.

By the way, I have listened to myself for years and I sound nothing like that.

One thing that can really fuel buzz creation is getting people to imagine the possibilities.

Over at the Liquid Learning Blog we mention Zopa. Why did we mention it? It is not a great leap of the imagination to think about how this model could do to banking what the internet is doing to newspapers.

Part of your buzz strategy should be to have your product or service get their imagination working. Maybe you give them some more limited example of a use for your product and let them come up with the idea of having people use it in a novel way. Once people get imaginative with your product or service, they are sold on it. You just become a facilitator for their own creativity.

Jill Konrath has written a very easy to read book on making sales to big clients, called Selling to Big Companies. I am only about 1/3 of the way through it, but so far it is excellent because it has practical information I can use right away and if it was not the holiday season I would have had time to finished it in a day. I like easy and useful.

The book already fits nicely with my mantra of not SELLING but instead helping other people succeed and solve their problems. Her book addresses the fact that corporate executives have become immune to the standard sales routine.

Jill also does a good job of Buzz. She publishes an eNewsletter that I have been reading and when I sent her an email wishing her luck on her upcoming book release, she quickly sent me a advance signed copy of the book to review. Thanks Jill.

Duct Tape Marketing has an excellent post on using testimonials to your advantage to meet or network with people. This is right in line with one of the things Buzzoodle suggested in a recent challenge.

Today I visited the website of a new Word of Mouth Marketing Agency. I am not going to link to it, because even though the website was well done, I have to question what most of these Buzz Marketing and Word of Mouth Marketing agencies are doing.

To me, most of them seem to focus on internet marketing, blogging and a little bit of research. If this is all your word of mouth marketing agency is doing, hire a good internet marketing agency instead. Otherwise, you are probably just paying for the buzz phrase.

What should a good word of mouth agency provide?

• Strong Market Research
• A plan to develop advocates (ethically)
• Tools specifically designed to measure many forms of word of mouth (not just blogs and internet)
• Experience developing talking points and WOM Units
• Knowledge of a diverse set of channels to get the messages out
• Tools to identify current advocates
• Training for your staff to become stronger advocates

These are the kinds of things Buzzoodle has available to clients that are interested in creating more buzz and word of mouth, especially if they plan to use their employee base as advocates.

When interviewing a potential new hire, you should be sure to include questions that will clearly display if the person will easily become an advocate of your organization.

Typically, you might ask “Why do you want to work for us?” and “What did you like best/least about your last job?” These questions are fine, but look for more questions that will help you identify great advocates.

Here are some ideas:

1) Tell me two great stories of things that happened in your last job.
2) How often do you talk to your family and friends about your current/last job? What % is positive and negative? Give me some examples of what you say.
3) What products and services do you like to talk about? How many people are you likely to tell if you really like something?
4) Do you have a website? Blog? What are the addresses?
5) How many social groups do you belong to online and off? (Keep in mind it may be inappropriate to ask specifics about these groups.)
6) What do you think the best qualities of our organization are?
7) What have you heard about our organization, good or bad? What is a company you admire and why?

This is just a list of ideas. You may find some more appropriate for your business. However, if you make advocacy one of the criteria for new hires, it gives you another metric to judge applicants and it could be the single most important ROI factor if you get a super advocate.

Why does every place suddenly suck? - Warning – I am usually very positive, but this is going to be a long rant on a mall trip.

Holidays are fast approaching and I have started shopping in lots of places I rarely enter though out the other eleven months. The difference this year is that I have grown from an IT person doing marketing to a person immersed in the Buzzoodle Philosophy of Marketing.

We were at the mall yesterday and it was shocking and upsetting for me. We mostly went to get a picture of our new baby and our daughter with Santa, but there was no chance of me spending $35 dollars for a picture of my kids on the lap of a 17 year old with a few cotton balls on his face. It was like the company did not even try. They must feel that people don’t have any other choice, so it does not matter. (We skipped it.)

Next, I was in a store like a Build – A – Bear. It was a cheap knock off of the real thing, and the woman working in the store sat behind the counter reading a book. ??? Isn’t it two weeks before Christmas? She did look up and say hi, and smiled.

They had an employ party area in the back. If I owned this business, I would have free cookies and punch in that party area all day every day in December. I would have 2-3 employees standing in front of the store telling kids go go join the party and get cookies. The kids are the sales staff, you just need to get more kids in there.

The store also completely missed the point. I have been to Build-A-Bear and it is about the experience. This other place just had unstuffed toys you could stuff. ??? My daughter asked for one and I told her I would rather drive her 45 minutes to a real Build-a-bear so she could have the experience.

Then we are walking through the mall, and I am dressed nicely on a Saturday because our older daughter just performed in a piano recital, and I see a woman working a register at a kiosk. She has a huge tattoo on her arm and it is exposed from the shoulder to the elbow. You cannot miss it. (I could care less about the tattoo itself, and it is up to each owner to set policies in place on this kind of thing.)

I looked at her tattoo and then looked up at her. She noticed me notice, and glared! I was not passing judgment. I just looked at her huge tattoo for a second. So there I was walking through the mall with my family having someone glare angrily at me and try to stare me down.

Time spend in mall: 1.5 hours
Money spent in mall $2 on carousel
We are ordering our gifts online today.

In the world of business and commerce, blame can only be placed at the owner’s level. You have to train people, inspire people, set standards and not assume that getting the store set up is what will make it successful.

This is the summary of the two weeks of Buzzoodle Buzz Marketing Challenges:

Buzz Marketing Challenge #1
Email Challenge to get your advocates to understand you better.
Buzz Marketing Challenge #2
Comments on Blogs and Message Boards.
Buzz Marketing Challenge #3
Contact a media professional to create buzz.
Buzz Marketing Challenge #4
Meet someone new.
Buzz Marketing Challenge #5
Old emails are a Buzz Gold Mine.
Buzz Marketing Challenge #6
Don’t just be nice, be remarkable.
Buzz Marketing Challenge #7
You were going to eat anyway.
Buzz Marketing Challenge #8
Social Networks are buzztastic.
Buzz Marketing Challenge #9
What do you mean I miss buzz opportunities every day!
Buzz Marketing Challenge #10
Now for a real challenge. Become a world wide expert.

We are posting a short Buzz Challenge each workday last week and this. Under 15 minutes and if you do all of them, and get all your colleagues and employees doing them as well, you will find an uptick in Buzz about your organization.

Buzzoodle Buzz Marketing Challenge # 10

15 Minutes. How do you create buzz in 15 minutes?

Since this is our last Buzz Marketing challenge, this one is under 15 minutes, but per day several times a week. Decide what you are good at and become a world wide expert. It is not as difficult as you think.

• You can develop a free blog on Blogger and post several times per week.
• Create a Squidoo Lens
• Write articles and post them to online article directories.
• Submit articles to magazines and newspapers.

It does not have to be job related. Even if your organization is full of experts on Poodles and video games, you are going to meet a lot more people than if you would have kept your expertise quiet. And any communication you have is a potential buzz opportunity.

Happy Buzzing.

You can check out my Squidoo Lens for Buzzoodle here.

Shhhh….. it is a secret.