Are you afraid of buzz? What does that cost you?
A local small business owner asked me to not share photos of her renovated historic building until after she has a grand opening. I was surprised. I mentioned that her renovation had been featured in a newspaper article, with photos! She said again, “don’t show them around,” so I decided to hold them.
[The photos were on Flickr. I’ve now marked all the interior shots as private, until I hear about her grand opening. I left the street view public, since anyone can drive by and see it. That’s the photo to the right.]
After she left, I kept thinking about how much you and I talk here about building buzz, sharing freely, and reaching out. I really thought my sharing was to her benefit.
So I asked you on Twitter, “How is my sharing going to hurt her? Or is buzz bad?”
That drew four immediate replies:
alizasherman: On flip side, I’ve got a biz owner who’ll share photos as they build a small kitty litter factory, step by step, to build buzz.
tawnypress: Why not build anticipation? All buzz is good buzz, just look at Hollywood, even bad news flips into good. :)
CoryOBrien: Maybe they have other plans? I can’t see why else they’d want you not to.
LisaVanAllen: Are they afraid of too much publicity? Not being able to handle the mob that shows up?? :0)
Solutions
I don’t know how you overcome the basic reaction of hiding rather than sharing. CoryOBrien suggested showing the biz owner examples of other business that have shared pre-release building photos. That could work! Do you have ideas?
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Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.
It DOES seem counter-intuitive!
Well, I saw the photos on flickr (before they were taken down) and was very impressed. In fact, those photos made me want to patronized her establishment. And if she is going to run a bed and breakfast, I was prepared to recommend wholly on the basis of those photos. Her attitude is most curious.
Which, I guess, makes another post. Is it better to maintain an air of mystery, or to generate excited buzz?
Perhaps it’s not fear but control. I worked in newspapers and dealt with people who wanted to control how and when we presented their story. In many cases I got the sense it was more about being in control.
Interesting thought, Carl.