Improve Employee Moral with Better Project Management

September 28, 2006 | Leave a Comment

The Great Big Podcast blog refers to my post about project management helping buzz and gives a list of 5 things you can quickly do to improve your management.  Don’t worry, be nice is not on the list.

Note:  Longer Employee Moral Article

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

Who are you?

September 27, 2006 | 3 Comments

Some people are more active online than others.  Many companies might have the basic brochure website up, but little else.

A good friend of mine, Dale Siegel from System One, said he reads my blog every time I post.  (Hi Dale)

He has some great stories and sometimes I think about using him as an example in one of my blog posts.  There is only one problem….  he does not have a website he wants people to know about.  He has advocates, people that would point to his site, people that would refer to his services, but we cannot.  It is lost opportunity.

The good news for Dale is that he is aware of the issue and is planning to address it.  But it makes me think about all of the people out there that are invisible online.  Could I buzz about you if I wanted to?  If the answer is “no”, get busy.

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Internet Marketing, Networking, Small Business 

Buzz, Buzz - Fly on the Wall

September 26, 2006 | 2 Comments

flyLast weekend I got together with some employees from an old job I had 9 years ago.  It was a lot of fun, but somewhat shocking for me.

Out of everyone, I was the only one that became a business owner.  However, they still did not think of me as one of them.  The end result was that I got to sit there and listen to lots of comments I found shocking. They were upset the business owners got paid more.  They were upset that clients were difficult to work with.  They were very money oriented and thought they deserved more.

The one thing that stood out the most was project management.  They praised people and businesses that had good project management and they reviled those that had poor project management.  It was clear after a couple of hours that project management was the single biggest contributor to their happiness in their job.  They called good project managers geniuses and they called bad project managers asses.

Even outside of technology, management is clearly the single biggest factor in employee happiness.  And happy employees are more likely to create buzz about you.

At my party, I quickly knew which local tech companies were good and bad by how everyone talked about their managers.

If you were a fly on the wall, what would your employees say about you?

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

The Spanish Buzzoodle Blog is Live!

September 25, 2006 | Leave a Comment

Buzzoodle Blog de mercadotecnia de Boca a Boca en Español.

Thanks to those of you that have been visiting from Spanish speaking countries.  The new Spanish Language Buzzoodle blog will be adding translations of old posts and keeping up with relevant new posts.

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Buzzoodle 

Friday Blog Outage

September 23, 2006 | Leave a Comment

Some technical problems brought the blog down for a while on Friday.  If you visited last Friday, sorry about the outage and thanks for coming back.

 

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Buzzoodle 

Promethius Consulting - Great Big Podcast - Buzz Marketing

September 21, 2006 | 1 Comment

Promethius Consulting interviewed me for a Podcast on Buzz Marketing for Great Big Podcast.

I can tell you from past experience that Podcasts have led to some of my bigger speaking engagements, which is great since Podcasts are not rehearsed and sometimes I think I sound like a small business dork.

Check them out while you are visiting their site.  They offer podcasting services which are a great way for your organization to create some buzz and meet new people. 

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Blog, Buzz Podcasts, Buzzoodle 

Things You Should Not Assume

September 20, 2006 | Leave a Comment

One of the most challenging things in sales and marketing is overcoming your assumptions.  Unless you are a well known national brand with hugely wide appeal, then you can safely assume that many people within a 2 block radius do not know what you do and have never heard of you, even though they drive by your sign every day on the way to work.

 To combat this, you have to get past the assumptions and focus on how to really reach people.  Here is a list of assumptions you can review and see if you are making them.

  • People care about your specialty as much as you. - This is an ignorant assumption.  If they cared as much as you they would be as much of an expert as you, and would not need your services.
  • People share your excitement and want to tell their friends. - Only if it makes them look smarter or fits well with a conversation that happens to come up.
  • You can logically explain why people need what you have. - Most decisions are made on emotion.  Don’t explain, emote.
  • People really need what you have. - Unless it is a cure or the only source of food for 100’s of miles, chances are life could go on without what you have.
  • People have time to take on a complex purchase. - Some people will amaze you and go to incredible lengths to participate in your product or service, but many do not have two minutes to spend with you, even if they need what you have.
  • People will read your copy. - Only losers read.  Skimming for key words is all you really need to do.  Your wordy brochure is just to hard for my small attention span.
  • Website traffic will create sales - No, traffic is traffic.  Just because someone is on your website does not mean they will take the time to figure out how to buy something.

This is a list of some of the assumtions that can hinder your success.  You might think it is obvious, but if you were to fix all of these assumtions it would take a lot of time and energy.?

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Blog, Buzzoodle, Internet Marketing, Marketing ROI 

Bookmark to Buzz

September 20, 2006 | 2 Comments

Below each post in this blog you will find a set of buttons that make it easy to bookmark each post to various services. 

There are several reasons to do this.

#1 Makes it easy for you to track your favorite articles.

#2 Creates more inbound links to this blog.

#3 Creates buzz when you make a bookmark, because others find it and follow it.

This is a good buzz builder because other people are helping you spread the word about your blog and search engines will rank your content better.

If you do not have accounts in some of these services, set one up and give it a try.  It will help you generate some traffic for your company website by bookmarking it’s various pages and also helps you track articles of interest.

And while you are here, why not bookmark this article if you like it?  Thanks.

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Internet Marketing, Viral Marketing 

Electric Cars in Animal Print

September 19, 2006 | Leave a Comment

Simple and Loveable has a fun post about electric cars in London and it is really interesting.

Another interesting thing is that they took their time crafting a nice post, with images, facts and commentary.  That is the kind of post that gets pointed to.

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

Buzzoodle Buzz Marketing - Espanol

September 18, 2006 | 1 Comment

Now that the Buzzoodle Buzz Marketing blog is released, keep your eyes open for Buzzoodle Buzz Marketing - Espanol.  In the coming weeks we will be launching the spanish version of this blog.

 Why?

First, to build our brand in different markets and reach a wider web audience.  Next, some people in the US prefer to read in Spanish.  Also, there are fewer Spanish marketing blogs and we think we will stand out more, although I have seen some excellent Spanish marketing blogs.

Lastly, we are working on partnerships with people in other parts of the world that will resell our products and spread our message as part of their marketing services.  Having some of our content translated into other languages will speed the growth and adoption of Buzz Marketing with employees.

If you were to put up just a few pages welcoming people in other languages and explaining your services, how much do you think your audience would grow?  Just keep in mind that they may think you have someone on staff that speaks the language.  If they call be prepared to handle it.

There are more and more services that can help you with this.  Some call centers are fielding customer calls just in different languages.  This can help you start the buzz in places where you will not even know what they are saying.

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

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