Social Media Mania – Google Style

To say that social media has “changed the dynamics of how we use the Internet” would be an understatement. Since the launch of Orkut in 2004, Google has jumped on the social media bandwagon with its archrivals Facebook and Twitter. The latest edition to Google’s suite of web applications is Google Buzz, a new tool aimed at steering users away from other social networking sites.

What is Google Buzz?

Google Buzz is an email-enabled social media outlet that is (according to some) going to take the social media world by storm. It is designed to allow users to share photos, videos, links, and status updates with their friends, as well as discuss shared content. It’s very similar to Facebook News Feed in that regard. It’s also similar to FriendFeed, a social sharing service acquired by Facebook last year with a small but devoted following.

The best thing about this app is that it’s easy to integrate in one step with users’ existing Gmail accounts, something Google is probably counting on to make this product a success. With a user base of 174 million ‘Gmailers’, Google Buzz is looking for a large pool of potential users.

What’s not so great is that it’s similar to many services already on the market. Google Buzz seems like a “me too” product. People already have a myriad of ways to share content with their friends: Facebook and Twitter are two popular options. Blogging is another. Sending text and picture messages via email to friends is still very popular. So will Google Buzz make consumers change?

Dealing with the competition:

With a strong loyal user base of 400 million, social media giant Facebook has been in business since 2007 and is gobbling up the market pie faster by the minute. By constantly innovating and adding new features, Facebook has managed to attract and retain users more than any other social networking site, and is Google’s #1 competition. It is followed in second place by Twitter, with 18 million registered users.

Over the years, Google has made several attempts to catch up with the competition, but has failed to do so.

Unstable trajectory:

Google hasn’t exactly established itself in the social media space. The search engine giant has been struggling to build a loyal customer base and seems to distribute more apps than the market can handle. Most famously, Orkut failed to take off outside of India and Brazil, and Google’s other social media efforts also collapsed in the market: Dodgeball, Jaiku, and OpenSocial, to name three.

More recently, Google launched Google Wave, another medium for sharing information, data, and opinions, which didn’t really take off. Google representatives admitted that Buzz was inspired by Google Wave, describing it as “an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration.” “A wave can be both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using rich text, photos, videos, maps and more.” Basically, Google Wave is email, instant messaging, an online collaboration tool, and a wiki all rolled into one service. So what is the difference between Buzz and Wave?

Buzz vs Wave:

Google Buzz uses email updates, while Google Wave is real-time communication (you can actually watch someone write their response or comment on an individual wave). Wave was built with collaboration features like editing a document, scheduling an event, creating meeting notes, and so on. But if you just want to share photos, videos, or comments that don’t require real-time communication, then Google Buzz is probably the best option.

One of the problems with Wave is that it’s a hard tool to explain to others, and once you understand what Wave is, it’s even harder to understand everything you can do with it. Buzz, on the other hand, works similar to email and focuses on one thing: sharing content with others. This is probably one of the reasons why Google Wave didn’t work as well as everyone expected.

However, Google Buzz could prove to be much more promising than its predecessor:

Buzz, from day one, is a better, fancier service than Facebook has become after six years. Part of this is because Facebook had to build its network from scratch and was a pioneer in the category, giving it a lot of baggage to overcome at this point. Meanwhile, Google has the advantage of building on Gmail and being able to borrow good ideas from both Facebook and Twitter. I call this “second mover advantage.” Google Buzz is simple, elegant, and pretty fast. Buzz makes it easy to include photos and other media in posts, which is an advantage over Facebook. Google is not in the habit of making breaking changes when users feel comfortable with the previous changes. Facebook seems adrift; Google no.

Google’s privacy trumps Facebook’s privacy. Despite the number 1 below, Google generally gets good marks for protecting user data. Facebook has had a series of privacy problems that have created considerable mistrust among users. Buzz works inside of Gmail. Having social media built into an app that most people live in email makes it a more natural part of communication, not a separate online destination and process. The Gmail users in your contact list are the foundation of your community. Buzz automatically builds relationships, resulting in a social network that includes more of your existing friends, as long as they use Gmail. Networking automatically has advantages and disadvantages, but it seems like a benefit to the user.

Marketing potential:

Another point I’d like to make is the fact that while Facebook has carved a niche for itself in the ‘pure social casual’ space, Google Buzz has the potential to target the business user space. As many people today also use Gmail and Gtalk for professional use, the chances of users building sustainable business networks on this platform are high. This leaves a lot of room for B2B sellers learning how to use this medium effectively.