Lots of things become hot topics, or seem to become pervasive over night. For example:
- I have noticed that I can hardly walk into a hotel these days without finding at least one item with the words “Shea butter” in the description. What the heck is a Shea, and how do you make butter from it?
- The silly phenomenon right now about the mosquito ring tone (”the mobile phone ring tone adults can’t hear”) has taken off like wildfire in the national press(you can download it here (skeeterbuzz.mp3 - 236 KB). By the way, I can hear it and my wife can’t - but all my kids can hear it)
- Fad diets seem to come out of nowhere, and fade to oblivion nearly as fast. Same with “miracle diet pills.”
- It’s been a couple of years since it came out, and I still see more copies of the DaVinci Code on airplanes than pillows and blankets.
This is often called “buzz” or “hype.” But what causes this? Obviously, some of it comes from marketing bucks preying on our minds. But it takes more than marketing dollars to build buzz (nobody marketed the mosquito ring tone, as far as I know). Buzz is hard to create, and hard to define. Yet, just like pornography, you know buzz when you see it.
At my company, we’re trying to create buzz around our product in the market, in the hopes that word will spread without our direct involvment. How do you get that to happen? Malcolm Gladwell spent a lot of time on that in The Tipping Point, where he discusses the leverage that occurs when the right people become interested in one topic. Those “right people” are the trendsetters, and the trends they set are spotted and evangelized by the ‘mavens’ and ‘connectors’ of the world.
The biggest challenge I see is that we’re not likely to ever create buzz the same way twice, and the channels that work for one company’s buzz won’t work for another company.
Every day, there are more ways to spread the word, more places for connectors to congregate, and more channels competing for attention (blogs, podcasts, television, radio - terrestrial and satellite, and more). And, just as the trendsetters get bored with one trend and move to another, they get bored with each “channel” in turn and move on to something different.
Ironically, to create the next big buzz, you might have to create yet another “next big buzz.”
In our message, we’re trying to find a combination of value and sex appeal (we sometimes call it “the cool factor”) around what we do, in the hopes that we can create the initial buzz based on the cool factor, and have it live on because it makes a positive difference in our customers’ lives.
What about you - where do you think buzz comes from, and how do you create and sustain it?
Favorite 100 Bloggers
I think it’s a combination of creating something different enough that people notice or rather something that stands out in a place. Visually this can be the smell of hot Krispy Kreme Donuts, The simple Google interface that was created when everyone else was adding everything and the kitchen sink to seach sites, etc. Also Buzz is something that is a frequency at the extremes of the bell curve. for example word of mouth advertising as opposed to a multi-million dollar campaign or it can be something like a Super Bowl ad but it has to be radial enough to get your attention like Apple’s 1984 ad for the Macintosh. Finally I think it has to be thought of as a secret that you can can’t keep! ;) Thanks for this thought provoking post. You helped me focus on some things I need to do in regards to my business.
Good question Dwayne - having also read the Tipping Point, I think that “buzz” is indeed a quirky animal; you just never know where it’s going to come from (the Hush Puppies example in that book is a good example). But I do believe that finding those mavens and connectors are critical to the process if one is to proactively “create” buzz. As for sustaining it - oh boy, that’s a tough one, but you are on to something with the “positive difference” angle. Thanks!
Dwayne - you’ve never milked a Shea? When you can catch them, they’re easy enough to milk, and I’ve made many a bar of soap out of them.
Just teasing, but I hear what you’re saying about buzz. It’s tough to tap into, but I think part of the key to creating buzz is to create some exclusivity with quality. It’s what English Cut and Hugh Mcleod do with suits. If something is limited edition or has limited appeal with extremely high quality, I think it’s possible to go viral. That’s one way anyway, but still…it’s hard guessing what will go off and what won’t. Seth Godin’s books talk about this a bit too.
I guess I don’t have a good answer. Back to milking Sheas for me.
Good posting, good comments… The buzz in and of itself comes from a great experience and the willingess or need to share it. A negative experience will generate someone telling up to 20 people while the good one will generate only 5. The buzz faces these odds. Therefore, the buzz needs to be something that is worth talking about, worth sharing. The trick is getting the buzz to become viral. Such a great experience, that each one who hears it feels the need to tell someone. Hence, Seth Godin’s concept of the purple com, something clearly out of the ordinary.
So will there be buzz about Shea butter? Not if so many of us don’t know what it is.
Great thoughts on the topic everyone - thanks! And Steve - didn’t you know that Shea butter is the new black? ;^)
According to http://www.care2.com, Shea butter is:
“Shea butter is a solid fatty oil made from the nuts of Karite Nut trees, also known as Mangifolia, that grow in the semi-arid savannah regions of West and Central Africa. Shea butter is sometimes called “women’s gold,†because extracting the butter from the nuts gives employment and income to hundreds of thousands of rural African village women. Shea butter is so non-toxic and beneficial that it is used in foods and cooking as well as soaps and beauty products. (Note from Cait: one of my favorite lip balms is a vanilla-scented treat from La Natura made with shea butter. It is totally delicious!)
African healers and beauties have known about shea butter for thousands of years: the substance is almost magical in its healing effects on burns, skin conditions, ulcerated skin, stretch marks, and dryness.
It contains beneficial vegetable fats that promote cell regeneration and circulation, making it a wonderful healer and rejuvenator for troubled or aging skin. It also contains natural sun-protectants.”
Ok, then.
[...] morning I was reading a great post by Dwayne Melancon in 100 Bloggers about “Buzz” (the positive kind) and it made me think of how this can go in the opposite [...]