When you're launching a new business or professional endeavor, it's remarkably easy for such heady times to lead an entrepreneur to believe that soon everyone will be talking about his or her newest venture.
Unfortunately, some small business owners couldn't generate a buzz if they spent every morning swatting at a bee hive.
According to Chris Mahlmann, CEO of Ideas in Motion Media, one of the primary reasons so many upstart entrepreneurs stutter-step in generating a tangible community buzz about their products and services is that they either try too hard or not hard enough.
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Spending a fortune on advertising, for example, to become the toast of the town may only have a short term effect -- if any. Conversely, if you merely expect community interest to mount in the wake of a new business popping up down the street, you may soon find the sound of an absent buzz to be deafening.
What Mahlmann suggests for sparking a lasting buzz is developing an unyielding commitment to customer engagement. "Whatever it is you're doing," Mahlmann advises, "engage people. You have to be engaging in every way that you communicate -- directly or indirectly."
Recently, Mahlmann shared with the Intuit Small Business Blog his top five tips for generating a community buzz when starting a new small business.