I’ll admit it. I’m a bzzagent. Mainly for two reasons: 1) the free stuff and 2) to keep up with what they’re doing by *ahem* “generating” word-of-mouth.
While they’re generating your WOM, I’ll be over here spinning some straw into gold for you.
Great products and great service generate WOM…not agencies. (if you want a good threshing out of the WOM problems with bzzagent, check out this 2005 post (and the great comments) from Brand Autopsy)
The actual reason I bring up bzzagent is this email I got tonight –
Hi BzzAgent chrishouchens, Thanks for your Frog suggestion! We’ll take a look at the site and see if we can add it as a Frog sometime soon. Keep checking the Frogpond you never know when your recommendation might jump in as your favorite green amphibian. Ribbit, ribbit! We look forward to hearing more of your ideas so keep ‘em coming! Thanks, -The BzzAgent Hive
I threw up a little in my mouth before I got to the end of the email.
It’s enough that it’s the “hive”…and we’re “buzzing”…and “according to physics, we shouldn’t be able to fly”…etc. But how much cute crap can you squeeze in?
Frankly, I didn’t understand it when bzzagent got cute with the Bento Box which apparently was an idea designed to make a blog difficult to read. It was like the old board game of Mystery Date. When you opened the door, you never knew if it would be a good or bad thing staring at you.
There’s clever naming practices and then there’s brainstorming gone bad. It’s like the planning session for the local steakhouse. Someone had the idea of labeling the restrooms “Bulls and Heifers” and it just went downhill from there.
I mean, I’m guilty too. My email newsletter is called the “Shotgun Blast”. But I stop there. My blog posts aren’t “shells”. When I sign a contract with a client, it’s not a “Shotgun Wedding”
If you’re bent on being cute with your business, you should open a pet store.
