Last week at a homeschool park day, I was chatting with a mom about "stuff" and surprisingly the conversation turned to social marketing. She's a graphic designer for one of the major internet car sales sites and was grousing about the industry's resistance to embracing it. Anyway, she turned me on to BzzAgent which is right inline with one of our readings this week -- The Wizards of Buzz from the WSJ 2/10/07.

BzzAgent uses volunteers, aka agents to try new products, and if they like them they are encouraged to tell others in their social network about them. BzzAgent markets to potential agents from the angle of being an insider and learning about cool stuff before the general public does, thereby securing their role as "one in the know" among their friends. BzzAgent's appeal to business is that they let you "market with your customers instead of at them."

I find it amusing that I learned about BzzAgent at a time when we have been having similar discussions in class, and that it came up, not as she was "selling" a product as a BzzAgent, but in a casual conversation about her work. No ifs, ands or buts -- social marketing works.