Buzz

What’s buzzing? As a small biz today you have to know not only what’s buzzing (trends) but also how to generate buzz about their business, product, services or themselves. But how does a business owner even begin? It is a good question.

Maybe you can start by spending a day in Borders pouring through all of Seth Godin’s books. Then you might get online and start to dig deep into the belly of the internet, to see what the trends are and what the “young people” are doing to get themselves known, and sometimes rich.

Why do you need buzz? Because it is the way you "attract clients and customers, keep existing ones and recapture those who have gone elsewhere, generate leads, cultivate referrals, develop your image, promote name recognition, grow and expand your network anddate base, and increase bottom line."

The key to buzz these days seems to be figuring out the quickest and fastest way to go “viral.” Going viral means getting others to spread the word about you. Obviously, the fastest way to do that is to get online. It is the fastest and the cheapest (often free) and there are no boundaries as far as how far you can reach. The sky is literally the limit.

Specifically, social media is definitely the way to go. For starters, have you heard of the new trend called Twitter? Twitter and twit ads are the new hot way to create buzz for yourself and your company. You join up and upload your contact list and pretty soon, everybody can know exactly where you are at all times and exactly what you are doing at all times. So if you are running a business, and you just started a 25% off sale from products or services, giving your contacts a heads up on Twitter via email or text message is a way to generate buzz.

There are all these other social networks such as LinkedIn, Meetup, Flickr, Facebook, Youtube, Bebo, and a whole slew of others which you can find on Wikipedia.(If this link doesn't work just google wikipedia list of social networking websites.)

The thing is, these new technologies are not for the tech-illiterate. And unfortunately, most people north of 25 tend to be tech-challenged at least, if not downright tech-illiterate. This is a great disadvantage in terms of creating buzz for your company, product, services and business. I, too, am north of 25. So I can totally relate and commiserate. But you have to find a way to overcome that. You may never be a tech genius. But you have to have some level of competence with the new internet technologies if you and your business are going to be competitive.

Another way to generate buzz is to start a blog that answers and solves problems for others. But since there are millions if not billions of blogs out there, the small business owner will have to figure out a way to get traffic to their blog. This takes time, patience, and knowledge. So it is prudent to stay informed, keep content fresh, and to be accurate. Then as one person visits the blog and is happy with it, by word of mouth you may find that your audience grows. With some ingenuity, you can turn that into an even bigger audience if you combine it with the social media networks discussed above, and if you are really lucky, you can even start to monetize it too. (People have been known to sell their blogs, and to make a full time income just from blogging! All you have to do is familiarize yourself with Google Adsense, and other affiliates for sources of income such as - Kontera, PepperJam Network, Text Link Ads, Bidvertisers, private ad sales, Shoemoneytools and RSS ads. Don't ask me to elaborate on any of these because I'm still trying to figure them out. But I'm just saying the information is out there.)

Other ways to generate buzz is to give free seminars, write a newsletter, write a newspaper column, start a radio station (possible for about $40.00!) start an email list and get known by the media. There is no substitute for being the best in your field. That goes a long way to generating buzz too. Especially if the price is right.