Generate Buzz By Contacting Old Friends
The first task I’m undertaking in The 3-Week Buzz Marketing Challenge is to email an old friend or acquaintance.
The goal is to share what’s new in your life, including positive things going on in your job (or your new business, etc.)
You also want to ask questions - find out what’s new with the person that you haven’t connected with in some time.
Ron McDaniel writes in his book:
One of the keys is to leverage your prior relationship to tell a positive story about where you work without spoiling the conversation by blatantly selling the company or being impersonal.
This is certainly an easy challenge. What’s difficult is remembering to do it regularly. Contacting a couple old friends might generate a bit of buzz, but do it a few times per month and suddenly the world will be buzzing.
I reached out to two people - an ex-employee and a long-time friend from university.
I spoke with my ex-employee on the phone. I told him about a few things going on in my life — a day later he sent me an email with a relevant link of interest (which is something I wrote about in growing your blog community.) It was a good article, something I wouldn’t have otherwise found. It showed me that he was “buzzing about me” which is exactly the point.
My long-time friend has yet to respond, but I know he will, and he’ll be one more person that’s updated on what’s going on with me.
So start contacting old friends and acquaintances. Ask them what’s up with their lives. Pick up the conversation where it left off. Start a new conversation. Tell them something they don’t know, offer your help, recommend something of interest, toot your own horn and get ‘em buzzing…
As Ron mentioned a blatant sales call or email is likely to backfire badly and may result in “negative buzz”.
I find that having good contact management software such as Outlook and then using it diligently to record the details of friends and acquaintances can pay off years down the track. To do a follow-up just run through the names to get an idea of who you could contact.
I just did exactly this. Last week we announced the launch of our new mobile marketing product. I put together an email and literally went through my Outlook list picking names. We’ve already been referred to a few big accounts by old friends.
I agree, contacting friends is a great way to generate buzz. It certainly worked for my blog, but without me having to do anything. My friends did the work for me and told each other.
Scott - you’re right. Having a tool in place to help, once you start re-contacting people vigilantly is going to help.
Greg - Nice job! You’re already ahead of me on the 3-Week Buzz Marketing Challenge!
John - The power of making a simple connection…sending a simple email. Quite amazing sometimes.
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