Problem #1 - The biggest complaint discovered in EVERY internal employee survey is what? “Not enough communication.”

Problem #2 - The biggest problem for MySapce and Chris DeWolfe is MySpace doesn’t have a really good revenue model.

Hmmm.

MySpace has built one of the most buzzworthy mediums for digital communication (although informal communication).

Studies show again and again the the most important and effective form of communication in a corporation is informal.

So why have we not created a corporate version of MySpace?
Revenue made in the form of a per user license and set-up fee.

Let’s do some quick math:

Yr 1: Let’s say 500 corporations sign up x 3,000 avg employees. $49 per month X 12 months
By my calculations, this adds to $882 million in revenue.

$882 million in revenue…that’s alot of Peanut Butter.

“Hey, you just got Peanut Butter in my chocolate.”

“HEY…you just got chocolate in my Peanut Butter!”

Mmmm.

Chris, Peter, and Rupert…talk amongst yourselves. My work is done here.

Mark Hughes is a marketing speaker, consultant, and author of the book Buzzmarketing: Get People to Talk About Your Stuff (Penguin/Portfolio).

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Jim Cramer watch your back.

Fast Money on CNBC with Dylan Ratigan, created by Susan Krakower, Ratigan, and Dan Hoffman have got a sleeper hit on their hands.

They did it cheap, and they did one thing really well.

Cheap by TV standards. You can hear the audio echo, you can hear a janitor or Production Assistant int he background yelling off in a hallway. A nightmare for producers, but a sense of transparency for viewers.

Why does cheap work? We trust things without glitz, and without slick.

And when it comes to our own money, trust is paramount. Do I trust the five people in front of me to make multi-thousand dollar risks?

A friend of mine in Development for ABC strongly felt that the downfall of a great day-time show (the Wayne Brady Show) was it’s glitzy, slick set and over-produced look. Understand that even though the show won Four Emmy’s–it failed and got cut.

But the one thing that Fast Money’s Hoffman and Krakower are doing really right is their “Face 2 Face” segment.

It follows the principle of Empowered Interactivity put forth in Chapter 6 of my book.

Every night, average Joes and Janes get to ask one of the four experts a question, and perhaps joke and poke with them. From a Buzzmarketing perspective this is BRILLIANT.

What it does is give the viewer (the consumer) what we call buzz currency. It’s not just a phone in…it uses new technology of webcams. We see their face. The viewer becomes famous for their 60 seconds visually on TV.

How many other shows does the viewer get to appear on a show? None!

Call-ins, sure. But with their mug on TV, never until Fast Money.

This gives viewers what most want–fame (with hopefully a tip of fortune).

And to-boot, my guess is it’s being paid for by Sprint and Logitech…the sponsors of the segment.

This show is hot. This show is a little rough around the edges (hence trustworthy). This show has grass-roots viewership and passion.

Kudos to Susan Krakower, Dan Hoffman, Dylan Ratigan (”The Commissioner”), Eric Bolling (known as “The Admiral”), Jeff Macke (”The Lone Wolf”), Tim Strazzini (”The Risk Doctor”) and Guy Adami (”The Negotiator”).

Jim Cramer watch your back and your ratings.

Mark Hughes is a marketing speaker, consultant, and author of the book Buzzmarketing: Get People to Talk About Your Stuff (Penguin/Portfolio).

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Consider this the most contrarian prediction.

Apple’s iPhone will likely bomb.

Yes, I know America loves Apple. Silicon Valley loves Apple. All my Los Angeles friends and many writers love Apple.

But let’s look at the data, the dynamics, and timing.

First, consumer confidence is beginning to falter.

Toyota Tundra (yes another great company and brand) can’t sell their new Tundra truck right now, and is having to dig into the incentive bucket for help.

Timing for the Tundra and other large non-need purchases (hint iPhone) is not good.

Consumers are beginning to pull back as interest rates and Bernanke get more volatile, and mortgage defaults come at an all-time high.

Timing. Not good.

Now let’s look at the data. Several years back, I was frothy for Apple’s newest phone, the ROKR, only to be disappointed. Not a good phone, not a good music device according to the reviews. And certainly not good sales results.

Yes the ROKR was primarily a Motorola device, and who’s to know who’s to blame–Apple or Motorola. But the bottom line is that Apple has a sour record for developing phones.

The hype happened…and I doubt that Apple can recreate the buzz and the news upon launch.

My Pulitzer prize-winning father with 50 years in the Journalism business taught me many things about the news industry, but one that’s pretty critical is this. News is new only once. Once it’s old, it’s not new…thus not newsworthy.

Now Apple will definitely find itself on the front pages upon launch of the iPhone, but half the buzz is gone.

And for $499 and $599, the price-point for a device doing the same thing as a RIM Blackberry Pearl or Blackberry 8800? I’m swimming against the tide, but I’m predicting lower than expected sales for the iPhone.

Fashion you say? Fashion will sell the phone.

Fashion is very “in the moment” and the moment will be about six months long gone upon release.

Superior technology and design you say? First time out for a device like this on Apple’s part–and remember the ROKR. Sales will be below expectations.

Perhaps I’ll be proven wrong.

Perhaps Richard Gardner at Citigroup and Andrew Neff at Bear Sterns will say “Told you so…you were wrong.”

But data, dynamics (of buzz and consumer culture), and timing, show me a bucket of expensive Apple iPhones sitting in the orchard…with fewer people biting than expected.

Mark Hughes is a marketing speaker, consultant, and author of the book Buzzmarketing: Get People to Talk About Your Stuff.

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What a Google, Yahoo!, MSN, or hakia search delivers in the way of results says alot about your brand.

Often, it’s a first impression about your brand…

And as the saying goes, “There’s no second chance for a first impression.”

A colleague of mine were meeting with a major company in New York the other week.

We mentioned that a Google search for their brand name delivers a nasty post pertaining to Zionism and one of their Board of Directors.

The feeling, though, was there was nothing they could do about it.

Hello brand stewards and anyone in PR: wake up. Smell the search technology.

A search, today, says everything about your brand.

A little SEO and crowding out nasty content with better content can go a long way.

Or would you rather do nothing and alienate business.

Mark Hughes is a marketing speaker, consultant, and author of the book Buzzmarketing: Get People to Talk About Your Stuff.

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Seattle became the opening city for my book tour a couple years ago.

When I spoke to one of Microsoft’s small but numerous ad agencies, I sensed a mood amongst the Microsoft people in attendance…slight melancholy.

One mantra I put forth is the concept of being less corporate and being more personal.

Microsoft has a reputation of being ultra-corporate, male-centric, and arrogant.

In 2005, not much stood in the way of eroding that perception.

But today I read and article about Channel 9 in Wired and the tide may be shifting.

Channel 9 is a Microsoft-owned video blog site interviewing Msoft employees, and letting it all hang out. Good, bad, sometimes ugly.

Not so surprising say you? Oh no…in the world of corporate PR, nobody gets to speak to the media (in this case BE the media) without having a leash on you and multiple approvals to very high levels.

Very surprising.

On Channel 9, what’s going on is exactly what I tell many clients and many audiences: be more personal and be less corporate. Why, because Americans don’t rust corporations anymore.

We can thank Tyco, Enron, MCI, Adelphia, Vioxx, etc for lying to America, the FDA, and the SEC.

Today, we trust people more than we trust corporations. Today we trust Bob, the consultant from IBM who works in your office, far more than we trust IBM itself.

Today we trust people, not corporations.

Now here is the quiz for you:

If you understand this…you as a marketer, PR person, and leader does what?

Answer: you do exactly what Channel 9 is doing for Microsoft…humanizing the brand. Showing that it can be rough around the edges. Showing it has faults just like we all do. Because when we claim a company is perfect–consumers know better.

Be less corporate, be more personal. Showcase your people (real people) without slick video editing–and you will begin to gain the trust of your consumer base.

What else indicates that Msoft might be going through some effective therapy?

Reed Hastings just joined the Board of Directors. Young, fresh, rogue, not full of himself. One who understands how to grow organically. One who understands that word-of-mouth and word on the street about your company can have real impact.

There’s still a long way to go. Keep going Microsoft…but it’s good to see you making the first steps.

Mark Hughes is a marketing speaker, consultant, and author of the book Buzzmarketing: Get People to Talk About Your Stuff.

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Nothing digitally recorded is private…digital is the new public.

The question is…did Brad Garlinghouse at Yahoo! and Howard Shultz have an inkling (or perhaps full confidence) that a hot memo will get forwarded into the blogosphere and then the mainstream news media?

More like strategic manifestos from Brad & Howard…and quite good ones at that.

Is it such that the only way we can apply pressure for change in corporate America is with the media?

Activist fund manager Carl Icahn certainly thinks so and uses the media to his advantage…Motorola now has an executive shake-up which would likely never have happened without him and the media.

Bob Chapman at Chapman Capital ditto. Bold, righteous, and correct in his analyses.

As Howard Shultz and Brad Garlinghouse blaze new trails of internal activism, are we seeing the birth of a new form of Employee Activism?

Perhaps a good thing.

Mark Hughes is a professional speaker, consultant, and author of the book Buzzmarketing: Get People to Talk About Your Stuff (Penguin/Portfolio).

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I have a new favorite saying.

80% is the new consensus.

When speaking publicly, on the topic of ‘Demand Creativity’ in my book, I often divert into how companies tend to accept the lowest common denominator when trying to achieve 100% consensus.

One Standard Deviation covers 68% of the population.
Two Standard Deviations covers 95% of the population.

The midpoint is 81%.

Innovation, by its very nature, is not ensconced in consensus.
If it was, innovations would be rampant at every company in every quarter.

The definition of innovative is: 1. ahead of the times, 2. producing something like nothing done or experienced or created before.

If you think you’re going to get even 95% consensus on something that has never been created or experienced before think again.

If you can get to 80% consensus, put it over the goal line. It’s the new 100%.

Mark Hughes is a communication speaker, consultant, and author of the book Buzzmarketing: Get People to Talk About Your Stuff (Penguin/Portfolio)

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I said it myself. I used to say it somewhat often.

When I was reviewing ads that my agency created for me at Pep Boys, eBay’s Half.com, etc…I would say “make the logo bigger.”

I was naive. I was unaware. I was uninformed…and didn’t have the benefit of response results.

Today, smart marketers leave their logo out.

Heresy!

Not quite.

When I speak publicly, I’ll ask the audience how many people subscribe to magazines.

All hands go up.

Then I ask how many people subscribe for the ads.

All hands go down.

All.

I ask the person in the blue shirt in row seven if they can remember an ad from their magazine.
They painfully say no.

Then I ask if they can remember an article from that magazine…and they go into detail. “Sure, it was a review of the Porsche 911 4-wheel drive going all over Germany…”

Today, the INSTANT a consumer knows something is an advertisement, they immediately ignore it.

The logo is what they call in the world of poker…a “tell.”

But it’s not so subtle.

More like a big red honkin’ flag.

Waving, jumping up and down at the very audience you want to reach, saying “I’m an ad, I’m an ad.”

What you want, is someone to first pay attention to your ad. And second, take something away from it (and third hopefully talk about it).

But if you did like I did…”make the logo bigger,” you simply alert consumers even more.

Today, consumers pay attention to CONTENT 6X more than ads.

If your purchased media looks like content, it will get noticed.

If you even put a logo on there, it won’t.

Do yourself a favor…put a website address (perhaps one without your brand name like “DepressionHurts.com”) in your paid media.

Take your logo out…it’s a tell with a foghorn blaster on it.

Mark Hughes is a professional speaker, consultant, and author of the book Buzzmarketing: Get People to Talk About Your Stuff.