Ms. Smarty Pants Know It All

I went into this book with a faulty assumption. I thought the book was going to be about creating your own word-of-mouth.

Instead, it’s more about the world of official word-of-mouth marketing campaigns. As such, it turned out to be a great marketing piece for author Dave Balter and his company BzzAgent.

It felt strange to want to do what I was reading on the page. As I read about why people talk about certain things to others, I wanted to look up and say, “Hey, this book says …”

I wanted to talk about the book even as I read its contents, which are all about spreading the word.

The book is well written and an interesting read. I finished it in one evening. I learned all about the whats, whys, and hows of word-of-mouth. What I didn’t learn was how to start that first spark.

Dave Balter and his company BzzAgent start the process through volunteer “agents.” These are people who sign-up to participate in certain product or service campaigns. Once they get their assignments, they are to try to work the product/service into their everyday interactions and report on those encounters.

It sounds very sinister in this simplified explanation. From the book’s descriptions though, I can totally see how such participation really is authentic and rewarding.

The bottom line though—Is the book worth reading?

My answer is yes. It’s not difficult to read, and it gives many understandable insights into human behavior. For example, it talks about how true fans of something can get to the point where they feel ownership of that particular thing. This identification can stop them from promoting the thing that they love so much because they don’t want others to intrude on their territory.

Even though I’ve never really thought about this, I know it is true because I’ve seen it happen. I’ve felt myself going through it.

Another great positive in the book is the number of real world examples. The authors provide first-hand analysis of BzzAgent’s campaigns and dissects many other major campaigns that I remember seeing and hearing about.

I am disappointed that the authors don’t seem to have any insight on how to generate word-of-mouth without a ready-made dispersal force though. They do a good job of making me want to hire BzzAgent. I understand that this is a positive for them and was surely one of the goals for producing this book. Nevertheless, I feel that this hook is a bit deceptive, which is one of the major no-nos of word-of-mouth marketing.

At least according to this book.

Tags: Books // 1 Comment »