And the top Facebook pages are …. #1 Barack Obama (no surprise) …. #2 Coca Cola (of course) …. #3 Nutella (What?). Yeah, that’s right. The Italian hazelnut/chocolate spread.

It’s safe to assume that most of the fans were from Europe but the craziest thing about Nutella’s high ranking is that they don’t advertise. Well, that’s not true; they spent $300,000 on media last year, which is pretty much equivalent to nothing. Here’s the impressive part: their Facebook page was created by a fan, Nutella has 5 million Google search results, there are 5,000 videos on Youtube featuring Nutella, and there are 17,000 photos featuring Nutella on Flickr.

Despite it’s European base, Nutella has become very popular in the U.S. as well; and the U.S. fans are very loyal. For Americans, it’s probably associated with memories of trips to Europe and then they spread the word about Nutella to their friends and family at home. In some ways, it has become a form of social currency.

It’s interesting to see that a company can have a crazy online presence without even trying. They’re obviously doing something right. So here are 3 easy steps to follow that will create the online buzz we all hope for:

1. Become a European staple so Americans will have no choice but to think you’re cool
2. Gather a cult following effortlessly
3. Be kind of like peanut butter, except use a weirder looking nut and add chocolate

We 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.