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.

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.

Do you have your customer incentive programs all set for Christmas? Are your landing pages in place? Then start sharing the savings on social media. According to a recent study by Neilsen, 60 percent of shoppers will be looking for discounts and sales this holiday season. 17 percent will be looking for specials and deals through social media.

“Consumers are trying to find any way possible to find value and being connected via social media is a new way to find these deals and the values of the season,” said Stacy Janiak, vice chairman and Deloitte’s U.S. retail leader.

Promote your customer incentives by posting on your Facebook and Twitter pages, as well as in your e-mail newsletters. Think creatively this holiday season to strengthen and foster relationships with your customers. The objective is to offer helpful solutions to alleviate your customers shopping anxiety. The social media incentive program works effectively for both your online and offline stores.

Top 4 effective consumer incentives to spur customer action and increase your overall revenue and profits:

1) BOGO – The buy-one-get-one free offer. An excellent sales promotion and an offer a bargain hunter can not pass up. The stipulation is the free item is of equal or lesser value then the purchased item. With this promotion the sales is increased when the consumer spends more to recieve the free item.

2) Gift with Purchase – This offer encourages the consumer to purchase items, in order to receive a free gift. The cosmetic industry has been successfully using this method for years. The value of the free gift is up to you, but it must be something people will desire. The cosmetic industry gives away a cosmetic bag with the purchase of $50 or more.

3) Discount Coupons – When implemented strategically coupons can not only increase revenues, but will provide lasting goodwill with your customers. Set a threshhold of $50 to $100 dollars to receive a discount of 15% or more. Remember the objective is encourage customers to spend more to save more.

4) Bundling – If you have inventory you would like to clear out, or have a new product that you want consumers to know about then consider creating a bundled gift package. You can increase the price overall and offer a unique gift idea.

Social media tips for promoting your incentives without looking like a spammer.

1) Craft your messages into 140 characters or less:
2) Include a “please retweet” or “send to a friend” in your message to encourage viral sharing.
3) Include a link to your website landing page with more details on the promotion. Make it handy for your customers to make a printout of your promotion that they can bring into your store.
4) Include promotion incentives during the online checkout process as a last minute impulse buy.

I encourage you to use social media this holiday season, not only will your customers appreciate the savings, I can guarantee you will have an advantage over your competitors.

Source: With Social Media, Who Needs Santa?.

Starting today you have a new question to answer on Twitter, “What’s Happening.”  As the popular social media platform evolves, so does how people are using it. Perhaps no one cares anymore “What are you doing?” and they now want to know more about “What’s happening?” in your world.

Twitter Blog: What’s Happening?.

LinkedIn has announced the integration of Twitter into its platform. This new feature will enable LinkedIn users to cross posts their status between the two services in real-time. The new partnership only lends credence to the power of Twitter for business. It will be interesting to see how this new feature will enable and enhance the community on LinkedIn.

In this video LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and Twitter co-founder Biz Stone discuss the partnership and the value to users. A partnership, as Biz says, that is like “peanut butter and chocolate.”

The video also includes a quick tutorial on how to set-up and use the new Twitter LinkedIn feature.

Personally I am seeing the proliferation of platforms feeding to Twitter that is diluting the effectiveness of Twitter. If everyone is automating their tweets to Twitter from other platforms, who is at Twitter to read them? I offer you a few tips to using Twitter on LinkedIn to ensure that your experience with the tool is effective.

1) Don’t broadcast all of your tweets to LinkedIn, be sure to filter using the #in or #li hashtags. No need to be spamming your LinkedIn account.

2) Do use your status update on LinkedIn more often to keep your contacts up-to-date on the projects and activities you are involved in. Combining with Twitter will increase your business exposure.

3) Be interesting, share relevant ideas, and articles. This isn’t a place for a sales pitch.

4) This is a great feature on LinkedIn, but unless you have an intention to spend more time on Twitter, I suggest you not use Twitter just to broadcast your LinkedIn status. If you already have a Twitter account that you are actively engaged in, consider sending only the type of tweets that your LinkedIn contacts would be interested in. Remember, Social Media use is really about your audience, and having a conversation.

For more on LinkedIn and Twitter visit the LinkedIn blog.

What do you think about the LinkedIn and Twitter partnership. Is this a feature that is going to enhance your business experience? Would love to hear your thoughts.

Getting the most out of Twitter is more then answering the question, “What are you doing” in 140 characters. Here is a list of Twitter apps developed to help enhance and optimize your Twitter experience, save you time – yes, it is possible, and maybe even make your tweets more interesting.

1. Bitly – bit.ly is a utility that allows you to shorten a long URL, share it, and then track the resulting usage. Do you like to share blog posts, images or videos on Twitter, Gmail, Email, and Facebook? You can do it simply and quickly using the bit.ly sidebar bookmarklet. Then track the performance with complete statistical history of your bit.ly links in real-time.

2. Twitpic – TwitPic lets you share photos on Twitter. You can post pictures to TwitPic from your phone, the TwitPic API, or through the site itself. There are also popular Twitter clients that have built-in support for TwitPic. If you have a Twitter account then you already have a Twitpic account, just login to Twitpic with your Twitter username and password and you are all set.

3. Tweetie 2.0 – Twitter client for your iPhone. Explore all of Twitter, from your own timeline and mentions, to the favorite tweets of your followers and friends.

4. Hootsuite – A browser based Twitter client. You can manage multiple users and multiple Twitter profiles, schedule tweets, feed your blog RSS, organize your Twitter stream into friends, news, search terms, keyword tracking – whatever you like, and measure your success with built-in statistics. Manage your entire Twitter experience from one easy-to-use interface. Only downside is you can’t manage who is following you from Hootsuite.

5. TweetDeck – Is a downloadable application for staying in touch across Twitter, Facebook and MySpace. Manage multiple Twitter accounts, Record, share and watch video clips within TweetDeck, organize your Twitter stream into friends, news, search terms, keyword tracking. TweetDeck is also available for your iPhone.

6. Digsby – A multiprotocol IM client that lets you manage all your IM, email, and social network accounts from one easy-to-use application. For social networks, it provides a newsfeed of events on the network and the ability to set status with support for Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace.

7. Brizzly – Is a new Twitter client that allows you to use multiple accounts, monitor searches, share photos, save drafts and wiki-describe trending topics. A nice feature in Brizzly is that it has an explanation for why each trending topic on Twitter is popular. If your note a fan of columns, like in Hootsuite and Tweetdeck, you might like Brizzly for it simple and user-friendly interface. Note: It’s still in private beta, you can request an invitation to try it out on their website.

8. Friend or Follow – A basic service that helps you manage your Twitter contacts. Submit your Twitter screen name to find out who you’re following, who is not following you back, and who is following you that you’re not following back.

9. Screenr – Instant screencasts for Twitter. Screenr allows you to create screencasts for your followers as easily as you tweet. With Screenr’s web-based recorder, there’s nothing to download. Your screencasts play everywhere, even on iPhones.

10. TweetStats – Interested in tracking and measuring your tweet statistics? TweetStats graphs your Twitter Stats including – tweets per hour, tweets per month, tweet timeline and reply statistics.

What do you think? Feel free to leave a comment below or talk to me on Twitter!

Twitterfeed has announced new upgrades making publishing feeds much faster than before.

1) Pubsubhubbub real-time feed publishing - Twitterfeed now works with Pubsubhubbub. This means that sites enabled with Pubsubhubbub, like Typepad and Blogger sites, will be able to see their posts published in real time. For WordPress users, Twitterfeed willl be announcing support soon for RSScloud so that your sites can also be published in real time.

2) Publish to Facebook - You can now automatically publish to Facebook from Twitterfeed.  You can also see statistics for each post showing you just how many people clicked on posts from Facebook vs those from Twitter. You’ll be able to better understand just where your social media strategy is working.

3) Google Analytics Integration – Twitterfeed now adds special ‘UTM’ tags to each post that it publishes. Google Analytics can read these tags and integrate the information into its reporting. You’ll be able to understand how people clicking on your posts from Facebook differ from those clicking from Twitter and track the complete path of their visit to your site.

For more details go to the Twitterfeed Blog

What in the world is Twitterfeed?

Twitterfeed will automatically feed your blog posts directly to Twitter. So no need to cut and paste the links yourself. Using your RSS feed, Twitterfeed will check your blog as frequently as you choose and post a link to your Twitter page. Twitterfeed will also track the clicks on your link back to your website using your bit.ly account.

Two weeks of twittering and I am already suffering Twitter overload. Twitter is a very fun application that is easy to get started in and easy to get addicted to. After the encouragement from a friend, and despite my ever-present reluctance to “put my self out there,” I signed up for a Twitter account, slapped up my goofy mug, and got twittering.

I am a gatherer of knowledge: I LOVE to read. I love reading anything and everything. So Twitter, for me, is an ever-flowing fountain of information—fresh, new, piping-hot information, instantly.

Unlike Facebook, where the main goal is to connect with friends, family, co-workers, and your best friend from grade 4, Twitter is about connecting with people who share your interests, or better still for business folks, are interested in consuming what you are creating, be it words or links to stuff.

There are two sides to Twitter: Following and Followers. For many Twitter users, the goal is to gather as many followers as possible. Ashton Kutcher has 795,000 people following him at the time of this writing. Then there is Travis Greenlee, someone I doubt anyone really knows, but he has 22,000 people following him. Apparently, to have as many people as possible following your Twitter “tweets” means you are interesting. Gulp! No pressure, huh? How about following instead.

Yes, I admit it, I love to follow. Following on Twitter means you subscribe to another person’s tweets. So every time that person utters something on Twitter, you’ll see it on your Twitter page. And yes, I find the people and businesses I follow interesting.

I am currently following fashion magazines, designers, bloggers, as well as the marketing types. Suddenly I am connected with all the information I find gloriously interesting. Sample Sale Online 80% Off … and they ship to Canada? Hello! Or, 5 Editor’s Secrets to Help you Write Like a Pro…yes! This is the world of Twitter.

After two weeks of following and gaining followers (yes I do have followers even though I am not that interesting), I highly recommend Twitter. If you have a product to sell, I can not think of a faster way to get the word out, instant feedback back in, and at $0 cost to drive people to your site.

So how does one do this? There are hundreds of guides to using Twitter on the web. Here are a few links to some very useful articles:

• Guy Kawasaki: How to Use Twitter
• Twitter.com: Getting Started With Twitter
• MultiSocialMedia.com: Twitter Survival Guide

Or, if you are excited from reading this blog post, just get a Twitter account and start Twittering yourself.