Creating Corporate Buzz for Your Project

Buzz is that intangible word of mouth awareness of a product or service that drives interest and desire to know more. What is this thing people are talking about? Your project may be an internal product or service, with no public or customer exposure, but even in that case, consideration should be given conceptually to the fact that you are delivering a product for the company, even if it is for internal consumption. So, corporate awareness, interest, and "buy-in" to your projects goals and progress can be important and valuable factors in the project's overall success. Corporate buzz words should be used sparingly. Buzz marketing may seem unimportant from a project perspective, but we'll see that a daily buzz about you & your team can be useful.

I don't mean corporate buzz words here. Throwing overused terms and acronyms into project status reports is not what I mean and is counterproductive. Just tossing corporate and business jargon out there will make people roll their eyes, not turn their heads to see what you've got going on.You don't want to seem like you're just filling in the blanks with what everyone expects to find. And other than the seeds you plant, the information can't come from you--but instead from people outside your project.

Use corporate communication channels effectively. If your company has an internal newsletter, email distribution list, or web site, any of those may be a first step in providing a glimpse of what's interesting about your project. You have no doubt defined how your project will benefit the organization, but do those that will benefit directly know about it yet, and how it will help them? Finding ways to get those employees that will see the direct results of your project interested in it and in your progress may take some thought. Marketing techniques can be used. Upper management may get summaries of your progress, but finding a proponent that really knows what your project is about can be very pivotal in creating buzz. When executives talk with each other, and with their direct reports about your project in an informal setting--that's buzz. Don't assume that everyone knows about the project. Find ways to make them want to know about it.

Some great info on buzz can be found in Buzz by Salzman, Matathia and O'Reilly, or The Anatomy of Buzz by Rosen.

click to enlarge