Eight Reasons Why You Need to Start Buzzing

Google officially rolled out their Buzz service yesterday. Logging into your Gmail account, you should already be seeing it there.

If nothing else, it’s bound to cause a major buzz. I would have skipped the lame joke, but I don’t think I have to since Buzz doesn’t skip the lame questions on its profile page (what’s my superpower? come on, can you get any more geeky than this?).

So, what’s the Buzz? Google’s new social medium. It let’s you use your Google/Gmail account to automatically get into a network that encompasses all other Google/Gmail users. There you can start threads by posting messages out to the world (or at least those that follow your buzz).

Here’s a short video by Google demonstrating what Buzz can do -

My first response was: Oh no, not another social network to monitor! I really do think Google is a bit late in jumping on the social network wagon. With Facebook, Twitter and other networks so well-established, is there really room for a new one? For us as webmasters/bloggers – is it worth getting into the Buzz arena in order to promote our sites?

Why Buzz Will Be a Success

I have no crystal ball, but here are eight reasons why I think Buzz has  a good chance at becoming a Huge success. That means you need to start buzzing to your potential visitors -

1. This it IS Google and they are using their huge base of Gmail users.
2. No need to get invites or register – Buzz is on your Gmail page whether you want it or not.
3. Not much of a learning curve – just plug and play.
4. No limit on length of messages – easier to speak your mind.
5. Full integration of images and videos. Unfortunately, no drag and drop (as Wave was supposed to have), but still, easier than to add pictures to your tweets. More importantly, easy for your followers to view your media.
6. Being Part of Real time search results. Obviously, with Buzz being part of Google, this is where Google will be able to pull real-time data from in the easiest, most efficient and fastest way. As a blogger or webmaster – you want to be part of that.
7. Multi-platform integration. This is probably a huge factor. Right now, you can already integrate your blogs, twitter, flickr and picasa accounts. Google clearly states that it intends to bring together other platforms as well – all under Buzz of course.
8. Last but not least: mobile phones integration. Buzz on your mobile looks different than Buzz for web. It syncs in to your location right away and brings up new features that correlate with that.

I suspect that lessons have been drawn from Google’s experience with Wave. Buzz seems to be doing a lot of what Wave said it would, but it’s easier to use and starts off with a wider base of users. In my opinion, that’s the key for its future success.

Check your Gmail account for your Buzz “folder” and join in the fun. And of course -

follow me on Buzz!

Tagged as: google buzz