Something to Talk About. - In The Anatomy of Buzz: How to Create Word-of-Mouth Marketing by Emanuel Rosen - Review - book review

Home Office Computing, Dec, 2000 by Sonya Donaldson

IN THE AGE OF THE INTERNET, BUZZ IS KING. GETTING POTENTIAL clients to hype your product, then delivering on the promise--that's the anatomy of buzz, says Emanuel Rosen. In The Anatomy of Buzz: How to Create Word-of-Mouth Marketing ($25; Currency Doubleday), Rosen identifies types of products that benefit from buzz--from entertainment to packaged goods--then offers strategies for creating it. The key to getting customers to do your marketing for you, he says, is focusing on the customer-to-customer relationship, rather than relying on the company-to-customer approach. The book is packed with case studies and anecdotes that show how word of mouth (and a few perks) can help build successful companies.

Work Is Play

To succeed in business today, head back to the playground. That's the theme of Alan Gregerman's Lessons from the Sandbox ($17; Contemporary Books), which examines 13 keys to success and links them with talents that young children develop at play. Though Gregerman's themes are basic--do what you enjoy, invent ways to make work fun, ask why, participate fully in whatever you do, be willing to try new things--he says all too often they get lost on the way to adulthood, let alone the path to an entrepreneurial or business career. Lessons from the Sandbox will help you innovate, grow, and improve--and have fun doing it.