Marketing and all things related

Buzz is hot. Marketers have always understood the power of word-of-mouth, but it has only been recently, that WOM marketing has achieved the status of a discipline. And while this discipline is still young, WOM pundits are evangelizing business to heed and harness buzz. Both positive and negative buzz spread rapidly these days, so the first task is simple—listen and pay attention. Your business should have a plan to respond to negative buzz, and a plan to encourage and facilitate positive buzz. Pete Blackshaw, chief marketing officer for Neilsen Buzz Metrics said at a recent Search Engine strategies conference: "In a world where word of mouth is on steroids, you need to focus just as much on the negative. Companies need to become faster at reacting to negative buzz." Marketing Blurb adds this important caution. When you discover negative buzz, take a deep breath and count to ten before you respond.