Google Buzz: what is the implication for PR and journalists?

Posted by Mark Pack at Wed, 10/02/2010 - 11:03am in Social media

Google has just launched a new social networking service and unsurprisingly the blogs are, ahem, buzzing with discussion. If you've not yet seen it yourself, this video is an excellent quick introduction:

Based on what has been seen so far, it looks like Google Buzz's biggest strength will also be its biggest weakness - namely the use of your network of email contacts to create your social network.

For someone starting from scratch, providing a ready-made social network based on who you have exchanged emails with is a good concept. It gets over a common hurdle people encounter with Twitter: you set-up an account and then what? 0 followers, 0 following, 0 tweets in your stream; it's one big blank sheet which for some people is very off-putting.

However, Google is getting here rather late. Tens of millions of people in the UK have already created their social network on Facebook and so are not in need of this ready-formed social network.

Moreover, this use of people you have emailed back and forth with is also a weakness, particularly for heavy email users. Is the group of people who you email with really the group of people you want to social network with?

It's an opportunity for firms: email customers, they email you back and then bingo - your other online content can start appearing under their eyes. For smart companies and PR firms advising them, there will be some interesting opportunities here.

It will also raise some interesting opportunities and pitfalls for journalists and those in PR to strengthen their relationship / enmity as the act of emailing out a news release and then sending a reply back generates a social networking link.

But for one of the tens of millions in the UK who already have a network thanks to their presence on Facebook (let alone Twitter, Bebo, or many other more niche services), is this broad brush approach from Google Buzz going to appeal? Perhaps neat integration and clever mobile functions will overcome that hurdle, but given Google's record at social software features which haven't taken off (Orkut? Google Profiles? SearchWiki? and so on), that's by no means certain.

Tagged with: Twitter, Google Buzz, Google