What has the small business marketing world Buzzing? “Google Buzz” !  This is the latest addition to social media marketing that the internet and marketers are all fired up about. Google Buzz  is a  new feature that shows up in Gmail that is a friend feed type social newsfeed like Facebook which behaves differently in google never ending style – a scroll platform. Most of the “buzz” about Google buzz has marketers asking is it a marketing utility? Is it something we need? It is brilliant because what it does is forces social stream into our inbox and allows us to see that we are inundating ourselves with stuff we don’t need!

Google Buzz will allow us to see more real time content such as tweets and comments in google buzz that will get ranked as critical words.  Eventually Google Buzz will eliminate the race for followers and fans and will allow google environment fans to be able to use Google Buzz effectively to parse down the number of people they want to connect with to a reasonable level.

I am all for anything that will make our lives easier but if Google Buzz does what is promised, it will negate the need for companies to be concerned about how many friends and fans they are collecting and concentrate on building long term relationships with their true customers.

As the world of social media marketing changes, we are studying all the ways in which we can help our small business customers to make educated decisions on which social media platforms they will incorporate into their 2010 marketing programs.  Stay tuned!

The same advice is true for social media. Approach the common venues such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook much as you would when you first walk into a room at a dinner party. Look around the room, see who is there, find someone with the same interests, hobbies, etc., ask about their life and then offer information. Do not begin to push your product or services to everyone the minute you walk into the room.

It is not socially acceptable in the social media world to constantly tout your own accomplishments or to sell your products and services without first building a relationship. Look for people like yourself if you are looking for a way to get started. As in real life, in social media, the old adage “give before you get” works very well. Offer information on blogs, articles, links to helpful sites, and share tons of great content before you begin to talk about you and your business. Keep the personal information and updates to a minimum; do not push your products or services right off the bat. A little promotion on you and your business is ok but if you are tweeting more than four or five times a day, you are just adding to the “noise”.