The Lowdown on Google Buzz
By Chelsea Junget
Stumbled across a great post a few weeks back on Google Buzz’s applications for B2B over on the OPEN Forum. Since the debut of Google Buzz just about a month ago, we marketers have been scratching our heads on its best use for B2B purposes. Integrated right into Gmail, Google Buzz is a hybrid of Twitter, Facebook and the location-based social network, Foursquare. As it stands now, you must be a Gmail user to access Buzz, it’s not yet available as a stand-alone or through Google apps but Google’s mentioned it should be more widely available shortly. So, if you are not a Gmail user, why should you care? Based on the explosive growth of Twitter and Facebook, Google Buzz could offer marketers, for better or for worse, another social channel on which to engage prospects. Where does Buzz’s potential lie?
- “Check ins” encourage your customers to notify their Buzz followers when they visit your brick-and-mortar location. Location-based services can drive free word-of-mouth marketing for your business.
- Buzz can help you understand what’s being said about your business. It allows you post a message to a group of followers that ask to receive updates. Messages can be longer than Twitter’s standard 140 characters and replies to messages are grouped under the original message. Unlike Twitter’s free-for-all style of communication, exchanges are easier to track in Buzz.
- Buzz can be used to share blog posts, deals, or interesting links related to your business. However, be polite. Remember, it’s considered rude to incessantly self-promote in social media. Bring value to the conversation.
Until Buzz is available to any user, it’s not the place to invest a significant amount of time but Google fine-tunes its product quickly based on user feedback and likely wants their piece of the Facebook/Twitter pie.
What’s your take on Buzz?
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Google Buzz seems to be as popular as Google Wave!