To keep it simple, we will consider buzz as something people want to and will talk about.
The social media phenomenon has lowered the barrier to creating buzz. There are so many tools (most of them are free) out there to today that can help you with that. If you are lucky, you can create a lot of buzz with very little effort.
The real question is - "Are you creating the right kind of buzz?"
First, we will look at what will people NOT want to talk about!
Boring stuff.
People don't want to talk about boring stuff. Boring stuff is simply stuff that will elicit a "So what?" response. When your product or service elicits this response, it is forgotten very easily. People think it's a waste of time talking about it. If they talk about boring stuff, they will come across as boring. So the best best is to avoid talking about it altogether. As you can see, you don't need a lot of creativity to create boring stuff.
You are at the bottom of the value chain when you create boring stuff. You can talk two paths from here. Both of them will provide a lot of opportunity to create buzz - but only one of the approaches will give you a long term payoff - that's the one that requires you to be creative.
Remarkable Type 2
Let us look at the path where you don't require a lot of creativity:
· You can create stuff or provide a service that is UNBELIEVABLY bad. ( Eg: Bernie Madoff )
· You can make stuff that will make people laugh really loud
· You can make stuff that will make people laugh. ( Eg; A funny YouTube video – most of them will fade away)
· You can create faster, better and cheaper versions of existing products (Eg: a cheaper USB drive with more memory)
· You can create faster and better versions of existing products. (Eg: LIke a faster and better hard disk.)
Remarkable Type 1
You can get some short-term results and probably a "buzz spike" for any and all of the above but if you want the "real buzz" you have to take the path that requires a lot of creativity.
It is a path where you bring out responses from the audiences like:
· This is cool!! ( Eg: Numa Numa YouTube video)
· I wish I had thought of that. ( Some startup who copied your idea? Please read: Help! Someone stole my idea
· What? Nobody was doing that before? It seems so obvious! ( Kindle, iPod, Netflix etc. )
· Unbelievably good product/service. Wow!! ( Zappos, Nordstrom etc.)
If you are going to be making investments anyway, you might as well invest in getting the right kind of buzz.
What Kind of Buzz Are You Creating?
What are your favourite examples of the right and wrong kind of buzz?
What was the best buzz you ever created? How did you do it?
