Google moves into social networking with their new social media application called Google Buzz. Buzz is a new way to start conversations right in your Gmail which means no need to seek out a new set of friends from scratch. Buzz utilizes your existing network by automatically setting you up to follow the people you email and chat with the most. Buzz is expected to be an easy-to-use sharing experience that richly integrates photos, videos and links, and makes it easy to share publicly or privately (so you don’t have to use different tools to share with different audiences). Plus, Buzz integrates with your existing Gmail inbox, so you’re sure to see the stuff that matters most as it happens in real time. There is no applications to download and install. Google is rolling out Buzz to all Gmail user so you can expect to see it in your account very soon.

7 Things You Need to Know About Google Buzz

1. Easy update and sharing of your photos & videos
2. Built right into Gmail, so you will automatically be following your existing network of friends, family and co-workers.
3. You can share your account publicly or privately
4. Connect with more then just your status updates, Buzz will automatically pull images from links, play videos inline and you can even flip through photo seamlessly
5. Buzz let you connect with other sites you use like Picasa, Flickr, Google Reader and Twitter
6. Communicate with friends using the commenting field and respond directly in your inbox
7. Buzz even works on your phone

You are likely asking yourself by now, “What is new about this?” and you would be correct. None of these features are groundbreaking or innovative, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr all serve these features effectively enough.

Will Google Buzz give us sizzle or sadly fizzle?

To learn more visit buzz.google.com

Related articles by Zemanta

• Google Officially Announces Google Buzz – A Google Approach To Sharing (thenextweb.com)
• Google to make Gmail a little more social (news.cnet.com)

It is true Twitter can be time consuming and it is compelling to use or try any of the thousands of Twitter applications available to save yourself time, add followers quickly or automate your tweets.

Before you do, you may want to learn about Twitter’s best practices that help prevent your account from being removed from searches, or in some cases suspended. Twitter may automatically remove accounts engaging in what they consider aggressive behaviors in order to ensure the best experience for everyone.

Twitter cautions against aggressive behaviors and suggests that you stay away from:

1) Repeatedly posting duplicate or near-duplicate content (links or tweets) – Be kind to your followers, no one wants to see the same tweets repeatedly. If for example your trying to get traffic back to a new blog post change the content of your tweets so that they are fresh, and interesting. If you do try to tweet duplicate tweets, Twitter will actually prevent the tweet from posting. Therefore, you are automatically compelled to change the content.

2) Abusing trending topics or hashtags (topic words with a # sign) – This is not the way to promote your business or cause. Abusing hashtags or hijacking hashtags is not only annoying to followers, but it is a red flag to Twitter that you are not practicing good Twitter etiquette.

3) Sending automated tweets or replies – This seems like the easiest way to “set your Twitter account and forget it.” Many Twitter applications provide automated tweets and replies but you can guarantee that all your tweets will be removed from searches. Getting found is the point of social media and Twitter, without it you might as well be invisible. And consider this, if everyone is on automated tweeting, then who are you to “engage” with, and “build relationships” with?

4) Using bots or applications to post similar messages based on keywords – This is similar to automating your tweets, and if you are to be that disingenuous about your tweets, then your are not following the rules of social media.

5) Posting similar messages over multiple accounts – I see this in my Twitter stream all the time. How authentic are you if you are Tweeting from multiple accounts? I also noticed that these type of twitters most often are using an application to automate those tweets. This type of activity means you have no engagement, no trust, and followers will likely un-follow you quickly, like I do.

6) Aggressively following and un-following people – There are hundreds of applications offering mass following and un-following, not to mention the “How to get Follower’s Fast” spam tweets. No one needs that many followers overnight, in fact there is a movement to have 1000 or less followers. That is considered the magic number of loyal followers anyone needs to have a strong social media program. So do not worry about how many followers you can “get” overnight.

I hope that by learning these best practices I have saved you from being removed from searches, and potentially suspended from Twitter. You can learn more about Twitter best practices, and Twitter rules at the Twitter Help section.

I recently had the great pleasure of being interviewed and featured as a Wild Web Woman at Web Marketing Therapy.

The Wild Web Women at Web Marketing Therapy are always thrilled to connect with like-minded and brilliant women in business and introduce them to you! We had the pleasure of chatting with Gail Helmer, who seeks to simplify the Wild Web’s social media secrets and helps companies integrate social media into their business. With almost 20 years as a marketing professional, she lives and breathes the internet! We had a blast finding out what inspires Gail, as well as what brand of shoes make her feel at her best and that she shares the WMT Wild Web Women’s obsession with Lululemon yoga pants!

You can read the full interview at the Web Marketing Therapy Blog. Thank you to Lorrie Thomas, Sarah Caminker, Kelly Kohen, and all the great women at Web Marketing Therapy.

According to  Mashable, there are over 56 million women using Facebook in the United States.  “For marketers this means one very important thing,” Brette Borow, the president and founder of Girls Guide To, the “ladies only” guide to life, wrote for Mashable. “If you have a brand, product or company that targets women, Facebook is the place to be. Unfortunately, unless you’re a brand that every woman knows or loves, then just being on Facebook is not enough.”

Brette offers these 10 tips for marketing to women on Facebook:

1- Quality counts
2- Create an emotional connection
3- Provide Utility
4- Give fans a voice
5- Listen
6- Complement her life, don’t complicate it.
7- Don’t be redundant
8- Keep the shopping seamless
9- Remember: she’s a social shopper
10- Keep your fans in the loop

Women’s clothing designer and online retailer Hayden Harnett have done an impressive job of building and maintaining a loyal fan base for their gorgeous products. For more then two years this team honed these tips Brette recommends and then some with their transparent, customer engaging, social networking, with no sales pitches.  My favorite is the stories and photos that customers share of their purchases. The entire product line is given proper names making it easy to personalize and have fun while creating a connection between the company and your wardrobe. If you want to find out more visit the Hayden-Harnett website, Twitter and Facebook.

Have tips or experiences for marketing to women online let us know, we would all love to hear them.

Saving valuable time with your social media program has become essential. That is why I think this is one of the most exciting announcements that I have heard in a long time and it comes from the recent winner of Mashable’s 2009 Open Web Award for Best Twitter App.

Hootsuite has announced the integration of WordPress. Now you can cross post content between Hootsuite and your WordPress blog. As with Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, you can schedule and cross-post content to multiple WordPress accounts.

WordPress.com is the first blog platform officially supported by HootSuite, with support for self-hosted WordPress blogs coming soon. My blog is self-hosted so I am unable to test this new feature out which makes me sad and very anxious for the chance to use it.

As you will see in the video set up is simple and hassle-free. I have set up my Twitter, Facebook and Linked-in accounts using the same interface and it is remarkably quick and simple procedure.

If you are not a current user of Hootsuite then consider these other impressive features:

- Multiple Twitter Accounts
- Schedule Tweets
- RSS/Atom Feeds
- Add your LinkedIn accounts
- Add your Facebook and Fan Page accounts
- Add your Ping.fm account
- Preview links, video and photos in your Twitter stream
- Hootsuite iphone App

Hootsuite is a free, web-based platform with no need to download and install the application. You can get started at www.hootsuite.com

If you do try out the WordPress feature let me know I would love to here your thoughts.

Don’t take my word for it. Guy Kawasaki shares his top three Twitter tips.

Top 3 Twitter Tips for Business:

1) Always be informing instead of meforming. Ensure your tweets are providing links that are informational, resourceful, and provide tips on other things.

2) Always reply to mentions, retweets, and direct messages from others. Guy considers it a moral obligation to respond to others.

3) The real goal to Twitter is to get retweeted. Guys says that, “Retweeting is the sincerest form of flattery. People are risking their reputation when the retweet you.”

Has “meforming” made its way into Websters dictionary yet? My definiton of meforming: The process of broadcasting every excruciating detail of your personal life on Twitter.

Looking for a Great Business Book

If you are not familiar with Guy Kawasaki, then I recommend you follow him on Twitter @guykawasaki. I also highly recommend his new book “Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition.” I find it an absolute must resource for entrepreneurs, small business owners and solopreneurs. After reading this book my business partner and I have nicknamed him “God” Kawasaki for his down-to-earth, informative and guiding-hand business style.

Source: SAP Web 2.0

I participated in a webinar this past week, the topic was “Managing Social Media Campaigns”. Before the speakers began the moderator conducted a poll of the audience. The question was “What is the current social media usage in your business.” The audience was given a multiple choice answer like this;

a) not at all
b) some social media
c) using 3 or more social media tools

Now I had never seen a moderator conduct a poll before a presentation, but what was unusual was that the audience was asked to use Twitter to provide their responses. Using the hashtag #thiswebinar, the audience then tweeted  their answers. Using the powerpoint presentation, the moderator could instantly gauge the audiences experience and share with the speakers. The information was then gathered and displayed within the presentation so that everyone could see the results of the poll.

This was a webinar presentation unlike anything I had ever experienced before. Are we not used to a one-sided presentation, the speaker talks and everyone listens? No engagement, no connection.

The integration of social media turned the presentation automatically into a conversation. Taking a poll at the start of the presentation was great information for the speakers to know their audience. It also set the tone of the presentation by involving the audience, and fostering particiaption.

Fostering participation has always been a challenge in a traditional presentation. Not in this presentation. The audience were also encouraged to tweet their questions for the speakers. The questions then formed the Q&A period, which was lively and conversational. There was no waiting, or the awkward silence when no one in the audience speaks.

This was one of the most interactive and engaging webinars I have ever been a part of.  The speakers really enjoyed it, especially in the webinar environment when you do not see your audience, and the audience had fun with tweeting and they became very engaged.

Do you want to make your presentations more interactive? Looking for a way to include social media tools that move your one-way presentation into a two-way conversation? Now you can have the Web 2.0 experience in your PowerPoint presentations. SAP has created a PowerPoint Twitter Tool that embeds directly within your presentations real-time tweets from your audience.  The tweets display either as a ticker or refreshable comment page. Now your Q&A period becomes engaging and conversational. The PowerPoint Twitter Tools offers six Twitter elements:

- PowerPoint Twitter feedback slide
- PowerPoint Twitter ticker bar
- PowerPoint Twitter update bar
- PowerPoint Twitter voting — bar charts and pie chart
- PowerPoint Mood meter
- PowerPoint Crowd meter

This FREE PowerPoint Twitter Tool requires only PowerPoint for Windows and Adobe Flash to run.

You can get details, see more screenshots, and get the download to try out the tool by heading over to the blog SAP Web 2.0.

More on Presentations and Social Media

How Speakers Should Integrate Social Into Their Presentation
Twitter-heckled Key Note Speaker

I would love to hear from you. What do you think of Powerpoint presentations using Twitter? Do you think this is a good idea? Or not?