Book Review: The Anatomy of Buzz
Posted on December 12th, 2009 by Paul McArdle – No Comments.
Perhaps more through good luck then good management, in our early days we put together the NEM-Watch product, which tends to be a product that “sells itself” – by generating a form of buzz.
Note that when I speak of buzz here, I do it within the framework of the industry in which we operate, which tends to have a staid image, as I discussed here. Certainly our successes are not going to make it to the “Top Viral 100” list, if there is such a beast.
As a company with a small team of staff and a large number of clients, and aspirations to grow our number of clients further over the next few years, I have a keen interest in understanding how we can use principles of buzz to assist us in building up the profile of all of our products.
1) Binary Review
Hence I found this book and excellent read.
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The Book |
What we thought |
 “The Anatomy of Buzz” by Emmanuel Rosen |
Thought-provoking |
| Full Disclosure – yes, that’s a tracked link to Amazon shown above. We buy quite a large number of books on a wide range of topics, all relevant to our business in some way. If you did happen to purchase the book from Amazon, they’d throw a few shekels our way, which would help us to buy (and hence publish reviews of) even more books. Hence, Karma would return the benefits to you… |
I read this book back at the start of the year (it was one of the good books I was thinking off back in my post in July), but have only had time to talk about it now.
I’ve read a few books about buzz and word-of-mouth – some were downright deplorable (won’t bother to post about them here) and others have been okay (and will post about them, when I have time).
This was, for me, the best book I have read on the subject – though I note that some reviews on Amazon have not been as favourable.
From my point of view, this one was interesting enough for me to buy the updated version, on the promise that there’s much new material. Will see if that is true when I get a chance to read…
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2) About the author
This book was of particular interest to me as it was written by a geek (at least I presume he is) who had been involved from the early days in building and then selling a successful software company (his single product was “EndNote”, a reference tool for researchers).
This was of interest to me, specifically because:
1) It was in the same industry as us; and
2) He was not just an academic with an interest in the topic – he’s a guy who had actually seen it work, then helped to accelerate it, and then finally had researched further to learn more about this idea.
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3) What makes Word of Mouth spread?
In my view, “Buzz” means a slightly different thing to “Word of Mouth” (which I view as a more general terms).
In my view, Buzz is like accelerating Word of Mouth – which can be both positive and negative (depending on the story being spread). Furthermore, I believe the point of books such as these is the premise that someone can consciously take action to accelerate Word of Mouth.
The author spends considerable pages discussing the phenomenal success of the book “The Cold Mountain” (which I did not read, but apparently which went gang-busters), and concluded the following 5 points:
1) The product has to be good to start with (or exceptionally bad, I would add). This is a prerequisite, but does not guarantee buzz
2) A tremendous amount of energy was put into getting the buzz started.
For instance, the “Cold Mountain” book, the author notes that:
i. those who initially reviewed the book were enthusiastic supporters of it
Ii. The book was sent to a large number of authors for their attention than was done with most other books at the time (primarily because it was just a good read)
Iii. The publisher “fanned the flames” by continuing to print larger and larger runs (i.e. free books, before it was even offered for sale)
3) Buzz travels smoothly through channels built on trust.
Hence, don’t abuse the trust – by offering “bribes” for referrals (for instance)
4) Since the risk in hearing about an innovation is much lower than the risk in actually adopting it (i.e. buying), buzz spreads faster than the rate of actual adoption
Here the author references the concept of the chasm in the technology adoption model.
The author also points out why Hotmail was very successful, because it:
i. Made the start-up process very quick
ii. Made it risk-free
iii. Advertised at the bottom of every email
5) Real networks are not linear or predictable.
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4) Ten Principles of Buzz
The introductory part of the book is well written, but also covered in other books (such as “Tipping Point” by Malcolm Gladwell). Hence, I won’t cover that here – though I have said something about this in a more detailed review for internal consumption.
In my view, the author presents a couple of important numbered lists of things to be considered in “creating and/or sustaining buzz”.
In this post, I will just focus on his ten principles at work in social networks that affect buzz (from p59):
Principle 1) The networks are invisible
It will be self-evident when talking about “six degrees of separation” that it’s not immediately obvious who is connected to whom. That is not the focus of the book, however.
The author focuses on just three degrees of separation – and the same still applies.
Hence there are several implications for buzz:
1) We need to seed widely to give our message a greatest chance of spreading:
(a) the example is provided of the tagline added to the bottom of hotmail messages in the early days of free email to spread the seed.
(b) we operate in a narrower, vertical market – despite this, I see that there are things we can do along the same lines (some we have already started to do).
2) The other implication is that the people who serve as a hub in our network are not always the “usual suspects”.
The author suggests that these people might be identified by surveying existing clients by asking questions like “in the past month, how many people have sought your advice before purchasing [Insert product type]?”
Principle 2) People link with others who are like them
This has two basic implications:
1) People who are similar will tend to form clusters (below).
Even in our narrow vertical market, we serve a number of different niches.
What this means is that those who are energy users are unlikely to operate in the same circles as generators, for instance. It is for this reason that I have been thinking of our market as a number of distinctly different segments for years.
2) The more similar your employees are to your customers, the easier the communication between them.
This is an issue for us currently, but one we will begin to address in 2010 with 2 key appointments being made:
(a) Chief Software Engineer
(b) GM Marketing & Sales
Both of these people will need to be able to relate very well to the concerns of our clients.
Principle 3) People who are similar to each others form clusters
Hence if your brand becomes the “product of choice” within a cluster, it develops a form of inertia and is difficult to uproot.
The flip side is that, if a product becomes associated with the cluster, it tends to take on the cultural prejudices for (or against) that cluster.
Principle 4) Buzz spreads through common nodes
People with a large number of connections within a cluster are termed “hubs” by this author.
The people who are hubs in more than one cluster are extremely important for the initiation of buzz. Malcolm Gladwell termed these people “connectors”.
Because of principle 1, however, they are not always easy to spot.
Principle 5) Information gets trapped in cluster
Hence someone on the outside may not have heard about it (even if just next door).
Just this week I experienced this issue with a client of ours (a Government Department whom will remain unnamed). This department has had a licence to our NEM-Review software for some time, for use in one of their many separate divisions. Separate to that, we were contacted by others in the same department (but different division) for the purposes of finding our more about this software – even though they could have already had access to it, at no added charge, because of the licence the department already had, but they did not know about.
Principle 6) Network hubs create shortcuts
Identifying who these people are will be very important to us as we work to increase the number of clients we have internationally from 2010 onwards.
Principle 7) We talk to those (close) around us
Even in the days of Web2.0 etc, the most important contacts we have are with people around us.
The implication is that buzz won’t happen for us in markets overseas just if we stay here. We need to seed it over there somehow.
Principle 8) Weak ties are surprisingly strong
For instance, it’s often a “friend of a friend” who will recommend a job to you (this was the same point made in a book I have read recently “Great People Decisions” about where most referrals come from for positions vacant).
Hence, we should all be telling everyone we know about what we do – NOT because they will buy from us, but because they may know of people who will want to buy, etc…
The author also recommends that we don’t only listen to our close network (as we are more likely to hear what we already know). It is important that we continually seek to diversify our connections.
Principle 9) The internet nurtures weak ties
The book classifies 3 levels of acquaintances you will have:
Level 1 (11-12 people) = “people whose death you would find devastating”
Level 2 (150 people) = “people you would not feel embarrassed about joining for a drink uninvited”
Level 3 (500-1500 people) = “people you know, but are not close to”
The implication is that our target should be reaching those at Level 3. Hence, we need to think about how to frame a message such that it resonates with, and can be carried by, those we know, but are not close to…
This would be especially true with Web 2.0 (i.e. which surfaced after this edition of the book was written).
For instance, I have only been using LinkedIn for about a year, but have found it increasingly useful. Here’s my LinkedIn profile, for those who are interested.
Principle 10) Networks go across markets
Hence “stories about bad service experienced at your “low-end” segment can easily move to your “high-end” segment” (p77).
This is a warning for anyone trying to differentiate on that basis.
4) More Details, specific to our products
Rather than steal all the author’s thunder, and in order to encourage more direct commentary about how we can increase the value we generate through buzz with our products, I have posted other restricted commentary as follows:
(b) Six categories of contagious products.
(c) Always exceed expectations