We can't all be YouTube, rocketing from a garage startup to a billion-dollar buyout in less than two years on an unceasing wave of viral buzz. But, if your business is doing good things, it can probably generate a lot more buzz than it's getting now. You might think that word of mouth buzz occurs only as a natural reaction to a "wow" product or service — you either have it or you don't, it's out of your control. Ron McDaniel thinks otherwise, and his new book Buzzoodle Buzz Marketing shows you how a deliberate buzz strategy can lift your business, especially if your competitors aren't employing one of their own.

The first thing McDaniel makes clear is that word of mouth can be generated by everyone in a company - in fact, it's probably more meaningful when it comes from employees who aren't executives or part of the sales staff. Hearing the buzz from the Queen Bee (or King Bee) is great, but it's when the whole hive is buzzing that your customers and your industry really take notice. (McDaniel says his obsession with buzz really took hold when an employee told him that word of mouth is "not my job.")

But what can an employee with other job responsibilities do to support a word of mouth effort? Especially if that employee does not have a marketing bone in his/her body?

The subtitle to Buzzoodle Buzz Marketing is "57 Word of Mouth Challenges For The Entire Workforce". Don't let the word "challenges" throw you, though. McDaniel offers 57 action steps to create buzz, and thankfully most are simple enough for anyone in a company to do in just a few minutes a day. (I think they're called "challenges" in that you're almost "challenging" people to follow through with them.)

E-mail an old friend or business acquaintance and tell him or her in your own words about the good things your company is doing? That's not hard. Send a congratulatory note to someone who's had a noteworthy success? Sounds like a win-win. Forward a news clipping that a business contact might be interested in? That's natural enough.