Google’s Buzzing, again

In case you missed Google’s Press Conference last night, Google launched a new social platform called Google Buzz. The Web has shifted to becoming extremely social and interactive in recent years, and this is going to continue without a doubt. Twitter and Facebook have been dominating the “conversations” on the Web, and now Google Buzz appears that it might change things – perhaps totally, but definitely in some or other way.

According to Google, Google Buzz is “a new way to start conversations about the things you find interesting and share updates, photos, videos and more. Buzz is built right into Gmail, so there’s nothing to set up — you’re automatically following the people you email and chat with the most.”

Before I continue, I want to say this: In my talks and writings over the past 2 years I have been emphasizing the importance of principles, not technical intricacies. The technologies are ever-changing – these websites that we know now were not around a few years ago, and they will be drastically improved and changed, or even replaced, in the coming years. My focus is on the underlying principles and fundamentals about why Web 2.0 and Social Media is so powerful. Once you have a grasp of them, the technology changes will not affect your ability to harness the full potentials of the online tools available.

Back to Google Buzz…

We’re not sure about the affect that this new platform will have on Twitter and Facebook. Firstly, it allows for status updates, commenting, liking, and also integrates with blogs, Flickr, and YouTube. It has a “Friendfeed” feeling to it as well. The only thing that stumps me at present is that it sits within Gmail, and on a “Google Profile” page. Personally, I use my Gmail account very rarely – my business emails are all in Google Apps accounts. Buzz will be integrated, but only in a few months time. There has been no talk of an API – but I don’t see Buzz surviving without it. Due to the API of the other social networks, I manage Twitter, Facebook, and even LinkedIn via TweetDeck. This simplifies my life a whole lot, and makes my social interaction much more valuable.

I agree with Augie Ray from Forrester Research:

“While bringing relevance filtering to the noisy social media world could prove a significant advantage, this doesn’t (yet) seem to be enough to pull people away from the networks they’ve already created elsewhere. Buzz doesn’t update user’s Twitter or Facebook feeds, so I expect experimentation but not wholesale switching in the foreseeable future. Buzz could end up supplementing rather than replacing users’ other social networks for now.”

What does get me excited about Buzz is the mobile access – available at buzz.google.com – and the extremely advanced integration with Google Maps.

Google says:

With Buzz for mobile, we hope you can start interesting conversations about places and be more spontaneous when you are out and about. How many times have you missed a fun event, even though it was nearby? Or a better choice of dessert, just because you didn’t know about it? How often have you wondered “Where are you?” when reading a text message from a friend? Now, you can use Buzz to learn that there is going to be a movie night at your favorite park, share with the world that there is an awesome ice cream place right around the corner, or tell your friends about that delicious homemade lasagna.

The Google Buzz for mobile video explains it all:

The mobile component of Google Buzz is believed to impact Foursquare, and I think that will prove true, at least to some extent.

Mashable’s article “Google Goes Social with Google Buzz” gives a very nice overview of Google Buzz – read it here.

Also, read these very useful Mashable articles (all posted only hours after the release of Google Buzz):

What Google Buzz Means for Mobile
The Location Implications of Google Buzz
target=”_blank”Google Buzz: What It Means for Twitter and Facebook
Google Buzz: Competitors and Experts React
Google Buzz: Will You Use It? [POLL]

I was surprised to receive access to Google Buzz immediately, I assumed US users would be linked up first. You can connect to me at http://www.google.com/profiles/jamaal786. I’ve been following the conversations on Twitter, and many folks can connect to Buzz via their mobiles, but not yet via their Gmail accounts on the Web.

Of course, if you want to avoid the Buzz altogether, this article might be of use to you: Banish Google Buzz Updates from Your Gmail Inbox.

At the time of writing this post, about 7 hours after the Google announcement, the topic is still very hot online, with blog posts being written, podcasts been produced, and thousands of tweets flooding Twitter. I’ve estimated about 2, 500 new tweets with the words “Google Buzz” every 3 minutes. You do the math.

Social Media ROI

Social Media, being new and a current hype, is commonly the target of the “What’s the ROI?” question. Actually, I don’t believe it’s all hype. I believe Social Media is truly valuable. Yes, there is a lot of “noise” in these spaces, which I know will emerge into clearer patterns of communication, but even this “noise” is important, because it’s shaping Social Media.

A few months ago Scott Stratten (@unmarketing on Twitter) shared something with us. A friend asked him what the ROI was on Twitter. In answering, Scott asked his friend, “What is the ROI on our friendship?” This story is profound, and I’ve related it thus far in 2 public seminars. It’s profound because the ROI of Twitter, and Social Media as a whole, is intangible – just as in relationships.

Is it all about business? Is it all about numbers? Or is it all about people?

I highly recommend this book: “It’s not about the coffee” by Howard Behar. Visit the official website here. Howard is a Former President of Starbucks International. When we think Starbucks, we think coffee, right? Well, Howard goes at length in this book to illustrate that it’s really about the people, not the coffee.

He says:

At Starbucks, the coffee has to be excellent, from the sourcing and growing to the roasting and brewing. The vision has to be inspiring and meaningful. Our finances have to be in order. But without people, we have nothing. With people, we have something even bigger than coffee.”

“Opportunities lie within people” – something I learnt from Mignon Lotz-Keyzer, the owner of a company called PEERPOWER. I sat in her coaching sessions as part of a business programme in 2007. Mignon is a people’s person, and she did an excellent job in helping us understand the value of the human factor. We also covered Covey’s 21-year old masterpiece, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, with her.

Yesterday I came across an interesting article titled There Is No ROI From Social Media! I’d like to share with you the video at the bottom of the article, which sums up the Social Media ROI question quite nicely:

Photo credit: intersectionconsulting

What is a Webinar?

We’re presenting three webinars next week, and we realised that some people may not know what a webinar is, hence this post. Simply put, a webinar is an online seminar – and there are typically two types. You can have a presentation-type webinar, where a presenter delivers to a viewing audience. Then you can have a collaboration-type webinar where there’s a high level of interaction – this is good for team meetings, etc. Webinars are being used all over the world, on a daily basis, for countless different purposes.

We use an online tool called Dimdim, and it’s completely online. You do not need a telephone. All you need is a computer with an online connection. Our upcoming webinars are of the presentation-type – so you don’t even need a webcam or headset. I will be presenting, you will be able to see me, and you will also be able to see slides on your screen, and you’ll be able to hear me of course. You will be able to participate by text, if you have any questions. Our next round of webinars will be of the collaboration-type, that’ll happen early 2010.

We’re currently hosting a series of seminars and workshops, you can view the complete list here. The reason we’re doing webinars as well is that there are many people outside of Cape Town – and even outside of South Africa – who would like to attend our events. Cape Town people are always welcome though, of course!

If you have any questions, please complete our contact form. And if you haven’t signed up yet, these are the upcoming webinars (and they’re absolutely free):

Understanding Web 2.0 and Social Media (Mon, 16 Nov 2009)
Making sense of Twitter (Tues, 17 Nov 2009)
How to find a job (or freelance work) using Social Media (Wed, 18 Nov 2009)

The Eternal September Crowd

On May 21, 2009 Seth Godin wrote a blog post called Eternal September. For a long while before then, I was focused on training “newcomers” and “novices” about Web 2.0 and Social Media. I didn’t have an adequate term for them though, because many of them were not absolutely new to the Internet, many of them were web designers (of the Web 1.0 era), and people who used the Internet on a fair basis.

I am astounded at how I, and other in the Web industry, take for granted what we know. When I deliver training, or consult with clients, I get asked questions which jolt me back to reality. That reality being that there is an endless stream of people who need to be educated – and inspired – about what the Web can offer today. It’s very exciting, and it’s really a thrill to catapult people from ignorance to absolute enthusiasm. As much as it is exciting, it’s equally challenging. The need is so big that we’ve now dedicated our resources to having continuous training events – seminars and workshops – across the country. The first set is already underway, and we’ve already received an overwhelming response from the public.

Eternal September is as apt a term as one could find. Seth puts it across clearly:

“…each September sees an entire crop of freshman showing up at college, you need to assume that you have to start teaching protocols all over again. Once a year, it’s a whole new audience, and they need to learn the ropes.

The Internet has been stuck in September ever since. Every day, new people show up at your blog, on Facebook, everywhere. Every day it’s a whole new crop that need to figure out what RSS is and how to subscribe.”

Will this “Eternal September” crowd ever disappear? Will we reach a point where everyone knows how to use online technologies to their fullest potential? I don’t know. I don’t think so, though.

Image source

What site is this?

Recently I was invited to give a talk on Social Media and particularly Facebook. The talk was for a business network, and it was at their weekly breakfast meeting. Normally my assistant does complete SMC (Social Media Coverage) of all my talks – including photos and video footage. This was a small talk though, so I went alone, with only my digital camera. Just before my talk I kindly asked the fellow next to me to snap a few shots of me during my presentation. He did so, and perfectly. Then I took some more shots of the rest of the event.

At the end, the event organizer asked me to email the photos to her because she had forgotten her camera at home that morning. I did send her the photos, but not via email. I sent her a link to the photoset on Flickr. Photos of all our events go up on both Flickr and Facebook. Facebook is excellent for exposure and attention, but Flickr is better for sharing.

Flickr keeps all photos at the resolution it was taken (and we always take photos at a very high resolution), and allows you to share those photos with anyone, while also automatically offering the user 5 additional photo sizes to download. This is extremely handy. When sharing photos it’s easier to share them online, because you might end up emailing the photos to a number of people, repeating the same task, and extending your bandwidth usage, unnecessarily. It’s also a good repository of photos if you ever need them when you’re away from your computer, or if you ever lose your originals. Although Facebook has a bigger tally of photos, the fact that it decreases the resolution of every single photo can sometimes be inadequate because most times we need high resolution photos.

When I sent the lady the email with the Flickr link, she was amazed at the site, and emailed back saying, “What site is this?” This was another reminder of how we in the Web industry take for granted the tools that we use everyday. I don’t believe that Web 2.0 is hype. I believe that Web 2.0 is extremely valuable to everyone in the world. We can do so many things now that were literally impossible a few years ago. I think we’ve taken big leaps in many areas – communication, marketing, productivity, and others.

Final Appeal – Jail4Bail

A brave man, Gerhard Pieterse (Executive Director of Autism Western Cape) has been in a jail cell at Canal Walk mall for over 70 days now. He has been raising money for Autism Western Cape, and his target is R1 million. On Monday afternoon I went to visit Gerhard for the second time, but this time I went with my camera. I interviewed Gerhard, who at the time had already raised R580,000 – that is a huge amount of money! Gerhard believes that the overwhelming majority of those donations have come from the working class people, and he says that this is astounding due to the current economic climate that we are facing.

Below is Gerhard’s appeal, and I would like to emphasize that appeal. Please try to donate something to this worthy cause – and let’s all try to help Gerhard reach R1 million! Autism is a complex neurobiological disorder. It is part of a group of disorders known as Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Today, 1 in 158 individuals is diagnosed with ASD. You can read more about Autism at the Wikipedia page.

Donations can be made at the jail cell, or online at www.autismwesterncape.org.za, or call 0861 AUTISM (South Africa only). Gerhard has sacrificed the comforts of his home and family for over 70 days, I’m sure we can also make a small sacrifice.

Gerhard leaves his cell tomorrow, Friday 29 August 2008, at 6pm – so this is one of the final appeals!

I would also like to thank my good friend Rafiq Phillips for taking the Jail4Bail campaign online – you can view him talk about it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4-oOBzZ-LQ. Some of the work collected on this page show the fruits of Rafiq’s efforts.