Archive for the 'Buzz' Category
Thursday, March 22nd, 2007
A growing trend in the business world involves taking advantage of virtual back office assistants. They allow business owners to focus on their core competencies and have services take care of the rest. Affordable, one stop services make this a compelling option for startup businesses and small business owners.
Anita Campbell just wrote a nice article about one such company, My Business Assistant, on her Blog. Check it to find out more on this growing trend.
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Monday, March 19th, 2007
Shawn Hessinger at Bootstrapme wrote an interesting post on business mantras. He references work from Guy Kawasaki, and this is becoming a fun project. He mentions using mantras that are short, sweet, and to the point. Can you sum up your business in a few words?
Ron McDaniel said it best about our company, Buzzoodle, in his post when he said, “Everyone is a Buzz Marketer’. This is a philosophy we live by here. We believe anyone can create great buzz for their company or themselves. It just takes time, devotion, and lots of enthusiasm. We help other companies create that buzz, and get their employees motivated to create buzz as well (like the mantra says, everyone!).
What are some other interesting mantras companies can use?
- Gatorade - Quenching thirst.
- Nintendo - Whole family gaming.
- Arby’s - Fast Food made different.
- Apple iPod - Little big music.
Shawn Hessinger invites others to participate in this as well. Post your own thoughts on mantras, your own mantra, or ideas for other companies. Be sure to give a nod to bootstrapme for the great idea.
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Thursday, March 8th, 2007
One of the best things a company can do to create a lot of buzz is to exceed expectations. Recently, Sony did just that at the Game Developers Convention.
President of Sony Worldwide Studios Phil Harris was the keynote speaker that night and sent the message that had game developers and gamers alike floored. How did they do it? They introduced a robust new online system called “Home”.
Home is a system that combines the best of both worlds from Xbox Live achievement system and Second Life’s online world. Players can create and customize their own character and interact with others in a fully realized virtual world. Lounges with simple games like pool, bowling, arcades, and more are all fully realized and interactive.
Power is given to more than just the gamer, though, which is where the brilliance comes in. Game developers can use the virtual world to display trailers for their upcoming games, banner ads are literally banners in the virtual world and aren’t limited to just advertising in the game industry. Sony gave them full flexibility to create their own online environments for players to visit, lending itself to more creative freedom for marketing. Users will be able to navigate areas from their favorite companies and chat with other players inside, play games, etc. Sony gave developers full freedom to advertise and create as they pleased within this new system. This creates a very friendly, enticing platform to work for.
The introduction of a new trophy system gives a nod towards 360’s achievement system, gives a win-win situation as well. Players are happy to have their bragging rights visible in a room full of trophies, developers are happy because other players see it as well, bringing more buzz for their game.
I could go on and on about how Sony really listened to both game players and game developers this time and not met their expectations, but exceeded them and turned us all for a loop, but I’ll let the presentation do the talking. Check out the speech for yourself on Gamespot for a glimpse at the future of PS3’s gaming. As an added bonus, you’ll see footage of another innovative title, Little Big Planet, that shows the brilliance of giving people simplicity, flexibility and control in gaming. Sony has finally made itself a very strong contender for XBox Live, it will be interesting to see how they fare against each other. This is a prime example of creating huge buzz by giving us all the unexpected.
Disclaimer: The image in this article is from gamespot.com. Please visit their site if you wish to see more.
Posted in Buzz, Tech | 1 Comment »
Monday, March 5th, 2007
Ron McDaniel just wrote an interesting post on 99 web tools for creating buzz. Here is an excerpt from his post, showing Blog directory tools.
There are plenty more listed on his post. Check it out on his blog page. There are lots of valuable tools listed there. Feel free to add some as well!
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Friday, March 2nd, 2007
I’ve been working with a client of ours, Matco, for some time now. They’ve been very good about updating their page, and because they work on it frequently, they ask me a lot of questions.
We’ve had numerous interactions and I’ve helped them with a lot of things. Each time, I receive warm, sincere thank you’s. There eventually became a running joke between both our companies that I would be receiving cookies in the mail from them because of my help.
Little did I know that I would receive them, and coincidentally, on my birthday! A big basket of cookies was sent directly to me with a thank you note attached.
So why am I mentioning this? This is a prime example of great relationship building between companies. By simply providing good, prompt customer service I was noticed. On the other side, by being great clients that are understanding, friendly, ask good questions, really try to learn more, and show great appreciation they earned a special place in my book. The cookies was a great way of showing they care, and helps strengthen good relationships. Customer service worked both ways here. Oh, and if you’re reading this, thank you Debra!
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Monday, February 19th, 2007
Yesterday was Chinese New Year. For me, that meant celebrating the new lunar year with monks, my fellow martial artists, and lots of tea. This year we did something decidedly different and did a play, complete with martial arts demos and costumes. Next year will be a lion dance, but buying a the lion head and drums costs quite a bit of money. Thus, marketing skills must come into play to raise money for it. What can we do to raise money and spread awareness? Here are a couple of my thoughts:
- Do demonstrations and ask for donations
- Charity work
- Attend and participate in events such as health and fitness, martial, etc.
- Start a group online for raising money.
These are just a few of my thoughts so far. We’ve always faired well with demonstrations. Having the face to face contact with people combined with live, visual demonstrations really sends a powerful message. As such, that may be our best best. Do you have a group you work with on your spare time that you are trying to promote?
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Monday, February 12th, 2007
There is great new meme project by on the top 5 reasons you Blog making its way around the web. Mike Sansone of Converstations recently wrote his top five, and then some. Here are my top 5 reasons I blog:
- Learning - This works many ways. First, I learn more as I write, about what I know and don’t. You find out quickly what you do and don’t know when you try to put your thoughts into words. It is a true test of your own knowledge. Also, I learn more by reading other blogger’s posts and ideas, which leads to my next point…
- Community - Meeting other fellow bloggers and extending my network. Nothing like meeting new people to gain more ideas and get to know interesting people. Blogs are a great way of generating good contacts. You never know who you’ll meet.
- Visibility - As a marketer, I want to increase awareness of both myself and our company. Blogging gives me the opportunity to introduce myself to the public and extend my reach throughout the web rather than just having one site. The ability to mingle with other bloggers strengthens my visibility ten fold while also working on point 2.
- Ease of Use - Blogs make it easy to quickly update information. It only takes a moment to add new content to your page. Updating a webpage has never been easier.
- Use those tools! - Most of what I do for a living is on the web, and what better way to learn more about it than to work with something like blogging? This is only one of many tools I use to communicate with others and increase visibility on the web. I’m a self professed tech geek, so I love making use of what is out there.
What’s your top 5? Send your comments and trackbacks here. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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Friday, February 9th, 2007
How many times has this happened to you: You have a problem with a product/service. It’s giving you a hard time so you call for customer service. You give just a brief description of your problem and the supposed “help” tells you, “Sorry, it isn’t our fault. It’s someone elses and there’s nothing we can do. Go bother them. You do something, not me.”
This is the worst thing someone can do in customer service. Ignoring the problem and passing the blame. The problem isn’t solved, there was no help, and it leaves the customer with a bitter taste in their mouth. How can this be corrected?
- Listen! No matter how many times you have heard the same problem before from other customers, let the customer speak. The customer needs to know that you are there to help and that you care. Cutting them off sends a strong message that you don’t care and that they are bothering you. That is the worst thing you can do. Also, keep in mind that these people are frustrated. Let them work off their steam. It is nothing personal, they are just upset about the situation. Once they are done, then speak.
- Ask questions. Get what you can out of the customer without making it feel like an interrogation. Once again, this shows that you are serious about helping them. Also, it can provide valuable insight for fixing their problem. Just take care not to ask too many questions to the point that the customer is annoyed. Just enough to gather ideas for a solution.
- Explore options. Telling the customer there is nothing you can do is the very last thing you ever want to say. It makes you look incompetent and uncaring. Try to reason out other solutions first. If for some reason things are out of your scope then ask the customer if they would like to speak to a manager. That should be a last resort, but may be necessary if things are severe. Still, try your best to rectify the situation without having to pass the buck.
If the situation seriously is out of your hands, make every effort to guide the customer through the proper steps to solving the problem with the outside source. For example, if the problem exists with another company, provide them with the phone number and tell them exactly what to say to them. Better yet, try to take it to the next level by calling them yourself. This can lead to great customer loyalty by just this simple effort. Good customer service is a must if you plan on keeping your customers happy. Make sure they are a top priority and not just something shoved to the back.
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Monday, February 5th, 2007
I admit, I’m one of those people that watched the Superbowl yesterday for the ads. Save but a few ads, I came away disappointed. It seems like it was less of a spectacle this year. Also, it was interesting that only a few companies really had ads on it, and really just spread it out. Coke had around 3 ads. Two were entertaining, one sentimental. I can’t help but think what happened here?
The answer is likely that television advertising just doesn’t sell like it used to. Perhaps the cost benefit of Superbowl advertising just isn’t worth it anymore. Although it is true that television is a less used form of media now, the Superbowl is still the highest watched program of the year. Have times really changed that much? Somehow, the event that was once a spectacle didn’t really feel as special anymore. Perhaps it is just me. I ask you, the reader, your thoughts. What did you think of the Superbowl and its advertising?
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Monday, January 29th, 2007
Seth Godin recently wrote a post reiterating points he made on bad powerpoint presentations, and how they can become great ones. He makes a lot of great points. I’ve enforced many of these in the past, and he makes some great points I haven’t heard before. One of the key things to remember about giving a presentation with powerpoint is that you are the one giving the presentation, not the powerpoint. It is merely there to support you, but you are the one ultimately selling. Seth’s point on using only up to 6 words per slide seems to work with that idea.
As I think back to all of the poor powerpoint presentations I had to sit through in meetings, it is nice to read this breath of fresh air. Take a moment of your time and read his post. You’ll come out a stronger powerpoint presenter if you take his words to heart.
[tags]presentation, powerpoint, speech, Seth Godin[/tags]
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