Buzz Archive

Just a day after reports came out that 89% of content on Google Buzz comes from bots, today Google announced that you can now watch Buzz content inside of Google Maps.

What this means is if you use Google Buzz for Mobile, you can select to share your location when you make posts on Google Buzz. Those posts will include geo-location data which will then show up on Google Maps. To view the Google Buzz content on Google Maps, you will need to add the layer inside of Google Maps.

I wonder what percentage of Google Buzz users are using the mobile service – no one I know (outside of tech bloggers wanting some hits) uses Google Buzz even on the desktop.

I love Google’s example of this new interactivity!

Last November I took a look at the user experience for a new user who attempts to access Twitter.com. Tonight I’d like to provide the same new user experience for a person attempting to use Google Buzz. I don’t plan to touch on the privacy issues which seem to be the big topic as of late. In my opinion, the user experience is miserable and probably pushes away many new users (especially those who aren’t “social media experts”). For the purposes of this post, place yourself in the role of a new user no matter what your so-called expertise level is. You should also read Adrian Chan’s Google Buzz breakdown.

Let’s begin with a simple question — what exactly is Google Buzz? Is it a new type of messageboard/forum? Should a mainstream user be able to compare the user experience to something they already know? Or is this a brand new type of online user experience?

Accessing Google Buzz

When a user agrees to use Buzz, the only link to Buzz appears inside of Gmail on the left menu under their Inbox. Is Buzz a folder like the Inbox, Sent Items and Spam are? No, Buzz is an entire entity – welcome to confusion. Let’s assume Buzz remains inside of Gmail, the link to Buzz needs to be moved away from the folders. Frankly it should become a “module” similar to the chat module. This would also allow for customization and some items could be pulled into that left menu module as well based on user requirements.

ignore the 669 new messages in the inbox, I use Gmail mostly as a newsletter catcher
Continue reading “Welcome New Buzz User. Now Get Outta Here!” »

The products that Visible Technologies (VT) make help companies track their reputation online. The company recently picked up an additional $12M in Series B funding — read the news on Venture Beat. I recently worked with a company who appeared to be "joining the conversation" incorrectly by paying for comments on blogs. Today, one slip-up and the blogo’ will be all over the goof. 

I had an opportunity to chat with Visible Technologies Marketing VP Blake Cahill about their tools and my notes are below. The Visible Technologies product suite includes TruView and TruCast. TruCast launched earlier this year and helps clients to "monitor, analyze and measure" the chatter about a product or service across the Web.

The company founders were mainly search engine optimization and marketing experts and saw a need for companies to track what’s being said about them online. They boast managing the online reputations for six billionaires along with the companies mentioned below.

I asked Blake about the differences between VT’s products and those of competitor Buzz Logic. He said that the biggest difference is VT focuses on very large Fortune 500 companies whereas Buzz Logic focuses on companies of all sizes. Some of Visible Technologies clients include: a division of Microsoft, a Fortune 25 computer manufacturer in Texas, one of the Big 3 automakers and they are nearing 20 clients at the enterprise level.

The tools analyze what is being said about a given term across the Web and can decide whether it’s positive or negative. One of their top features is the workflow process – that is the ability to have certain terms go to specific people (i.e. the Nobitsu 4500 routes to Molly, the Nobitsu 8700b routes to John). They offer their clients a response library so that it makes it easier for a client to respond. Frankly while this might appear as a good thing, it could make replies seem robotic if the client uses it for full replies.

Not only can you manage your own corporate reputation, but you can track your competition as well. What I have learned over the past decade is that this is something that isn’t done enough. It’s just as important and can teach you valuable lessons on what to do and not do.

One of their features which really intrigued me is the ability for the client to reply directly to the blogger creating a comment automatically using the VT system. See the screenshots below for an example. Frankly I have no idea how they could automatically post a comment to a blog without it appearing as spam and how they could understand all of the different posting systems, but I assume they have it all figured out. Not sure how I would react if I knew someone was commenting off-site… does that person really want to join my conversation or just pop in a PR reply? This is really more of an issue for the client than for VT directly.

The company CEO is in NYC and the balance of the team is in Seattle with about 90% of the team made up of technologists. The current fees range from $15-25k monthly which is a small price to pay for good buzz monitoring.

Whether you use free services such as Google Alerts/Technorati or paid services such as Visible Technologies or Buzz Logic, one thing is clear – you should be monitoring your brand or service at all times.

Interface screenshot:

Yesterday, Muhammad asked me my opinion on the difference between the terms "Buzz Marketing" and "Viral Marketing". Today I saw a Twitter message from Jeremiah that Nathan has put together a list of "social media analysts". Here are my thoughts on both.

Buzz Marketing (BM) and Viral Marketing (VM) are used interchangibly most times and the difference might be the same as having 4 quarters or a $1 bill. I would define BM as a story that is listed in a newspaper for example, and then others begin to talk about it (tv, radio, etc.). VM would be defined as a story that gets passed around from one-to-one or one-to-many-to-one as a viral disease gets passed. Agree? Disagree?

Now for "social media analyst" – what defines this term? Nathan only lists people who work at so-called research firms. He notes that Jeremiah won’t be a social media analyst until October 1st when he joins Forrester Research. But what was he before 10/1? Wasn’t he an analyst? Will his techniques and research change? Sure he will have access to a larger team and more resources, but his analysis will still be there.

Must an analyst be associated with a research firm? Is Jeremiah an analyst today? Of course he is (and one of the brightest!). Am I an analyst? It will be interesting to watch as the term blogger fades from popularity, will bloggers switch to calling themselves analysts?

Update: Jeremiah sent over the following definition of analyst, "An Analyst should know the space well, be able to dissect it, back it with data, and make recommendations for stakeholders in easy to understand ways."

Earlier this year I had a chance to interview the executive team from BuzzLogic. I really enjoyed the discussion because it was very mathematical in nature. They explained how their tool works to allow companies to "watch" the buzz generated around their products.

Today they have moved their product from Beta to commercially available. Pricing starts at $12,000 per year so while it won't be for the average small business, large companies can take advantage of a visual tool to track the buzz. This is key for product launches and for times of peril.

The team sent over the following additional features that are now part of the tool:

• An all new dashboard that summarizes campaign metrics, alerts and engagements
• Improved “Watchlists” that provide visibility into the communities that gather around content which marketers create (e.g. corporate blogs, destination websites, etc.) and track influencers who publish content and lead conversations elsewhere on the Web
• Enhanced Social Maps that make exploring the community around influential posts and publishers a snap
• A “Show Me Why” feature to give you a bird’s eye view into why particular posts and people are influential      
• Simple, customizable reports for campaign activity and the conversations you monitor

As bloggers and other user-generated content web sites continue to grow, tools such as BuzzLogic become more important to a company's reputation.

During my time at AlwaysOn, I had the chance to meet with the management team from BuzzLogic. While I was not able to get any audio but I have provided my notes from our discussion below.

BuzzLogic is like taking Technorati and applying an algorithym on top of it. They showed me a demo of the application and it is pretty sweet. It does a great job of measuring the "buzz" around a topic or post.

They explain their service as: BuzzLogic changes this dynamic (influence) by uniquely defining and measuring influence in social media, and by surfacing the key influencers who are shaping and defining markets, issues and reputations.

We spent time discussing how they determine which sites have influence, how they get/lose influence and how their system works. I was very impressed by the thought and development that went into it. I like their cloud view where you can move any story into the center and watch the influence bubble around it. Really powerful.

Their call their pricing model disruptive; that is to say that it starts at $500 and for that money you get a strong return for the money. They claim to have hundreds of top companies already using the service.

Todd Parsons, BuzzLogic Co-Founder noted that, "we are finally at the point where companies are very proactive about building communities and engaging communities."

Check out their service at buzzlogic.com. I told them to have a look at Compete.com. I could see them partnering with a service like this. It's great to know about influence but it would be even more impactful if we could see that sites stats and demographics along with the influence.

I just received a note that Technorati BuzzTV has included CenterNetworks in today's episode. Check it out below. Thanks to TBT for the plug! So damn cool!

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