Is BuzzStream Buzz-Worthy?

I had never before heard of BuzzStream and since I spend a large majority of my time on the computer (and online) I would like to think that it is simply not that big of a name, yet, and not that I am out of touch with the up and up. In all honesty, either could be true. I actually came across this interesting marketing tool while chatting with Appency Press Owner, and friend of mine, Aaron Watkins. He claims to use it every day and loves it! I trust this guy, so I figured I’d sign up for the 14-day free trial and check it out for myself…

A Tool for Intergration

Kitchen and Burgmann (2010) have a clean and clear definition for the term “integration”. According to them, integration occurs when a consistent message is presented across all of the promotional elements a company uses. BuzzStream makes this easy to do from the PR perspective. This can be tricky because it’s not like a commercial or magazine add, where you create it and then have it sent out a thousand of times. PR is a lot more personal and requires that each individual contact feel like they are receiving your undivided attention. Of course this requires that more than one person be working on your contact list (which is, hopefully, filled with at least thousands of names). BuzzStream helps all staff members to maintain an integrated approach to PR by allowing you to…

1. Create Templates for Promotional Emails. Each time you have a new message to send out you can create a template with the basic information and then personalize with your contacts’ information. This allows for mass emailing to run faster, but, hopefully, stay out of the SPAM filters AND give the impression that each email was personalized for the receiver.
2. Assign Contact Tasks to Staff Members. BuzzStream allows you, the owner (or manager), to divide and concur. You can have a staff member be in charge of  specific relationships or a group of people that all, for instance, might be interested in your iPhone App (as opposed to your Kindle Book!).
3. View Relationship Progress for all Contacts. Here is the key to the integration process. Instead of just trusting your employees, you can actually see all of the communications they are having with your contact list. Are they responding to potential clients’ tweets? Have they been exchanging emails? And are the emails being written via the proper templates and protocols?

Networking Through Stalking = BRILLIANT

Kitchen and Burgmann (2010) tell us that marketers should develop a well-established relationship between the company and the customer and what better way to do that then to do a little “background research” first! BuzzStream allows you, the company, to keep tabs on the most influential people in your field, collecting their various forms of contact information FOR YOU. So, when you are ready to take the plunge and offer them your product, you already know enough about them to be able to tell them exactly why they need this product (and maybe even do a little brown nosing)!

Also, BuzzStream lets YOU decide who is influential in your field. So as you cruise around the World Wide Web, reading blogs and articles (like all good PR boys and girls), you can “Buzzmark” the authors you think need to know about YOU (someday, not today, after you have stalked them sufficiently to be able to impress them!). The Buzzmarker is super easy to install and works exactly like a bookmark in the sense that when you find an article you like, all you have to do is click your buzzmarker (placed in your bookmarks bar) and you’ve created a whole new profile for that author!

Don’t worry BuzzStream won’t leave you on your own to find the golden influencers (although you can add your own contacts as you wish). No no, Buzzstream is going to help you find your “influencers!” Truthfully, this feature isn’t as well developed as it could be, but it does allow for you to create a search for various keywords that will be searched for across Twitter and most blogs.

Stalk N’ Tag

Where would we be today if we couldn’t TAG things? Lost. BuzzStream allows you to REALLY sort your contacts anyway you want by creating tags for everyone! You can categorize people based on anything you want, as well as attach any pertinent tweets or blogs they have written to their profile! This way you can truly personalize your PR strategy!

Some may call it research… some may call it stalking… I call it INTEGRATED PR!

Sources: Kitchen, P. & Burgmann, I. (2010). Integrated marketing communication. Wiley International Encyclopedia of Marketing. John Wiley & Sons Ltd.