An Interview with Emanuel Rosen,
Author of The Anatomy of Buzz Revisted

by Terri Lonier, founder of WorkingSolo.com

It's been a decade since Emanuel Rosen's groundbreaking book, The Anatomy of Buzz, made us think about marketing in brand new ways. It quickly became the definitive guide on word-of-mouth marketing. Now, Emanuel's back with a completely updated book, brimming with stories and practical advice on how to encourage people to talk about your products and services. I recently had a chance to interview him about the new book, and asked him to share some tips for solo business owners.

Terri Lonier: Why the new version of the book?
Emanuel Rosen: I wrote The Anatomy of Buzz back in 1998-1999 when Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder, was still in high school. MySpace and YouTube did not exist either. A lot has changed since then. In addition to changes in technology, there has been a surge in research that focuses on word of mouth — lots of new and interesting studies.

TL: What's the buzz about buzz these days? Has the authentic quality of it disappeared? Has it become one more tool in the marketing toolbox?
ER: When I talk about buzz, I refer to all the person-to-person communication about a brand. The beauty of buzz is that people usually tell their friends what they really think about stuff they buy, not what companies would like them to say. So I think it is authentic and will stay that way. Some marketers would love to think that they can control buzz, but they can’t. What they can do is stimulate additional buzz about a good experience, and this is part of what my book is about.

TL: You say that one of the things that's changed is the volume of buzz, and that it's no longer just word-of-mouth. Is it now word-by-mice, and is verbal buzz now less valuable?
ER: Face to face communication is still extremely powerful. In fact, research shows that most buzz still happens in person, and only about 10% of conversations about brands happen online. This doesn’t mean that the Internet is not important. It is important because it can accelerate buzz both online and offline.

One of the most important recent developments is that buzz is no longer just about telling, but more and more about showing. My friend doesn’t have to tell me that he supports a certain organization — I can see this on Facebook. My cousin doesn’t tell me about her trip to Thailand — she sends me a link to her pictures on Flickr.

TL: You write about the importance of Triggers. Can Triggers be pre-determined and directed? And how much of buzz can be controlled?
ER: Business owners like to think that their satisfied customers constantly buzz about the products they like. In reality, people tend to forget after a while, and they run out of opportunities to talk. As a marketer, your job is to trigger new conversations. You have very little control over who your customers will talk to, or what they will say, but once you give them a new reason to talk, some of them will.

TL: Over the past few years we've seen great emphasis placed on metrics for online advertising, as companies try to measure click-through rates, etc. Buzz seems to be more organic. Is it, and can it be measured?
ER: Buzz can be measured and there are many ways to do it. The simplest is to ask every customer how he or she heard about you. You can supplement this with surveys among potential customers to find out what they say about your category. You can monitor your buzz on Twitter and on blogs for free. Creating Google Alerts that notify you whenever a keyword is mentioned is also free. There are now companies that offer more sophisticated buzz measuring tools, from a relatively inexpensive service like Scout Labs to a more expensive service like Nielsen Online.

TL: What are the most common mistakes people make about generating buzz?
ER: The most common mistake is that they expect people to talk about their product but they don’t provide something that is worth talking about — something remarkable. Another mistake is to think that you can get real buzz through fake reviews and undercover marketing. This is not the way to create authentic grassroots support, and it’s also a dangerous route.

TL: Your updated book is brimming with stories that are both engaging and illustrative. Why did you include so many and how did you collect them all?
ER: Let me tell you a story about this. A research team at Stanford once created an ad for a fictitious winery and showed it to several groups of MBA students. The text in the ad had several versions: One was an abstract statement about the quality of the winery. Another version supported this statement with numerical data. A different version was presented as a story. Which one was the most persuasive and believable? The story. We all love stories and we find them more persuasive. (This was true even for these quantitatively trained MBAs!)

In writing this book I talked to a lot of people and read a lot, and I was obsessively looking for stories. The important thing is that stories in a business context should be true and based on solid facts. I left out quite a few good stories that I couldn’t substantiate.

TL: What are the 3 tips you would give soloists who are trying to generate buzz for their product or service?
ER: By far, the single most important factor in generating buzz is the customer experience. So focus on improving the customer’s experience at every touch point.

Second, encourage your customers to tell their stories: how does your product or service help them? Spread these stories on your web site or in any other way you can. Create “conversation starters” (the LiveStrong wrist band is an example) that will give your customers an opportunity to tell their story.

Find people who talk more than average about your category. Look beyond your customer base to find these people. (Bloggers are an obvious group, but go beyond that.) If you have some exciting news, give it to these folks ahead of anyone else.

TL: Once you've established buzz, how do you keep it going? And if you've let it slide through neglect or distraction, is there a way to jump-start it again?
ER: Maintaining a constant high level of buzz is very difficult but it can be achieved through constant innovation or finding new groups who haven’t been exposed to your message. The good news is that you can always jump-start buzz. Buzz is in our genes — we need to talk and we love to talk about something new. So if you give us something new and exciting to talk about — we will.

TL: Is there a way to anticipate what might generate buzz?
ER: The one thing that never fails to create buzz — real authentic buzz that leads to sales — is a unique and exceptional customer experience. It will always be that way.

TL: Where do you think buzz is headed?
ER: The communication technologies will keep evolving. The important thing is that people will continue to depend on others for information. Who those “others” will be may change over time. Trust in strangers may decline as a result of attempts to game rating systems, but people will continue to trust their close friends.

TL: What’s the first step that you would recommend to someone who’s trying to build buzz?
ER: Start by listening to the current buzz among your customers. Talk to them and listen to buzz on the Internet as I described earlier. Also, don’t stop here! There’s a lot of information about buzz these days. The Word of Mouth Marketing Association, for example, offers lots of advice and resources at www.womma.org.

Emanuel Rosen's book, The Anatomy of Buzz Revisted, is available online at Amazon.com or at your favorite local bookseller.

You can also learn more about Emanuel Rosen and his book at his Web site.

Copyright 2009 Terri Lonier and Emanuel Rosen. All rights reserved.
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