AllBusiness.com's Chris Bjorklund interviews viral marketing expert Joseph Carrabis, founder of NextStage Evolution, Part 5a

Know More: Social Network, Viral Marketing, Word-Of-Mouth HolmesAndWatson, Social Networks

NextStage: Predictive Intelligence, Persuasion Engineering, Interactive Analytics and Behavioral Metrics

We're still half way through my responses to The Importance of Viral Marketing, a podcast interview I did with AllBusiness.com's Chris Bjorkland. The podcast was based on NextStage's research into WOM, viral and buzz marketing.

This arc provides a text version of that interview. There was a lot more in the podcast than appears in this arc, save a few last questions we didn't have time for. Each post in this arc will have one question (regular type) followed by my response (italics). Question #5 was "What are some of the key factors I need to look at if I’m going to be launching let’s say a new magazine to working women in their 40s and I want to create a 'buzz'?" I answered about understanding optimal market size for a buzz campaign in the first half of this response (part 5). Here I talk about the problems plaguing most WOM campaigns.

The goal is to get their buy-in then use them to create buzz within their social networks. This buzz can then be used in other marketing efforts to plant seeds that become buzz in other groups within the greater demographic. Eventually, perhaps 1-2 years or sooner depending on several factors, you completely own your market.

Most people doing WOM fall down in these areas:

not knowing how to isolate subgroups within their target group,

financing a good buzz campaign,

not giving the campaign the time it needs to grow.

I read recently (and can’t remember where) about a viral campaign that failed after a few months so the company pulled all its efforts. To me that was an unwise move and the commentator wrote pretty much the same. I know of a large firm that’s about to start a viral campaign in order to do some damage control. I’m worried about what might happen because they’re thinking they can send out a few press releases, get interviewed a few times in the press and they’ll be good. I don’t know the details of their plan, I just know that what I heard makes me nervous about its success.

Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics.

Links for this post:

3 Rules for Creating Buzz

AllBusiness.com's Chris Bjorklund interviews viral marketing expert Joseph Carrabis, founder of NextStage Evolution, Part 1

AllBusiness.com's Chris Bjorklund interviews viral marketing expert Joseph Carrabis, founder of NextStage Evolution, Part 2

AllBusiness.com's Chris Bjorklund interviews viral marketing expert Joseph Carrabis, founder of NextStage Evolution, Part 3

AllBusiness.com's Chris Bjorklund interviews viral marketing expert Joseph Carrabis, founder of NextStage Evolution, Part 3a

AllBusiness.com's Chris Bjorklund interviews viral marketing expert Joseph Carrabis, founder of NextStage Evolution, Part 4

AllBusiness.com's Chris Bjorklund interviews viral marketing expert Joseph Carrabis, founder of NextStage Evolution, Part 4a

AllBusiness.com's Chris Bjorklund interviews viral marketing expert Joseph Carrabis, founder of NextStage Evolution, Part 4b

AllBusiness.com's Chris Bjorklund interviews viral marketing expert Joseph Carrabis, founder of NextStage Evolution, Part 5

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