Who's behind Buzz-o-phone?

Buzz-o-phone was created and is operated by me, Matt Galloway, average consumer. I'm not professionally involved in marketing, PR or advertising. Neither am I affiliated with any consumer product companies.

I have, however, recently developed a serious hobby interest in word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM)and consumer generated media (CGM). I have a blog called The Basement where I write about WOM, WOMM and CGM. I've really enjoyed building relationships with professionals working in the WOMM space, and particularly with folks involved with the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA). If you are interested in WOMM, WOMMA is the best place to start.

Why am I doing this?

The short answer is because I can.

Let me explain... One of the aspects of CGM that I find most intoxicating is that marketers are no longer in control of the message - we as consumers are. Informed consumers are increasingly depending on the collective knowledge of other consumers to make purchase decisions. All the while marketers are scrambling to try to catch up.

Lot's of smart business communications professionals are trying to figure out how to collect, index and analysis consumer generated media. Others are working to figure out ways to stimulate word of mouth or to influence the message of consumers.

The irony is that, for most large companies, the biggest barrier to these goals is not a lack of technology or creativity... it's entrenched corporate bureaucracy. Good old fashion red tape.

Well guess what? Advantage consumers... again. As individuals we are able to innovate, act and respond at a dizzying speed. Smart companies will learn to interact, while other will fade into clueless irrelevance. This is indeed an exciting and empowering time to be a consumer!

I created Buzz-o-phone as a sort of grand consumer generated word of mouth experiment. If passionate consumers - detractors and promoters - could share opinions about products, services, companies and brands with other consumers by simply making a phone call, would they do it? If I built it, would they come?

If people do call in, will anyone listen? Will marketers listen?

Buzz-o-phone also represents the technological capability of the consumer. It's not rocket science, nor is it particularly expensive. If I can build Buzz-o-phone quickly and cheaply, what are marketers going to do to keep up?

Finally, Buzz-o-phone is an example of what a word of mouth marketing campaign might look like. Lot of marketing folks are trying figure this out and I'm hoping that some of them can experiment vicariously through me.

So what am I expecting?

I don't know. As I said, Buzz-o-phone is an experiment. I have no idea what's going to happen, but I do know that it's going to be fun watching it unfold. Of course, it will be more fun if you participate, so please call and then subscribe to the Buzz-o-phone Podcast. I would also appreciate it if you would tell your friends.

If you blog, I would appreciate it if you mentioned Buzz-o-phone. Feel free to post questions to your readers about their thoughts on a particular product or brand and ask them to phone in their opinions. Do your readers feel the power?

Privacy Policy

If you do call, I am collecting caller ID data but I'm not making it public and won't share it for any reason. I might, at some point, use the area code to determine state but I won't get more specific than that. Mainly, I'm collecting CID so that I can detect and prevent abuse if I need to. I'm hoping that I don't.

If you would like to learn more about me, read further thoughts on Buzz-o-phone or contact me, please visit my blog, The Basement.

Thanks for visiting Buzz-o-phone.