Review of: The Anatomy of Buzz: How to Create Word-of-Mouth Marketing, by Emanuel Rosen

The marketing industry loves social networking. Just about every day, a so-called expert pontificates on the benefits of Facebook or whatever social networking site there is that week. They aren’t entirely wrong, but social networking sites may not be right for every business, nor are they the end-all be-all of a marketing plan. That’s what makes Emmanuel Rosen’s Buzz a compelling read; he’s not just puffing hot air.

This isn’t a new book by any means; it came out in 2000—almost ancient when you are talking about this business. Yet, it is amazing how relevant and useful this book still is today. A friend recommended it, which is appropriate since the book is about word-of-mouth marketing. Rosen presents a wonderful dissection of how viral and peer-to-peer marketing works and provides intelligent insight on how these principles can be applied to an individual business.

What is really nice is that Rosen isn’t your run-of-the-mill marketing consultant. He was on the team that created Endnote, a wildly successful software program that is now a staple for academics and researchers. Endnote organizes references and helps create bibliographies for research papers, etc. When it came out, it was seen as a godsend for thesis writers, but it oddly began selling at a rapid rate with no advertising. It was then that Rosen began studying the power of network marketing.

Overtime, Rosen has found that there is almost nothing more effective than word-of-mouthcommunication. Traditional advertising still plays a role, but in the electronic age he claims that businesses must take network marketing seriously. “Network” is a bit of an amorphous word, but he uses the first few chapters, which are practically a sociology/psychology lesson, to clearly define what he means by networks: groups of individuals connected by hubs. These hubs can be large or small, be expert or social and be closed or connected to other, influential hubs. Not all hubs are built the same, either. In fact, it is surprising to learn that some hubs that seem like natural “go-tos” are actually too closed to spread a message properly.

In the case of Endnote, the initial hub was an academic message board (this would be an expert hub), which contained a positive entry from a man who had seen a preview of the software. Because the board was national, the “buzz” about Endnote was off and running.

Rosen will be the first to admit what happened to Endnote will not just automatically happen to every business. To this point he offers a variety of case studies—from the palm pilot to BMW cars—about products and businesses that experienced the benefits of buzz and the different ways in which they spread it. He then follows up with an extremely detailed tutorial on how find the right hubs and to actively seed a product, service or company to gain buzz. What is unique about Rosen’s approach is that he never assumes he knows anything about the reader’s business, nor does he assert that all his methods will be appropriate for it.

Instead, he provides a “buzz workshop” at the end that has the reader answering questions about his or her own company to see how to best achieve effective buzz marketing. At each step of the exercise he provides real-world examples to illustrate the qeustions he is trying to get you to asnwer. The exercise is a even good reintroduction to your own busines, if anything.

And what better business to read about this topic than the luxury audio/video world? This end of the business is all about getting a name into the right networks. The jet set relies on word-of-mouth for a lot of things, partly because it exemplifies their penchant for exclusive treatment and service providers they can trust. If you want to improve this part of your business or get a handle on buzz markets, this book is right up your alley.