For anyone that’s not aware, Google launched Buzz in early February. Buzz is a new social networking platform that is meant to start conversations about the things you find interesting. The most interesting features are: that it’s built into GMail, you can connect sites you already use, see updates in real-time, share publicly or privately with your followers, and the capability to see photo/video thumbnails with each post. Sounds Awesome, right!

Well…maybe. Now that the privacy issues have been hammered out let’s take a brief look into if it really “works” for users.

The social media landscape is filled with many players. Of course, the ultimate powerhouses are the same as they were 2 years ago, Facebook and Twitter. Personally, I don’t see this changing anytime soon. So where does that leave Google’s stamp on social media?

I’m still trying to figure that out, and I am not alone. A quick Twitter survey from my followers indicated that, users are not sure how it fits it into their digital lifestyle or if it fits at all.

Using myself and a host of friends and colleagues as examples: we all use Facebook and Twitter. So why use, Buzz? In fact, most of the people I follow are posting from Twitter or Google Reader without actually “using” Buzz at all.  Their posts look strangely familiar, oh yeah, I already saw them on Twitter. So what value does Buzz have for me?

Social Media users are struggling to find relevance in the noise. So a platform that pushes comments of your friends friends, seems to add to the noise. However, Google intentionally made Buzz different because it wants Buzz to evoke a different type of interaction. For example, after posting a Buzz about the use of the service. Several of my followers commented, a friend from college, a freelancer (that I’ve never physically met) and a family member. Don’t get me wrong, this can be achieved via Facebook and Twitter, but with Buzz, the conversation is in my face as it happens. This point will dictate whether Buzz lives or dies in the coming months.

So what does all this mean? Simply potential. I wouldn’t write off Buzz just yet, nor would I jump on the band wagon singing praises. We will just have to wait and see.

Go ahead, try it out and then chime back in here. I’d love to hear your thoughts on Google Buzz.

Good question. Tricky answer.

I tend to follow the belief that social media works in three forms:

1. Socially – friend to friend
2. Promotionally -as a tool, in conjunction with an overarching promotional campaign
3. Proactively – a way to reach out, and build your brand

Let’s take a minute and go through each one of these, albeit at a high level.

Socially

This one is pretty self-explanatory. Essentially, social media works great for friends to connect with other friends, exchange notes, and share photo’s. At it’s root, this is what social media is all about. And it works brilliantly this way. The tricky part, is how does a brand insert itself into this picture, and leverage the potential opportunity successfully. Hopefully, that makes a little more sense in the next two points.

Promotionally

I think this is where social media really gets it’s best use, from a brand perspective. When used as a communication tool, in conjunction with online advertising and marketing initiatives – geared towards a given objective – social media provides a solid foundation to insert ourselves into our consumers’ lives (in an non-salesy way).

Proactively

Whether you’re a brand looking to field nasty “tweets” (a la Comcast), provide information (like Wachovia), or a sports figure looking to provide inside information to your fans (@martinhavlat), social media provides a bedrock of opportunity. You’ve got a quick way to access key segments of your target audience, and speak to them directly, in a casual environment.

The point here, is that social media isn’t a tool to make money. Rather, it’s a tool that poses as a doorway into the lives of consumers. When used properly, as in the points mentioned above, it can prove to be a highly valuable piece, to a rather complex puzzle.

Or maybe we’re talking about social media campaigns, and worrying about the number of friends, or followers of our associated Twitter profiles, Facebook Fan pages, etc. We get so caught up in these numbers, that we forget one simple thing…

Those numbers are created by people just like us. In some cases, we’re one of those numbers being tabulated.

How do you respond to a banner ad? When was the last time you were wowed by an email campaign? What was the last website you visited that was simply intuitive, and gave you exactly what you wanted, while delivering a glowing user experience? That’s what I thought. What about what the user wants?

The facts say it all: less than 0.05% of banner ad are ever clicked, and email click rates measure in the low single digits. The moral? People don’t want to be spoken to, they want to be talked with.

Our goal, as marketers and advertisers alike, should be to engage our audience, excite them to act, and provide them with memorable experiences, rather than to gimmick them into our way of thinking, or hand out short-term incentives to complete a form. To be clear, my point isn’t that any of these methods – okay, aside from banners maybe – are bad, but that we need to approach them differently. We need to utilize them differently. And we need to measure their effectiveness differently.

Next time you take a look at these reports, pay attention to things like referrals, average time on site, requests for information, and social mentions. Take a look at organic site traffic, from people who are sharing you with their friends. Why these numbers? Because they represent engagement, traction, and stickiness. Just like us, our visitors/users/customers/guests want to be engaged, and rewarded for action. We should be looking for ways to do just that.

A graduate of the Art Institute of Atlanta, James joins our interactive team, after spending time at various web shops in the Atlanta area. His experience spans front-end development, back-end & application development, interface design, and user experience. James has worked with such brands as Turner, TBS, Coca-Cola, and the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Most recently, James spent time at the popular email marketing application, MailChimp.

James also sits on the board of a non-profit organization, Triple Play Foundation, which is aimed at helping underprivileged areas by using sports as a way to encourage responsibility and community service.

Combined with a love for all things design-related, and a serious “nerd passion” for the internet, James is a force to be reckoned with.

Erica holds a BFA in Web Design and Development from The Art Institute of Atlanta as well as a BS in Speech, Communication & Theater from Tennessee State University. Erica is also a member of the Interaction Design Association (Atlanta), and IxDA. If you happen to spot her at a Web Design or WordPress MeetUp, be sure to say “hello!”

Eddie Snyder, Chief Creative Officer

The Morrison Agency announced today the hiring of award-winning creative talent Eddie Snyder as the agency’s senior VP-chief creative officer.

Snyder has spent his career developing smart thinking and powerful business-building ideas for big brands like Aflac, Aruba Tourism Authority, Black & Decker, CibaVision, Coca-Cola, Durex condoms, Havertys furniture stores, Kodak, Quikrete Concrete, Russell Athletic and Time Warner. He joins The Morrison Agency after a brief stint at Partners & Napier, Atlanta. Prior to that, he served as executive VP-chief creative officer of Fitzgerald + CO, also Atlanta.

“I joined The Morrison Agency because it’s the perfect model of what today’s thinking company should be,” said Snyder. “They totally get it, and they’ve totally
got it – a real world approach, savvy strategic thinking and convergence that is re-shaping our industry with the total integration of fresh digital/interactive smarts. Combine that with Bob Morrison’s bold vision of where he wants to take the agency, and it will be an exciting place to be and grow.”

“Eddie Snyder is an incredible talent, widely recognized as one of the country’s top creative minds. Given our recent growth and future plans, he is pivotal to our continuing to deliver fresh thinking that drives business and delivers results for clients,” said agency CEO Bob Morrison. “His broad experience plays right into our philosophy of approaching B2B clients with the same rational and emotional appeals used in B2C.”

Snyder’s award mantle grew in 2009 due to the success of a viral video created for Durex condoms. One of the top viral videos of the year, Durex “Get it On” won a Bronze Cyber Lion at the Cannes International Advertising Festival, a rare Pencil Nomination from D&AD in London, a Silver CUBE from the Art Directors Club and a Gold and Silver CLIO.

In addition to building brands and winning awards, Snyder is shaping creative minds. He’s director of advertising arts for the famed Portfolio Center where he’s been an instructor for 19 years and is now creating and launching a dynamic new entity called the School of Thought. And, he is working on his first novel – and it’s not about advertising.

What does this mean to you? It means that those fancy little meta-keywords you’ve used to increase search traffic and page rank is all for naught (officially). With Yahoo! throwing in the towel, none of the major search engines – such as Google, Bing, Ask, and Yahoo! – provide support for the tag anymore. Sites that have relied on meta-keywords, will in fact notice a slight drop in page rank, and perhaps a drop in new traffic from search engines. Since this has been a long-coming phase-out, the change shouldn’t be that dramatic. However, many firms that claim to provide SEO services, do in fact leverage this method more than any other.

How can you adapt? Search engines use deep, ominous, unknown algorithms to determine what sites they’ll serve up when a query has been made by a user. While we don’t know all that they look for, we do know things they like. Some things you should start considering are:

• Site content: is the content on your site relevant to users? Is it rich in keywords, like the ones you would hope would display your site in search queries?
• Code/mark-up: is your site using clean, standards compliant code?
• Title tags: do the title tags on your site’s pages adequately explain what is on the page?
• Site maps: have you taken the time to submit XML site maps to all major search engines?
• URL’s: do the URL’s on your site contain unintelligible naming conventions, or are you using keyword-rich permalinks? Such as using www.yourdomain.com/who-we-are/our-team rather than www.yourdomain.com/services/?p=123

This should be a quick hit-list you can use to call up your current SEO firm and see exactly how adequately their search services are, and take necessary steps to rectify any potential issue you may encounter with these new changes. Of course there are many many other ways to improve SEO performance, however the bottom line in SEO is about text, links, popularity and reputation.

I can’t help but agree with the statements made in this video. Indeed social media is more than a fad, rather it’s a complete paradigm shift in how we as human beings communicate with one another, and it’s here to stay.