Create buzz around your offering

We regularly witness, or even participate, in word of mouth phenomena that quickly take on a huge scale. A YouTube video is seen several million times in a few days, a detective novel by an unknown Swedish author flies off the bookstore shelves with no advertising, an out-of-the-way restaurant becomes the place to be seen, etc. There are many such examples of often unpredictable and inexplicable successes. For example, how did Ugg Australian sheepskin boots, selling for around €250 a pair, become such a huge hit that sales tripled in just a few years?

The mechanics of buzz are of upmost interest to scientists and companies alike. Scientists would like to understand this phenomenon, while companies want to know how to reproduce it to rapidly boost their sales without investing in costly and risky advertising campaigns. In recent years, social networks have played an undeniable role in the most striking examples of buzz. However, these networks are only one vector for sharing information—and not necessarily more powerful than the recommendations of friends and family. Recent studies are taking a closer look at this topic, revising some conventional wisdom and identifying promising courses of action.

The studied publications highlight three prerequisites for using buzz to boost sales:

- Give people a good reason to talk about your offering. People like to feel useful and valued by others. Help your audience do this by talking about you!

- Stimulate emotions. Astonishment and joy, but also anger, are emotions that drive people to action and encourage them to share their feelings.

- Create buzz that will boost your sales. Shape the content to orient consumers to your product when they are in a buying situation.