Are you seeking buzz or hype? The difference can kill you. Or make you rise to startup success.
Buzz happens when a lot of people get excited about your startup and begin to pass the word around. Tweeting, blogging, on Facebook messages, texting and over lunch with friends. It grows and grows, spreads around the world, gathers speed and momentum. It takes time.
Hype happens when suddenly a lot of people, especially writers, take notice and publish something about your startup. Following this is a quick rush of reporters who missed the first wave of publicity. Then the mass media spreads the word to the public who then become excited about the news and rush to see what the startup is all about. It reaches a crescendo, peaks, but instead of enduring, it disappears, like a roman candle fireworks. It happens very quickly.
Examples of buzz include Amazon selling one million book titles on-line. And the growth of use of Google's more effective search engine.
Examples of hype include Second Life, the virtual world created by Linden Labs in San Francisco (take a look at in a good article written Sunday in Silicon Valley by Chris O'Brien). Remember the Segway, the two wheel vehicle that would replace the car? Next Computer Inc. (Steve Jobs)? They all don't die, but they all do fade into the background to be forgotten.
Some wonder about the enormous economic value of the hyped YouTube and now Twitter. Was Facebook about buzz or hype? Or both? They claim to now be converting business models to money makers.
Buzz wins because end users "get it" and find it "way cool." People get excited about something special in your product/service offering. They use it and "Wow!" happens and they can't wait to text about it to a friend. I saw a grade school girl in a mall with her father today, walking with a pink iPhone clutched in both hands, staring at the screen with a beaming face. You can bet all her friends will know about her new phone in less than an hour. Remember the people who slept overnight outside the stores to buy the first iPod?
Buzz works like an avalanche. First there is a real user experience that triggers the first movement of a few snowflakes (other users and a few observers). They impact more and then more, and soon a large chunk of snow moves an entire slab (bloggers) that starts an entire mountainside of white flakes (mass media, mass public) crashing down to the valley below, enormous in its power and momentum.
Like an avalanche, buzz can be influenced and initiated and even guided at first. But after it starts you can only join it or get out of the way and watch. Buzz on a roll cannot be stopped.
BOTTOM LINE: That is where you want your startup to be: offering something to end users that is so cool it gets them buzzing. You can influence that with your marketing messaging (marcom positioning message). You can alert bloggers and help enthusiasts spread the good word (e.g. social networking group). And there is a lot more in this technique we label as public relations. When you can do buzz, you have a powerful element to add to your competitive advantage. You competition will complain it is unfair.
I wish you The Best on your Adventure.
