Ask any web marketer what they want to achieve for a website! Some may say that they want to get more targeted visitors, some would say that they want to get a better conversion rate or some would say that want to have a better brand visibility. There might be thousand other milestones they want to achieve. However, one word you would almost always find common in all these goals ? buzz.
Every marketer knows if they can create a buzz in the market regarding their product, they would easily get whatever they are looking for ? branding, brand promotion, visitors etc? and that too in a short time.
But is it really so simple?
Of course not ? it takes lots of hard work and time and of course a quality product (you cannot make people fool for a long time?lol).
However, buzz can also take away so many things from you. We have a classic story as example here (not so classic for the investors of that company).
Yesterday I read this story in Adweek’s buzz marketing magazine. On 2nd September 2008 South Florida Sun-Sentinel published a story on its Web site about United Airlines filing for bankruptcy. The story was then picked up by an investment newsletter in Florida. The story spread faster than anything and as a result United Airline?s share price dropped from $12.30 to $9.30 within 5 days. According to shank, ?this news hit the trading floor, and United’s stock went from $11/share to about 99 cents per share in mere minutes. With about 126 million shares outstanding, this represented a loss of roughly $1 billion.?
Yes, $1 billion. But the irony is that Sun-Sentinel re-released an old story dating back to 2002. The story has nothing to do with the company at present. Anyways, the share market bounced back once they came to know the reality but it was already a loss of $1 billion.
Los Angeles Times also have a good reporting on this accident. You can read the article to know how a small human error was compounded by a smart search engine (you guessed it right – Google).
I bet, nobody needs such a buzz.
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Add your commentThat’s happened quite a lot. People email people false betting tips causing the odds to get better for the person emailing.
John
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It is difficult to keep up with the online conversation about your company and industry. Which is why we started a new online marketing company that helps businesses with their web marketing.We find relevant online conversations and join them. We say what you would say if you had the time, but we say it in our own voice.
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