The Anatomy of Buzz (Other Computer/Internet Books in general)

Member Name: elvis42

Product:	Other Computer/Internet Books in general
Date:	23/11/00 (19 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good solid background to the area

Disadvantages: A little dry

This book, written by Emanuel Rosen, has just been published and is certainly worth a read for anyone interested in marketing, especially word of mouth marketing.

The sub-title of the book is 'creating word-of-mouth marketing' and this is the main thrust of the text. Rosen approaches the subject almost academically, going through the theories of mass communication, hubs, mega-hubs, influencers, etc, punctuating the text with relevant case studies (such as Kodak, Hotmail and other famously viral services). Although his overall analysis of the situation probably doesn't shed as much light as Seth Godin does in 'Unleashing the IdeaVirus' although he contextualises it better.

The book demonstrates and shares a good understanding of the validation that word-of-mouth publicity gives a product or service and defines buzz as 'all the word of mouth about a brand'. There is a lot of talk of invisible networks and many charts demonstrating the variables in human networks and need to sometimes head straight for mega-hubs, or how to leapfrog bottle-necks in the network. These definitions definitely add a useful insight to what we do with respect to community mapping and seeding (it is interesting perhaps to note that this book has practially a whole chapter on seeding – not on the Internet necessarily – but at least putting the word into context as a reflection of how trees reproduce!!). Rosen also refuses to dismiss small, cohesive networks, stating that in a network of 100 there are 4,950 possible links (I thought I'd drop in a statistic to please everyone!).

Conclusions are fairly typical – innovative products provide better word of mouth potential, networks are fluid, people believe their friends more than advertising. The book is useful as context and to provide more of a framework for what we do when we're looking at creating word of mouth/mouse interest and well worth a read, especially in
conjunction with the IdeaVirus book.

Summary: