I couldn’t agree with you more. Joe will continue to engage you – it’s his job as the PR guy. But stay on task and keep on speaking for a lot of us out here (equally well respected bloggers and such).

WOM is not a media channel. Period. You can buy air time on TV, space on billboards and celebrity endorsements. You can’t buy people’s opinions. Trying to use a “WOM network” is nothing more than buying impressions. It’s not going to guarantee success in the slighest.

Great blog. Great post. Keep it up.

I appreciate your sentiment, truly. There are some interesting conflicts integrated into this project. On one hand your blog seems to suggest that there is something underhanded about BzzAgent embedding Butman as the blogger; but on the other hand different bloggers (equally well respected ones) have commented that the disclosure statement on the blog site is overkill. You suggest we are following the path of least resistance by employing a “convert” as the blogger; but then Butman’s “Free Stuff” post (http://90days.bzzagent.com/?p=59) caused so much upheaval that we are expediting our existing plans to restructure our rewards system.

I am not accusing you of being unfair or wrong, not in the slightest. But I think a truly great idea must be implementable (if that’s a word). And given that Butman has access to every internal BzzAgent meeting and is included on all company-wide email messages, and is invited into all post-work affairs … it is crucial that a degree of mutual trust exists prior to launching the experiment.

Ultimately, I am simply pleased that you find the 90 Days blog worthy of your attention, regardless of your perspective. Keep up the good work, Russell. I’ll keep checking in.

JoeC

I’m not anti-BzzAgent by any means and as a marketer myself, I know the power of word of mouth. However, I am sceptical about your execution or interpretation of the word of mouth concept. Butman is too close to the company and concept to look at it with dispassionate, fresh eyes, so what you end up with is well-written, errr…inanity really.

If you’d gone with an independent blogger with no obviously axe to grind, I think it would have been more interesting and potentially more beneficial for your – let’s face it – somewhat tarnished image, rightly or wrongly deserved. But that would also have the potentially to backfire if they didn’t like what they found.

Russell

What “stuff” would you like Butman to write about in the 90Days Blog that he hasn’t to date? We are accepting input as to what folks want to hear.

Your reader,
Joe