Rating: 
Summary: Move over Seth Godin!
Review: A detailed, yet simple system for creating buzz about your product or service. Here are the roots of effective viral marketing. Rosen has also included many fascinating stories - both personal and business - that support his teachings. Count on great reading that concludes with a step-by-step "workshop" to help you launch the word on your product or service. Learn how some of your efforts may be wasted without employing the proven suggestions of this "BuzzMaster." I picked up the book when I saw that Everett Rodgers had written the intro. He's the guru of understanding (for over 30 years) on how to get innovations into the marketplace.
Rating: 
Summary: Misleading Title, But Still Incredible
Review: Alas the ideas in this book could be developed by anyone having a few minutes of quiet contemplation. Waiting for the Reader's Digest version is recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book!!
Review: An extremely interesting book. Lots of concepts that can be applied to real life situations. Read it, you won't regret it...
Rating:
Summary: The Architecture and Psychology of How Buzz Spreads
Review: Based on research Rosen has done with over 150 executives and marketers who have successfully built buzz for major brands, this book explains the mystique behind word-of-mouth and viral marketing. In illustrating the architecture and psychology of how buzz spreads, Rosen explains that it travels over invisible networks. Pick up an in-flight magazine and examine the airline's flight paths. Amongst the paths you'll see hubs, where flights originate and land. Rosen says, now imagine the hubs as people and the flight paths as connections between people. Buzz travels through these connections via face-to-face meetings, the Internet, phone calls, etc.. Continuing with his airline analogy, Rosen names buzz-spreaders as hubs. They are trusted sources of information who can disseminate information quickly and make an impact on your organization. There are two kinds of hubs: * Mega-hubs: newspaper and magazine writers, Oprah, politicians, etc. * Individual network hubs: people in the community who can influence a sizable network of co-workers, friends and family -- it's typically those people in your office who always seem to be up on the latest movie, fashion or gadget So now that we know how buzz spreads, what causes it in the first place? Some products are "contagious," and there are ways to accelerate their natural contagion. Rosen explains that the hit HBO series "The Sopranos" is contagious because it's a brilliantly written show, and it's about people. Colorful and unusual people. Rosen's research shows that our innate interest in other people causes us to talk so much about them. Rosen argues that buzz about a restaurant is often about the people who eat there. Movie buzz is often focused on the real-life actors in the film. And what about stimulating product buzz? Rosen suggests that in working with network hubs, be diligent in finding and tracking them. Target them first with a new product or service. Network hubs love to be the first to know something new. Bring the network hubs to forums where they can talk with others. Devise ways to make sure others see hubs using your products. For example, PowerBar created a "PowerBar Elite" program. Athletes earn money when their picture appears in the media eating PowerBars or wearing PowerBar gear. Filled with other research-based information and examples, the "Anatomy of Buzz" thoroughly explains how individuals, not just the traditional "mega-hubs," contribute to awareness of your product. Buzz-based programs can be an addition (or a substitution) to the mass media approach of traditional PR firms. With Rosen's helpful book in hand, marketers should add a section to their marketing plans for creating buzz. By talking directly with your customers, finding individual champions and establishing relationships with them, you are on your way to creating good buzz.
Rating:
Summary: Insightful!
Review: Emanuel Rosen discovered the power of buzz as marketing VP for Niles Software when it produced EndNote, a research tool for tracking references and compiling bibliographies. Niles received its first EndNote order from someone in New Jersey who heard about it before it was advertised, when only a few people knew it existed. EndNote sold more than 200,000 copies, but most customers heard about it from friends or colleagues, not from ads or retailers. Rosen describes how this word of mouth develops and how you can create favorable buzz for your product. He emphasizes the role of multiple personal networks in creating buzz. Then, he describes the need to reach network hubs - individuals at the center of these networks - to create everyday grassroots buzz as part of your marketing mix. The lively style of this authoritative book makes it engaging. We at ... presume that it will generate extremely positive buzz throughout many different networks.
Rating: 
Summary: Read as a complement to "The Tipping Point"
Review: Emanuel Rosen's 'Anatomy of Buzz' has some worthwhile stuff about what he calls 'information hubs,' those people who seem to know more about certain subjects and make it their business to pass the word to the rest of us. However, Malcom Gladwell dissected this phenomenon in great detail in his outstanding work, "The Tipping Point." Gladwell tells us that the Hub persona is actually comprised of three different indivduals: mavens, connectors and salesmen. You don't really get down to that level of detail here. Not to say Rosen's book is without merit. I was fascinated by Gladwell's research and thought 'Buzz' would be a good complement to that. With those expectations, I enjoyed the book and found it to be a worthwhile read. I'll keep it on my bookshelf (for me, that's the litmus test of a book's worth).
Rating:
Summary: An intelligent look at word of mouth marketing
Review: First a disclaimer. Mr. Rosen offered to send me a copy of this book, based on my review of Gladwell's The Tipping Point. I didn't receive the copy, but purchased one after he spoke at a local bookstore. That said, this is a great marketing book. By honestly looking at the phenomenon of word of mouth, Mr. Rosen draws some valuable conclusions (see the other reviews for very indepth analyses). His case studies are very supportive of his thesis and I can say that the ones on Yomega, Trivial Pursuit, Pictionary, and Magic the Gathering are factual (I used to work at a game store and a game distributor and watched these items gain momentum). The look at Powerbar shows how marketing can drive a product's life (another place I got to see the inside of). This book is the positive side of effective marketing (good buzz) and should be tempered by reading Rushkoff's Coercion, but Mr. Rosen goes a long way in promoting good marketing practices that add value to a product and makes the market more aware of quality offerings.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing, but could be good for the right reader.
Review: I bought the book as a business owner that sells HR and OD consulting. I thought if I could create 'buzz' about my company, I would get more prospects interested in what I have to offer and calling me. While this may very well be true, the book didn't really offer many ideas about how to actually accomplish this in ways that I can get my hands around. I must admit this was very disappointing and at first, I was very frustrated. As I kept reading, I did find the book interesting from a academic textbook kind of way. I am very interested in marketing, although I mostly sell. Also, he seems to really disect what constitutes 'buzz' and the intangible ways in which is travels. I suggest taking a hard look at what you want to accomplish before you buy the book. Rosen obviously knows what he is talking about, but you'd better be speaking his language first.
Rating:
Summary: Where's the Beef?
Review: I bought this book rather quickly after hearing about the author and the subject matter from Inc. Magazine. While the book is a fast read, is well-structured, and covers the topic of word-of-mouth marketing as advertised, I did not walk away with a sense that I had learned a tremendous amount from it. Most companies and their marketing efforts have used the tactics that Rosen talks about. I also judge books by how many notes I write down that give myself ideas and plans for my own business, and I had very few to speak of. Rosen seems to have used quite a bit of reference material and put a lot of effort into this book, so I don't want to seem as though I am slamming him, but he seems to have "dumbed down" his presentation for the masses. I would have liked to have seen more stats and research results presented rather than a case study on yo-yos. The "beef" of the subject matter, namely "buzz," did not seem to be included between the covers of the book. This is still a good book for a budding product marketer, but I'd wait for the paperback version.
Rating:
Summary: Different from the Tipping Point
Review: I have read both the Tipping Point and the Anatomy of Buzz. Although those two books talk about the same subject (the word-of-mouth buzz), they might be suited for different needs. Whereas the Tipping Point is explaining the reasons behind buzz ("know why" knowledge), the Anatomy of Buzz explains how to create such buzz ("know how" knowledge). The Anatomy of Buzz is unfortunately not as easy to read, and not as captivating as the Tipping Point, hence "only" 4 stars. I don't think it is due to the content, but due to the style, and to the examples chosen. A great book however, with a wonderful idea: the last chapter is a workshop, and sums up the key ideas of the book.
| 
