Buzzy corporate marketing bees

Posted on | November 28, 2006 | 2 Comments

You know what’s kind of funny?

All the buzz around buzz.

What with Web 2.0 and social networking and blogging and what-not, buzz has become … well … the latest buzzword, hasn’t it?

Well, maybe not the latest … I’m sure something newer has come along but it escapes me right this minute.

What’s funny to me about it is that it’s not new.

Let’s face it, people have been talking to each other about the various products and services they use since forever. (And that, after all, is buzz, isn’t it?)

The biggest difference I can see between then and now is that the technologies have emerged that allow companies to watch them do it.

That gets the companies all excited. They seem to think they’re watching something that has never happened before. For some reason, I find that hilarious.

What’s even more hilarious are the efforts of some companies to control the buzz — which is probably slightly more difficult than controlling a tornado.

News flash: you don’t get people to say nice things about your company by controlling the conversation. The only thing that happens when you try to control the conversation is that they still say mean things about you when they feel they need to, but they do it behind your back.

No, you get people to say nice things about your company by giving them nice things to talk about.

The real buzz word shouldn’t be buzz. It should be authenticity. ‘Cause that’s what really counts, isn’t it?

[tags]buzz marketing, Web 2.0, customer relationships, marketing[/tags]

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