Blogging and Buzzing

admin — Thu, 16 Dec 2004 02:14:00 +0000

From the Knowledge @ Work newsletter from the Wharton School of Business

What’s the Buzz About Buzz Marketing?

There’s a new marketing catchphrase that’s getting rave word-of-mouth reviews. From articles in the popular press to conversations in the classroom, huge companies to boutique marketing firms, suddenly it seems you can’t talk about new products without addressing ‘buzz marketing.’ “People are buzzing about buzzing,” says Wharton marketing professor Barbara Kahn who adds, along with others, that word-of-mouth marketing has long been recognized as a way to influence consumer behavior. What’s new about buzz marketing is the structure and hype surrounding it and the attempts to measure its effectiveness on sales.

Few mechanisms are better at creating buzz online than blogging.

I wonder when we ‘ll bet blogged to death by marketing types trying out their chops. I imagine after they start, they’ll find out that marketing and creating buzz online means being intelligent and honest as well, as about message … or maybe being intelligent and honest while blogging is how the buzz is created ?

More ON Ki-Work From Michael Wolff

admin — Wed, 15 Dec 2004 18:11:00 +0000

I posted an item a few days ago from Michael Wolff that was what he calls the ki-work manifesto … in response to some words from Tom Peters about the ongoing “revolution in the work place.

One of the yahoo group members asked Michael for some clarification about what “ki” and “ki-work” mean.

Here’s his response:

The ‘ki’ in ki work comes from the Japanese word which translates very much

the same as the Chinese Chi.

My experience of it is through the Japanes martial art: aikido. This is

literally: the way of harmonising ki.

Unlike most martial arts, aikido is non-competitive. Its point is to empower

and bring inner peace to practitioners, not to vanquish an enemy. Its

method is to connect with an attacker, not to counterattack. Where there are

opposing points of view, the objective is to find the point of common truth.

The word ‘ki’ is often described as universal energy. In a network or

relationship sense, it is the energetic connection between two or more

parties. In that respect, ki can also be described as relationship.

In ki work, the meaning is extended a bit further to mean ‘trusted

relationship’. When people are relating virtually, ie online, it is almost

impossible to relate competitively. Collaborative, peer-to-peer

relationships seem to work best. So working relationships that are primarily

virtual and therefore need to be collaborative in order to be successful are

served best, as in aikido, by practising the ‘way of harmonising ki’.

As in aikido, after continued practise, the art of collaborative

relationship becomes transformative for participants and therefore a path

towards self-actualisation. Self-actualisation is often considered as a

process for becoming authentic. A requrement for the development of deep

relationship includes an element of self-knowledge and authenticity.

So in that sense, ki work is the structure that supports the process of

self-actualisation through work. In contrast, organisational structures that

primarily support competitive relationships, such as command and control,

are not conducive to self-actualising practises, and therefore ultimately

unfulfilling. It is difficult to have a deep sense of who one is when

continually playing the role prescribed by one’s position in the

organisation.

With ki work, the understanding of ‘deep support’ is one where the

relationship between, say, a supplier and a customer is fully reciprocal.

Neither party serves the other, but both parties engage in a process that

builds trusted relationship. In that sense, both parties support each other.

Wirearchy » 2004 » December » 15

Blogging and Buzzing

More ON Ki-Work From Michael Wolff