We love buzz marketing like a fat kid loves cake

There are millions of conversations happening online. How many of these are about your brand or your category? Most savvy marketers know how important it is to be part of the conversation, and most want to participate. But there remains this stumbling block: where do you find the time, and how do you do it?

Thats where we come in. We say what you would say, but in our own voice. We are transparent, open and conversational. We only join conversations when somebody shares your passion. No Spam just the right conversations at the right time.

← Previous Entries

03.05

2009

Oleh eddie Tags: , , , ,
No Comments →

Skittles – Bril or Lame?

skittles site1 Skittles Bril or Lame?Skittles just traded 20,000 page views (in a good month) to their website for 600,000 Facebook friends. Not too shabby. But was it a good idea?

There has been crazy buzz about the new skittles.com . If you haven’t heard anything, you probably aren’t using the “Internets.” But anyway, Skittles has linked together different social media sites through a very simple and small navigation menu that floats over any of the sites. Essentially the Skittles brand is now in the hands of social media junkies. 
Skittles has surrendered most of their power to talk about themselves. Anything written about them is immediately publicized without filters. Many critics have said this is a horrible idea. But I say, “Why?” You don’t have to be a genius to predict that some people are going to pair the word “skittles” with derogatory words and phrases in their Tweets. Sure, that’s not the best but at least Skittles isn’t trying to hide it.
There are also some people who don’t like that the new site doesn’t have any practicality of a normal corporate site. But nobody was going to their corporate site, anyway. Again I mention, compare 20,000 site visitors in a good month to 600,000 Facebook friends in three days. 
You also have to consider how Skittles has been branding themselves the last few years. They’re known for their incredibly creative and off-beat commercials (my favorite). Everyone was surprised when a fruity candy company actually made themselves relevant with their new advertising. You would think most people would be prepared for Skittles to extend their branding to their online face.
I think the most important thing that Skittles has done with their new website is show that they care about what their consumers are saying. Not only are they listening to them now, Skittles is allowing everyone else to listen in, too. Skittles may not have as much control over their brand but they are trying to be as transparent as possible.
In conclusion, I have been craving Skittles like crazy since the new Skittles’ site hype. Effective? Absolutely.
01.06

2009

Oleh Josh Carr Superstar Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
2 Comments →

Social Media – Who’s going to screw up in ‘09?

“Companies that focus on earning love will thrive during hard times, and kick ass when good times return.” – Andy Sernovitz


These are the companies that aren’t concerned at all about earning anyone’s love. You’ve probably been ignored by them in the past and our guess is that they will continue to ignore you in ‘09. So without further ado, here are the top 5 companies most likely to screw up in 2009:

1. Apple

banana peel slip up Social Media Whos going to screw up in 09?

I really like Apple. They make great things that have made my life 10X more convenient. Despite their great gadgets, they regretfully are not talking to their customers about their product designs. Granted Apple users are incredibly loyal, Apple still needs to be listening to what their fans really want. Even though I love getting the regular email updates from Apple, I have yet to find a way to give them my consumer opinions.  As the genius of Steve Jobs continues to fall on hard times watch out for Apple to make something that sucks and to do something really stupid.

2. Proctor & Gamble
P&G has a ton of products and a whole lot of smaller companies underneath its umbrella. Logic would tell you they would also have tons of outlets for people to talk to them about their numerous products. Not so. P&G has the regular website with a “news” section, but we are yet to see them talking on twitter or allowing their customers to offer feedback. P&G was also on our list of companies who messed up in ‘08 for building a website without talking to their customers. Shockingly, their website did not appeal to their audience. We’ll see if they learn from their mistakes this year.

3. Coca Cola
Coca Cola isn’t exactly known for being a friend of the environment and they are most definitely not known as being a friend to online conversation. Despite contaminating water sources all over third-world countries in order to produce their delicious beverage, there has been no formal recognition or apology from Coke. Although it is an important issue, we’re not here to talk about the environment. Our main concern is the lack of conversation between Coke and the rest of the world. And we’re guessing that conversation won’t be happening in 2009.

4. U-Haul
U-Haul is already on a role for not responding to customer complaints. Despite the Twitter conversations and social network groups created to attack U-Haul’s services, they have neglected to respond to their online opponents. There was a point when U-Haul tried to be more personal in their approach when the CEO offered his personal cell phone number on national TV, but that’s where their efforts stopped. I hear Penske has great service…

5. Barack Obama

Most people are still in the afterglow of the huge Obama campaign and election orgy. Everyone’s expectations of the new president-elect are higher than ever before. They don’t have a care in the world – Obama will take care of it. Obviously, there is no way he can live up to everyone’s expectations. He might be dead sexy tonight and can do know wrong but he isn’t going to look that good when we all wake up sober and realize he actually is a human.  Thats when his problems will start, this summer when the economy is still declining and oil prices start to go up.  When people realize we are still in Iraq and getting more involved in Afghanistan how is he going to keep Americans from treating him like George Bush? The twitterverse will slowly start talking about real things, as opposed to being his most loyal advocate. We’ll have to see how he deals with reality when it hits. We might be a little premature on this pradiction but we think sometime near the end of 09′ American’s will begin to take off their “Obama Beer Goggles”

11.14

2008

Oleh eddie Tags: , , , , , , ,
No Comments →

Creating Buzz like Celebs

bs Creating Buzz like CelebsDo you think celebrities think about building buzz? Or are their actions totally spontaneous and it just so happens that they create buzz? Call me crazy, but I’m guessing celebrities aren’t thinking. Buzz just forms around them because of the stupid things they do and then they are branded by their actions.

It would be great if creating big buzz around your brand were that easy. But it’s not. Building buzz online is kind of the opposite of building celebrity buzz. While their buzz stems from a lack of thinking and common sense, online buzz comes as a result of careful planning and strategy. And even then, there’s no guarantee that we will be successful.
Perhaps we can learn some things from our buzz-friendly celebs:
1. Do something ridiculous/interesting. Some people have opted for the “jumping on couches” or DUI approach. Both are great approaches that get a lot of buzz. In the marketing world this is what we would call the message. This is what you are trying to communicate to your audience about your product or service; what is going to get them talking. But make it good – preferably something that doesn’t involve scandal.
2. Have an Avenue. You need a place that allows everything you do to be attributed back to you. Celebs don’t really have their own avenues. Lots of them have their own websites, but everything that is said about them can rarely be traced back to one central location. Hopefully you won’t be the focus of any gossip columns, so you will just need a website or a blog. You want to make sure you can monitor clicks, visitors, revenue, etc. on your own domain.
3. Find your loyal readers to spread your message. Us, People, Perez Hilton and E! News are extremely loyal to our misguided celebs. They are on the ball when it comes to getting information first and spreading the news as quickly as possible. Find your loyal online readers.
4. Unlike celebrities, we have to be prepared to fail. Everyone will always read about celebrities and their slip-ups, but not everyone will care about your new product or service. I know nobody likes to think about the possibility of failure but, unlike celebrities, we have to be realistic. Who knows, there’s also the possibility of being pleasantly surprised by your results.
08.29

2008

Oleh Josh Carr Superstar Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
No Comments →

Secret formula for making a killer web video. Humor, Sex Appeal, Shock Value and Relevance

weezer viral video pork beans 300x210 Secret formula for making a killer web video. Humor, Sex Appeal, Shock Value and RelevanceHumor
In the 80’s everyone used sex to sell beer. Today they try really hard to be funny, check out bud.tv. Microsoft just announced that they will be doing a $300 Million dollar ad campaign featuring Jerry Seinfeld. Thanks to YouTube, Digg, and other social media sites you can do the same thing for $30.  Here are a few of my favorites.

Evolution of Dance – Almost a right of passage for new users on YouTube.  This video featuring comedian Judson Laipply cost nothing to make and has been viewed almost 100 million times.  Those are captive eyeballs that chose to consume the content, not interruption based media like the Microsoft commercials will be. I am not sure what he charges for his public speaking but I am sure it is more expensive than it was 2 years ago.

Will It Blend – Sure it isn’t laugh out loud funny but it is amusing and completely engaging.  How exciting can you make a blender? There are nearly 100 thousand subscribers to this YouTube channel. The videos have been viewed tens of millions of times.

B-Boy Stance – I thought it was funny

Sex Appeal

Dove Evolution – This isn’t what you would typically think of as “sexy”.  But this is the perfect balance of sex appeal and a relevant message.  I will talk more about the message in a minute.

Good Magazing Porn Video – This one is a little racy but it is still PG-13.  They run through all the stats of the porn industry by writing them on the nearly naked body of a porn star.  Good message, great use of sex. Oh and just in case you don’t make it this far it is an advertisement for Good Magazine – I have never read it but they have an interesting website and a good cause.

Shock Value
Dexter – Microsite – they have had to dumb this down and make it a little more obvious.  When this first came out it really scared people.  Really really scared them.  This little site was emailed millions of times and they never could get that same exposure buying advertising.  It is extremely engaging to see yourself as the next murder victim on a fake news broadcast.

Relevant

The most important thing about all of these video’s is they have a purpose.  They hold some relevance to the audience.  After all it is the relevance that makes you pass along a video.  You might start watching for the other factors but you keep watching or take an action because of the relevant message.

Warning you are about to waste an hour so you better be at work.

Just in case you missed the last couple years on YouTube here is a viral video roundup of must see web cinema

08.01

2008

Oleh Josh Carr Superstar Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
No Comments →

Giving away the secret sauce – Our traffic generation and SEO secrets

secretstadiumsauce 164x300 Giving away the secret sauce Our traffic generation and SEO secretsWe get amazing results from what we do.  Truth is if you can’t afford us or you have the time you can be almost as good as we are at this and I will tell you how.

I am sure you are thinking “Josh you are so dumb to just give away the secret sauce like this” the truth is once I tell you what we do, and you try to do it, you will quickly realize the value we add.  Then you will say to yourself “self – let buzz.io do this and lets go to bed”.

What we do is fill the gap between PR, SEO, and Viral Marketing.

This is how we do it. We build a targeted list of websites that will accept comments, allow links to be followed by search engines, and have high page rank and lots of traffic.  We use software to do all of this and we are working on a DIY version of our software that someday I would love to sell to you. (the software is really our secret sauce). However, you can do a simplified version of what we offer, on your own, in just a few steps. Once the software is ready you will want to buy it because it won’t cost much and it will make you twice as productive.

1. Build a keyword list. Google Keyword tool You can use any keyword tool you want.  Our software will come with an amazing keyword tool.

2. Go to google and search “blog: your keyword goes here” most blogs allow commenting and most also allow links in comments to be followed by search engines.  (our software will allow you to filter for the sites that have the most traffic, Google Page Rank, allow comments, allow search engines to follow the backlinks, and were most recently updated.  Doing all of those filters on your own will take a long time and is probably a waste of your time.)

3. Make a list of the top ten blogs for each keyword. (I say top ten because without software to help with this ten is the most reasonable.)

4. Read those blogs and when the opportunity arises leave a conversational comment that enhances the content of the post – not spammy – help the blogger first and by helping them you will also help yourself.

5. include a backlink to your own website that uses the same keywords that you found that blog for.  (Our software will suggest which keywords included in your backlink will help your organic search results the most.  One click and it will insert the named anchor code into the post)

6. Repeat

This system will drive more traffic and increase your search rankings faster than anything else you can do. It also gets you involved in the conversation and helps you to be thought of as the thought leader that you are.

Right now we are doing just what I described for clients that don’t have the time to do it for themselves. However in the next couple months we will be launching a do it yourself version of our buzz marketing software that will help you find the right blogs and leave more comments faster – oh and we have amazing reporting on the backend.  We can even show you what comments made it through moderation and how much traffic came from the link you left behind.

« Previous Entries