Final Blog Post

The semester has come to a close and with it, my blogging assignment. Writing the 26 blogs, although a required task, was an overall enjoyable experience. Not very familiar with the blogosphere before this was assigned, I learned a great deal. The learning was actually two-fold for me; I became informed about word of mouth and buzz marketing while I also learned the components of a blog.

Blogs are a neat method of receiving information and keeping track of industry trends. They are considered an up-and-coming medium, and a respected one at that. One need not be a professional to create a blog, but a great deal of the media or marketing centered blogs seem to be written by individuals employed or involved in those fields. Some of these media or marketing employees are blogging simply for personal enjoyment, while others represent their respective companies on posts to a company blog. By reading blogs and writing entries, I learned about the writing style typical of blogs, how to handle posted comments, and how to promote the blog.

Blogs are meant to be written in a style that is easy and informal. This is what makes blogs the information source of choice for many due to the fact that the very nature of the writing makes the content more interesting. Throughout my posts, I tried to relax and not think of the post as a report, but rather a conversation. Although I at times succeeded and at others failed at this task, writing the entries became enjoyable because it was my own interpretation of material, free of stylistic restraints.

An exciting aspect of the exercise was the comments garnered by other blogger.com members. Although these comments were few and far between, with only about 6 comments for the whole semester, they were by far the most rewarding aspect of the blog. Blogs are not meant simply to be read, but to be interacted with as well. When someone posted a comment, even if it was my professor, it was special; it meant that someone out there in the web looked at my writing and that short piece of writing invoked some type of response. I received some thoughtful reactions to articles, updates on information, and suggestions of sites or products to consider. At first I wasn't sure what to do in return for the posters, then I realized that the best method was probably to post a response directly underneath on my own blog. Hopefully this was an effective means for providing feedback to individuals who took the time to visit the site and look over the entries.

In order to attract readers to comment, promoting the blog is necessary. This proved to be a very enlightening activity. I found out about blog monitoring cites like blogdigger.com, where users can search for types of blogs and entries. I also got a sense of the direct correlation between promoting the blog and receiving comments. Towards the end of the semester, after I had promoted my blog through posting on other blogs, advertising it on my Facebook, and subscribing to Blogdigger.com, I began to get more comments. With the blog model ideally being a conversation, it is necessary to seek out other opportunities to involve readers.

Becoming comfortable with the format and upkeep of a blog was an important aspect of the overall assignment, but the other major component was to acquire knowledge on a particular topic, which for me was viral, word of mouth and buzz marketing. Through reading blogs and articles online, I became informed of the channels of buzz marketing and some general guidelines for what makes a marketing endeavor buzz worthy.

Throughout the semester I observed different forms of creating buzz. In my posts I covered viral video, news media, advergames, and events or contests. Viral video and advergames are extremely popular right now and spread particularly fast with the younger generations. YouTube has continued to dominate the scene with companies creating outlandish extra commercials to post or just weird clips. I was introduced to advergames for the first time doing this assignment, and they are very effective due to their extreme addictiveness. News media continues to be a tried and true method of spreading the word about something. This method was reinforced, however, by recent data from Neilson demonstrating a direct link between media coverage and increased sales. Finally, events and contests are often utilized by companies as well. This is a great way for costumers to get excited about a brand and to talk to others about it.

Of course I wrote about other means of creating word of mouth too, be it a conscious effort of the company or not. Often times negative feedback can spread about a company or product in a manner that the company did not anticipate at all. An example of this was when Proctor and Gamble's logo was interpreted as a Satanic image. Another spread of negative buzz came from the unappealing appearance of the KFC famous bowl. On the other hand, positive feedback can come from accidents, like JetBlue and their handling of the recent runway crisis. Their actions helped to spread positive news and images of the company.

Reading through blogs, articles, and press releases over the course of the semester, I began to notice some basic guidelines for buzz marketing endeavors. If a company wants people to talk about something, it needs to be timely, or pertinent to current issues. An example of this is the recent green and sustainable activities of Wal-Mart, HSBC and Home Depot. Their efforts are getting attention because of the national concern over global warming. Another requirement of buzz worthy happenings is that they need to be very different, following the "dog bites man" model. The "Quiznos Coyote" that I covered in one of my posts received substantial amounts of coverage simply because it was so incredibly unusual to have a coyote walk into a sandwich shop. A final component of buzz success is utilizing the current technology to generate reactions. Advergames, contests off of company websites, and viral videos are all examples of using the Internet to build buzz.

Word of Mouth and viral advertising are proven methods for garnering attention for a brand. It is so successful, in fact, that some companies use WOM as their only means of advertising. It is a powerful method as well, because it brings truthfulness and importance to a message if someone hears it from a friend. This blog has been a tremendous opportunity to read about and analyze the instances of viral, word of mouth and buzz marketing. Furthermore, it has brought me up to date on the dynamic world of blogging.