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A Buzz Marketing Project for Everyone

Be forewarned: My apologies for the number of times this item will appear in my feed over the next few weeks, more explanation below.

Update #1: In the spirit of full disclosure, I spent most of yesterday and today convincing myself that I didn’t have time to do any of this stuff, and then I realized how RIDICULOUS I sounded, and got down to it. This post is getting some traction, and I made a commitment. See new crossed-off items and notes below.

Update #2: After a busy week that included a PR campaign, I can cross off even more items. 

The Buzz Marketing Challenge

I’m incredibly late to the dance on this, but I couldn’t help but join in on the fun.

Ben Yoskovitz of the Instigator Blog is embarking on a buzz marketing project, pulled straight from the pages of Buzzoodle Buzz Marketing, by Ron McDaniel.

This concept is very much in line with what we do here at Tell Ten Friends, so not only did I think it would make a great blog post and experiment to share with readers, but it will also be good for business, and for generating buzz for our company.

The experiment itself consists of a checklist of ethical and effective activities to start a bit of buzz. No fanfare, no fluff, just good old fashioned conversation starting and web marketing; two of our favorite pastimes here are at TTF.

What follows is the list, with crosses through the activities I’ve been able to complete, and where applicable, a few short notes. In some cases, I have already done the activity several times over, (ie. Squidoo lens) but in the interest of the exercise, I’m making myself do them again.

I’ll update this several times over the next few weeks, hence the number of times it will be appearing in the feed.

Here’s the list of ways to generate buzz, copied directly from Ben:

  1. Email an Old Friend or Acquaintance (It was great to catch up, Dan!)
  2. Contact a Stale Connection
  3. Email Extended Family (Annyong, Helen!)
  4. Call Someone You Have Never Talked To
  5. Congratulations Call or Note (haha, Rob)
  6. Send a Surprise Letter
  7. Any Day Card
  8. Mail a News Clipping
  9. Social Networking (got this one covered!)
  10. Online Directory
  11. Squidoo Expert Lens
  12. Tag Your Website or Blog
  13. Blog/Message Board Comment
  14. Join/Participate in an Online Group
  15. Talk to a New Person in Person
  16. Contact a Reporter or Writer
  17. Contact an Old Employer/Employee (Dom and Tony in one week!)
  18. Customer Follow-up
  19. Call/Email a Person You Respect
  20. Mini Announcements
  21. Digg Your Site
  22. Flickr Fun
  23. Personal Success Email List
  24. Did You Know? - Trivia
  25. Instant Messaging
  26. Text Messaging
  27. Email a Useful Link to Someone
  28. Testimonials
  29. Celebrate Success (Have a steak, has Howard says)
  30. Write a Blog
  31. Have a “Get To Know You” Meal
  32. Host a Dinner Party
  33. Arrange a Networking Lunch
  34. Publish an Article
  35. Meet More Neighbors
  36. Send a Press Release
  37. Give a Speech
  38. Volunteer
  39. Online Interview/Podcast (I swear, I’m getting to this!)
  40. Conduct a Survey
  41. Local Government Involvement
  42. Open House
  43. Interview a Leader
  44. YouTube.com
  45. Meet Business Neighbors
  46. eNewsletter or Newsletter (I’m well over due here, too)
  47. Produce an eBook (and here)
  48. Nominate an Organization
  49. Challenge a Coworker to a Buzz-Off (I challenge you all!)
  50. Podcast Show
  51. Host a Seminar or Training Session (more news on this one coming soon, right Jeremy?)
  52. Unexpected Booth
  53. Organize a Group
  54. Become a Board Member
  55. Conduct a Focus Group/Roundtable
  56. Conduct a Customer Contest (I’ve got one of these in mind, too)
  57. Organize a Charitable Event

I welcome any and all of you to join in with me, and share your experiences; either through comments, or as trackbacks from your own blogs. Some of this stuff isn’t easy, so don’t be surprised if months or even years later, the list still isn’t finished! ;)

Any time something exciting happens as a result of one of the items on the list, I’ll publish it in a separate blog post.

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This entry was posted on Monday, January 29th, 2007 at 1:15 pm and is filed under marketing, great ideas, PR 2.0, word of mouth, new media, social media, tell ten friends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

15 Responses to “A Buzz Marketing Project for Everyone”

  1. CategoriesMasey says:
    January 29th, 2007 at 1:50 pm

    Jords I do believe you can scratch the “digg your site” one as well. I know this has been done!

    But a fantastic list… I love it!

  2. CategoriesJordan says:
    January 29th, 2007 at 1:54 pm

    Yeah, I figure I have to write something truly “diggable” before I cross that one off. ‘Tis a good list though, huh?

    I just don’t know when I’m going to find time to conduct a focus group or organize a charitable event!

  3. CategoriesBecky Carroll says:
    January 29th, 2007 at 2:44 pm

    Hi Jordan,

    I am game! This will help give me a little incentive (read: extra kick in the pants!) to do some of these things I know I should be doing. Are you counting things you have done recently (I conducted a focus group a few months back…), or are you counting it going forward from here??

    I will keep you posted!

    Becky

  4. CategoriesJordan says:
    January 29th, 2007 at 2:55 pm

    Becky, thus far I have only counted things that I am doing currently, and holding myself accountable to doing as many of the rest as I can, specifically for the project.Some of them are such that I will have a handful of them done at the close of each day; others obviously require a bit more time. Who knows how we’ll do, but as you said, that little ‘kick in the pants’ is certainly helpful.

    Just having a list like this to work from is a huge step in the right direction, as is any goal-setting that involves writing such a list.

  5. CategoriesBen Yoskovitz says:
    January 29th, 2007 at 3:23 pm

    Welcome aboard Jordan! I hope you enjoy the ride.

    There’s a number of them that I already have done in the past (and continue to do) but I’m trying to find challenging ways to introduce those ideas as well. But I may just cross them off so it looks like I am doing more things!

    Right now I’ve only crossed off a handful and I’ve got 2 weeks to go!

    But I’m glad you’re participating…and if anyone else participates please let me know.

  6. CategoriesBuzzoodle Ron says:
    January 29th, 2007 at 3:45 pm

    Hi.

    I am glad you all like the list. It is right from the book and the idea is you can give the book to employees, family, friends and customers along with some ammo (ie. good stories) and get others to create buzz for you as well.

    I will be keeping an eye on this and feel free to contact me. Best of luck.

    Ron

  7. CategoriesBuzzoodle Buzz Marketing Blog » » Join the Buzz Challenge says:
    January 29th, 2007 at 4:45 pm

    […] A second person has joined in on the Buzz Challenge to do all the buzz activities from the book, Buzzoodle Buzz Marketing.  See Ben and Jords. […]

  8. CategoriesJordan says:
    January 29th, 2007 at 5:05 pm

    Yeah Ben, some of them are tough!

    Ron, thanks for the list; here’s hoping more join in!

  9. CategoriesViewed.mobi » Buzz Marketing for Realtors says:
    January 30th, 2007 at 4:32 am

    […] Jordan Behan the President of TellTenFriends.com posted a list of tasks you can do to create some buzz marketing around your business. He has even promised to complete the list personally for his business. Here is the list from Jordan’s site (via Ron McDaniel): 1. Email an Old Friend or Acquaintance 2. Contact a Stale Connection 3. Email Extended Family 4. Call Someone You Have Never Talked To 5. Congratulations Call or Note 6. Send a Surprise Letter 7. Any Day Card 8. Mail a News Clipping 9. Social Networking 10. Online Directory 11. Squidoo Expert Lens 12. Tag Your Website or Blog 13. Blog/Message Board Comment 14. Join/Participate in an Online Group 15. Talk to a New Person in Person 16. Contact a Reporter or Writer 17. Contact an Old Employer/Employee 18. Customer Follow-up 19. Call/Email a Person You Respect 20. Mini Announcements 21. Digg Your Site 22. Flickr Fun 23. Personal Success Email List 24. Did You Know? - Trivia 25. Instant Messaging 26. Text Messaging 27. Email a Useful Link to Someone 28. Testimonials 29. Celebrate Success 30. Write a Blog 31. Have a “Get To Know You” Meal 32. Host a Dinner Party 33. Arrange a Networking Lunch 34. Publish an Article 35. Meet More Neighbors 36. Send a Press Release 37. Give a Speech 38. Volunteer 39. Online Interview/Podcast 40. Conduct a Survey 41. Local Government Involvement 42. Open House 43. Interview a Leader 44. YouTube.com 45. Meet Business Neighbors 46. eNewsletter or Newsletter 47. Produce an eBook 48. Nominate an Organization 49. Challenge a Coworker to a Buzz-Off 50. Podcast Show 51. Host a Seminar or Training Session 52. Unexpected Booth 53. Organize a Group 54. Become a Board Member 55. Conduct a Focus Group/Roundtable 56. Conduct a Customer Contest 57. Organize a Charitable Event […]

  10. CategoriesSusan Jones says:
    February 2nd, 2007 at 10:14 pm

    wheeeeeeee!
    Brill!

  11. CategoriesNir says:
    February 4th, 2007 at 3:13 pm

    Great nice list. I printed it off and I can’t wait to start checking things off myself.

  12. CategoriesEnthousiasmeren says:
    February 7th, 2007 at 3:49 am

    De Buzz Marketing uitdaging…

    Update: welkom bezoekers van Bizz via het artikel Een hype in een handomdraai. Vaker hier kijken kan eenvoudig. Abonneer dan op de nieuwsbrief of op de dagelijkse update via de feed of via de mail.
    Gisteren terwijl er van alles mis ging met dit blog h…

  13. CategoriesErno Hannink says:
    February 7th, 2007 at 3:50 am

    Thanks for dropping by. I see now that I forgot to put a trackback on my post, corrected now.
    Holland is great. Hopefully working like you will bring me some money, so we can travel to the US for a holiday. The Grand Canyon is on our wish list.
    I have just started full time self employed in October 2006, and love your blog and company. It just fits perfectly with my feelings about what I want to do for other companies.

    Warmest regards,
    Erno

  14. CategoriesJordan says:
    February 7th, 2007 at 1:01 pm

    I wish the best of luck, Erno. It’s a lot of fun, even if it is incredibly scary at times!

    I hope you get to see the Grand Canyon- I have only seen the Snake River Canyon, and that was certainly impressive! I’ve also seen the canals of Amsterdam; I spent three weeks there during my trip through Europe.

    Thanks very much for the great compliment, you made my day. I still get excited when I get linked to in other languages, and to have you follow up is even better still.

    Cheers!

  15. CategoriesPeter says:
    March 13th, 2007 at 3:03 am

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