There’s a lot of feedback about Google Buzz since it launched. Some positive, some negative, and some just hilarious. There are some great things about Buzz, and there are certainly some flaws. But even if Google does nothing to change/modify Buzz, they’ve created a product that gives me everything I always wanted from Twitter, but never got. Don’t misunderstand the point of this post. I still really enjoy using Twitter, and will continue to do so. But Buzz offers some incredible features that I always hoped would come from Twitter.

Smaller, more genuine friends list. I don’t follow back on Twitter. At least not on my personal account. So the idea of building up “networks” of 10,000, 50,000, and 100,000 followers made of 50%+ spammers and bots really never appealed to me. I wanted Twitter to be about connecting with the people and the information I cared about. I choose to follow people that interest me, and my hope is that people follow me for the same reason – not with false hopes that I’ll follow them back.

Social media is not, and should not be about a popularity contest. I want genuine friends to connect with. I want smaller, not bigger. Google Buzz gives me that. I would be shocked if I end up following more than a couple hundred people on Buzz. Ever. Because I’m not going to let random people I don’t care about fill my inbox. Sorry, not gonna happen – I get enough email traffic as it is.

Threaded, not linear. Linear posting was fine to start, but with hundreds or thousands of followers, it’s obnoxious to not have threaded conversations. A system where I can’t easily see who else has replied to a certain post? That makes absolutely no sense. With Google Buzz, they take from the initial Google Reader system of “Like” and “Comment”, and it works beautifully. It’s this reason that I liked FriendFeed, but FriendFeed just never really got enough critical mass or interest for me. Linear posts are an anachronism, and Google Buzz does away with it.

Spam be gone. I have to imagine that most people will take my route and not follow back with their Buzz accounts. If that’s the case, there will be no market or growth potential for spammers on Google Buzz. Twitter was an easy breeding ground for spam accounts due to the ease of use and the existing (broken) social contract of following back. With no such contract in place (the only people I follow back *automatically* are the ones already in my contact list – who I clearly have had some sort of interaction with), spammers are screwed – you have to opt-in to follow them, something that will no doubt happen quite rarely.

Right where I want it. I already use Gmail as my primary (personal) email account. This means I don’t have to go download another application like Tweetdeck, Swift or Seesmic if I want to see my Buzz account. I don’t have to load up Facebook.com or FriendFeed.com if I want to view those live feeds. I’m already there. And it’s on my mobile phone, too. Listen, I’m lazy. The less clicks I have to make and websites I have to remember, the better.

Feature integration. Easy, intuitive integration of blog feeds, Twitter, Google Reader, etc. make this an easy win. You can integrate a number of feeds into Twitter as well, but the ease of use for Google Buzz is unparalleled, in my opinion.

Mobile done right. Buzz is perfect for mobile use. With an easy tie-in to Google Maps, it will easily (and quickly) provide extraordinary relevant and up-to-the-minute results. Now I fully understand why Google just decided to kill off their location-based Dodgeball. Buzz would have destroyed it anyway.

Imagine the possibilities with the Google Maps tie-in over time. First off, the Android platform will continue to take off, which will add a lot more users. Add live results to search – so when you’re searching for “mexican restaurant seattle“, you don’t just see the results, reviews and websites, you see a heatmap of what places are really hopping. Will this happen? Who knows, but I sure hope so.

The people I want to connect with. I don’t know about you, but most of my friends are already on Gmail. Maybe it’s a generational thing, but many of my friends and I connect over Gchat, and pretty much all of my friends from college exchanged our Gmail addresses when we left off to move on to the real world. This means that without doing anything, my FRIENDS are already connected to me through Buzz. Sure, there are plenty of additional people I will have to add, but this is a great start for me.

The negatives. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows for Buzz. There are still a handful of things it does worse than Twitter. But my hope is that over the next few iterations, some things will change. And if not, there’s no reason I can’t still use Twitter – it’s still a great program.

Mass dissemination of information. By only following a tightly-knit circle of friends, news stories will take longer to get to me. Think of the idea of six degrees of separation. On Twitter, you’re really only 2 or 3 degrees away from a big story, because chances are you’re connected to one or two people who have hundreds of thousands of followers. When someone with a megaphone gets the news, it spreads like wildfire. News will take slightly longer to break on Buzz, but then again, does an extra 15 minutes REALLY matter? Plus, once you get the news, you can comment on it using threads, making things much more neat!

Social media marketing campaigns suffer. Twitter was really easy to use when it comes to mass marketing a social media campaign. Stories were extremely easy to share (retweet), and a company with multiple products could create multiple accounts in order to divide and conquer. Buzz takes a step backward there. I don’t foresee many TV shows saying “Follow us on Buzz!” the way they did with Twitter. Could happen, but seems less likely. But marketers will find a way to penetrate Buzz, I’m sure. It’s just a matter of time.

New friend discovery. One of the advantages of Twitter is that it really introduced a lot of new people. Without Twitter, I may have never met some of the amazing people at SMC Seattle. Buzz makes it more difficult to discover those kind of people. But there are still opportunities using the Nearby feature on mobile, and by browsing other user comments. Frankly, it can be a more targeted networking solution – you meet friends of friends, rather than complete strangers. But the downside is that it really gets rid of some of the fun discovery process of meeting total strangers and connecting.

Automatic opt-in. I know a lot of people who don’t (or really won’t) care about Buzz. Being opted-in automatically isn’t ideal for them, as they really don’t want the extra clutter. But for those people, it’s not all that difficult to ignore. Seriously. Plus, now some people will be introduced to social media who never would have gotten started in the first place. This could turn out to be a good thing.

I love this video. And the best part about it? My dad sent me a link to it this morning. Though I think some networks may be more or less doomed over the next few years, social media is truly a fundamental shift in the way we consume media. What’s even more exciting is that it hasn’t even come close to reaching its potential yet.

Social media turns a lot of traditional marketing and thinking on its head. In many ways it takes the power of the media and the power of advertising and puts it in the user’s hands. One of my favorite old comedians, Yakov Smirnoff popularized the Russian Reversal, which looks something like this:

In America, you listen to man on radio.
In Soviet Russia, man on radio listen to YOU!

Here are some great ways that social media (and the internet in general) has turned the traditional world on its head and thrown all conventions out the window. I’ve also added links and logos for background.
 

In America, you connect with brands.
In social media, brands connect with YOU!

Twenty years ago it was a rarity for brands to interface with users publicly. Now the biggest corporations from Coca Cola to Comcast are all but expected to connect with their consumers. It’s a form of social media that has absolutely turned traditional marketing upside down.

In America, you listen to Skittles marketers.
In social media, Skittles marketers listen to YOU!

Though some criticized Skittles’ efforts as a social media fail, Skittles created the ultimate reversal by putting marketing in the hands of not just its users, but public users on Twitter. Effective or not, Skittles turned the tables in a way that would have never been possible years ago.

In America, you go to bands.
In social media, bands go to YOU!

Tons of targeted music content is served up every day from sites like Last.fm, Pandora and Blip.fm. And let’s not forget how Myspace allowed bands to compete on an equal playing field. Though the online music industry is still playing out, social media has given us an incredible amount of control over our listening experience when compared with radio and technologies of old.

In America, you look for your old friends.
In social media, your old friends look for YOU!

Where would we be without Facebook? It’s hard to imagine a world where friends and old classmates had such trouble finding one another. Now it’s impossible to join Facebook and not get a slew of incoming friend requests from people you forgot even existed.

In America, marketers ignore you.
In social media, you ignore MARKETERS!

Ads can be targeted to find you, but there are also many more opportunities for you to ignore irrelevant ads. Facebook and Digg have created +/- systems to find your favorite ads, but in general social media gives you more choice and ability to change the channel/website if you’re not happy with the ads being served.

In America, you find products.
In social media, products find YOU!

Targeted ads and products have now become the norm rather than the outlier. Google Adsense and Adbrite are served up on hundreds of thousands of webpages and the Microsoft/Yahoo merger will likely create more targeted ad networks to help find relevant customers.

In America, you’re inspired by marketing.
In social media, marketing is inspired by YOU!

Companies like Zooppa have created user-generated advertising, and changed the way products are marketed (a few people make decisions that affect a vast majority) and user content fuels brand recognition for a number of products like the Valve game Left 4 Dead.

In America, you update your friends.
In social media, your friends update YOU!

 

Status updates have been around for years with AOL Instant Messenger, but it wasn’t until Twitter (and later Facebook) created a way for you to be automatically updated through a feed that it really gained momentum and popularity. Now anyone and everyone can tell you exactly what they’re doing.

In America, large companies create content.
In social media, YOU create content! (I know, it’s a stretch)

Online, user-generated content has found a place to live, and social networks give it a place for users to interact. In blogs and forums, in Facebook and Myspace, users can create, share and disseminate content. And a place like Youtube is the ultimate reversal in allowing users to watch (and more importantly choose) their content instead of being force-fed whatever is on the television or radio.

In America, you follow celebrities.
In social media, celebrities follow YOU!

Just because celebrities like Britney Spears, Robert Scoble and Guy Kawasaki “follow” you definitely doesn’t mean they’re listening to you. However, at least it opens up the stream both ways. Before social networks and the internet, there were few ways for celebs to have any idea what was being said by the Average Joe, but nowadays they can follow you just as easily as you follow them. 

In America, you search for TV shows.
In social media, TV shows search for YOU!

User-generated content has created a number of TV shows online like The Guild and Red vs. Blue. TV shows are taking cues from users and are building their programming around consumer interest. Verizon has even created a feature on its FiOS TV that allows users to search for user-generated content from sites like Dailymotion.

In America, you worry about sex offenders.
In social media, sex offenders worry about YOU!

Nothing scarier than sex offenders in your neighborhood. FamilyWatchDog allows users to find out about the registered offenders in their neighborhood to help educate the population and avoid issues. However, since an iPhone app was created, offenders now have to worry about members of the general population knowing too much about them. Talk about a reversal of fortune!

What are some social media reversals that you can think of? How has the internet and social media world managed to turn the traditional world upside down? Please share in the comments!

In the same way that great customer service can drive sales and increase customer gratitude, the same can be true of poor customer service. Unfortunately, destroying a reputation only takes seconds, whereas building one up can take years or decades. United Airlines is finding that out first hand this week, due to a PR nightmare created by the band “Sons of Maxwell”.

After Dave Carroll’s $3,500 guitar was reportedly broken on a flight to Nebraska, he asked to be compensated for the damage done. After months of communications, he vowed to write three songs documenting the issues and try to spread the word over the internet. On Monday he posted the first song on Youtube, titled “United Breaks Guitars”. The song has received over 150,000 views to date (Edit: Youtube Video), and it looks like United is getting the message. Their twitter stream is full of apologies such as:

@tinamack This has struck a chord w/ us and we’ve contacted him directly to make it right.

 

@JRGarcia It is excellent and that is why we would like to use it for training purposes so everyone receives better service from us.

It looks like United is doing what they can to rectify this situation, but it might be too little, too late, as often times it’s the first news that people remember (not the subsequent fix). This just goes to show again how the viral nature of the internet can either be a valuable resource for a marketer or customer service team, or a tool of destruction. Live by the sword, die by the sword.

Today during my lunch, I went down to the Verizon Wireless store. I had been having issues with my Treo Centro, and was interested in getting my phone replaced as it is under warranty. Upon arrival, I was greeted warmly and was given information relevant to getting my phone replaced (phone number, driver information, advice on how to transfer contacts etc). Everything I would normally expect from this type of conversation, but still a step above the interactions I’ve previously had at cellphone and wireless provider stores.

What continued impressed me even more. I was told that due to my employment with Microsoft, I was entitled to a discount, plus there were some deals currently going on at the store. My initial thought was “oh great, now they’re going to rope me into getting a ‘discount’ that costs me $20 more a month for features and services I’ll never need.” No, instead, by keeping the exact same plan, the representative (John) saved me $40/month or over 30% off my current bill. He didn’t pitch me to buy something more either. All I did was speak with him for five minutes and I’d already saved $500 over the course of the next year. Now that’s service.

Let it be known that I was 90% certain that I was going to change providers at the end of the year (iPhone, Android, etc, I’d already been mentally salivating). I left the store feeling satisfied and certain that I will stay with Verizon. Now I just have to find a new phone that suits me better than my Treo Centro. Not only will I continue to be a Verizon customer (making them $1,000 a year), but I went and told a half dozen coworkers about it, who were all shocked and seemed very excited to make their way down to either a) look into their own plans or b) look into switching over to Verizon. This is an example of a great, genuine way to conduct customer service, and though I am already a brand ambassador of Verizon’s stellar coverage, they have made me an even happier and (more) loyal customer.

Twitter is a great utility for people to connect with one another on a small microblogging platform. It’s an incredible tool for the expeditious dissemination of information (just ask Amazon). That being said, everyone uses Twitter differently. Some use it for promotion, some use it to help others. Twitter is still in its infancy, and we’re all still learning how to optimize our usage.* Some people have been fired because of Twitter, and some have been called out publicly.
*Full disclosure: My Twitter account is less than six months old and I was extremely skeptical of Twitter for a long time. I believe that the criticism of email (they are brief and devoid of human emotion and interaction – smileys aside =) holds true for Twitter and is even more obvious with a limit on word usage.

As someone who was an early adopter of Facebook, and has used AIM and Gmail status updates, Twitter has been an interesting and different experience for me. I think it’s a great service, and is no different than any other type of networking, online or otherwise. As long as you are honest, transparent and mindful of other peoples’ feelings, I don’t think there’s really a “wrong” way to use it unless you spam.

To keep transparent about my own motives, I felt it important to create a page documenting how I use Twitter, and how I do not use Twitter. If you would like to follow my updates, you can use the feed on this page, or follow me here.

How I use Twitter:

1. New Information. Twitter is one of the tools I use to keep my ear to the ground. I use Twitter in many ways to find out and post about new information.
2. Analysis. Since my Twitter isn’t specific to certain topics (like Techshots), I use it to analyze / look at information about many issues from baseball to gaming.
3. Blog traffic. When I have something new up, I’ll post the link and the topic. If you’re interested, I hope you will take a look.
4. Conversation. If someone is talking about an interesting topic, I like to share my opinions. I make sure not to carry on conversations more than a couple @replies, however.
5. Networking. Social networks make it easy to talk with like-minded people from hundreds or thousands of miles away. I use Twitter to connect with new people.

How I don’t use Twitter:

1. Unimportant personal updates. I realize you may be following 10, 100 or 1,000 people. In the interest of your time, I will try not to post small details about my life that may only apply to a few people.
2. Confidential information. I will never use confidential information from any job in which I am working. Any and all information or statistics I use are publicly available.

How do you use Twitter? Do you use it in a similar (or vastly different) way? As noted, I’m still new to this and would love to hear your suggestions or other ideas.