Free to Low Cost Business and Communication Tools: Part 7: Google Buzz

Google Buzz is a social networking application that allows you to share not only updates but a variety of media such as links, photos and videos. It works much the same as Twitter but does not have any character limitations that I could tell.

Buzz is accessible from your Gmail Account. Responses to your posts are delivered to your Gmail inbox, from where you may also make additional posts. If you use your Gmail account often then this is very convenient.

You are able to control who sees your posts by changing the setting to either Private or Public. The Public setting means you are sharing your post with the world. The Private setting allows you to share posts with the Group you select from those you have established in your Contacts. Say you want to make a post to your team that is working on a particular client project. Set up the Group in your Contacts. Then select Private, select the Group, write your post, add links, photos or video and Post. Each member of that group will receive the posts with all the links and attachments in their Gmail inbox. And you will have a record of it in your sent file.

The communication benefits are far-reaching if you get creative with how you use Google Buzz. You can use it to:

  • Broadcast announcements to the greater Public about product or service updates, expansion, new offices, new staff, promotions, contracts, etc. – don’t forget to attach links, photos, or video
  • Communicate internally with Groups you establish for client projects or internal projects
  • Communicate privately with someone

Buzz also offers you branding as well as Public Relations value. Posts that are made Public on Buzz are organized by topic and fed to others who have demonstrated similar interests, allowing them to read or participate in the ongoing conversation. Carefully select a topic that you want to reach your target audience groups. Then start an informative discussion and see what kind of response you get.

Follow the link to watch a short video and read more about Google Buzz and its features.