Many aspiring social marketers are surprised when they stumble into a community of IMers who are secretly buzzing (promoting) each others content.

The Secret

These covert little communities are simple vote sharing networks and generally work like this:

Each member is allowed to submit a predefined number of URLs (usually per week or per month) and request that it be “dugg”, “stumbled”, “bookmarked”, etc. on selected social media sites.

The submissions typically arrive via email to each member of that community.

Each member of the group then chooses to either delete that request or follow through and “buzz” their fellow member’s post or article.

Obviously, if your an honest buzzer, you are going to be graciously responding to many more requests than you submit.

The Math

If you do the math on this type of group voting structure it gets kind of interesting.

For example:

Group members = 100

Allowed request per day = 1

Average requests per group per day = 50 (not everyone makes a request everyday)

Number of email requests you get = 50

My experience with a few of these groups shows that typically, only the folks who consistently submit requests respond to others requests. This usually fits into the 80/20 rule, so only 20% of the members are really active buzzers. However, even these ladies and gentlemen do not buzz EVERY request, they only buzz content that they like AND have time for. This translates into about a 10 per day MAX or 20%.

So, plugging in these numbers, we can finish the calculation:

Number of consistent requesters = 20

Number of votes you get on your one request = 4

So, theoretically, on average you get about 4 votes for your 10.

The Verdict

Is it worth your time?

I say YES, but with a BIG caution.

Yes because 4 votes are more than you might get if you don’t join a buzz group. And… four well timed votes are all you need to get into the mainstream, and possibly the “jet stream”, on some social media sites and attract the attention of the average social media crowd looking for content that looks like it’s on the rise.

Caution because the numbers above are true for new buzz groups only. Why? Because inevitably a load of social marketing barnacles find established buzz groups and do nothing but make requests.

I have seen some of these guys leeching from multiple buzz groups, requesting buzz favors on the same content and never returning the favor or being part of the community.

So, unless there is an active buzz group admin that is seriously checking the activity of anyone who makes requests, the group is doomed to failure.

The other thing that tends to happen is the group gets so large that everyone’s Inbox fills up with requests each night and the active participants spend the first 30 minutes of the day deleting most and buzzing about 10.

So, I would also suggest trying to find a “closed” buzz group through a friend or forum. This type of group is more sustainable and efficient for the reasons stated above.

The Buzz Groups

I will be keeping my 2 little buzz groups to myself because they are humming along quite nicely for now. However, if you are interested in joining or inviting Web2Center readers to a buzz group, feel free to do so in the comments.

If you have some insight into the secret society of buzzers, please share your thoughts with us as well!

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