For those of you stuck under a rock or on Bing, you might have missed the release of Google Buzz. Google Buzz is another status report/micro-blogging system like Twitter but for Google. Google gives you no choice but to use Buzz if you have a Gmail account. You’ll have to privatize your Buzzes and Google Profile if you don’t want your Google information to be see by billions.

There really isn’t much to say about Google Buzz other than it’s a Twitter knock-off and it’s kind of annoying. I’ve been using it for a few days now and I’m following my friends (who never post anything) and some tech people. When someone Buzzes that is internet famous, their Buzzes are lost in a sea of comments… I have probably 5 new Buzzes but it takes me 20 minutes to scroll through the garbage to read those Buzzes. Plus, now there is a popularity contest going on with Buzzers to get the most followers… random people are trying to follow me and they’re all boring!! Just because you have 1,200 followers in the first week of the release of Google Buzz doesn’t mean you are interesting.

Oh yeah, did I mention you can link your Buzz account to Twitter… blah.

The only good things to come out of this mess is that your Buzzers can be public, so when you Google your name the Buzzes show in the searches. That’s about it. So, I say to you reader(s), harness your Google Profile and make it worth using Buzz.

My Google Buzzes

My Google Profile

Let me know what you think and I might change my mind about Google Buzz.

Foursquare is a smart phone app. It uses GPS or signal triangulation to find where you are in a city. With your location found, the app will find a list of nearby restaurants, book stores… anything that can be named and located. So, I go to my favorite coffee shop, Pour House Cafe in Bloomington, and I click ‘check-in’, the app finds me and gives me the list. On the list I select Pour House Cafe and complete the check-in. This gives me points and I compete with my friends who are on my Foursquare social network. You can manage your friends and information via smart phone app, but the web app is bigger and easier to manage. You can not ‘check-in’ on your computer (or at least I haven’t found how) which is a down side, but it’s fun and you can keep track of your friends favorite places. Oh yeah, you get ‘badges’ for checking-in the most or at a number of different places. Lastly, there are Mayors of places on Foursquare. This means they have been there a lot.

Try it out! Have fun with friends and family, and let me know what you think about Foursquare.

Here are some screenshots:

Social Media is not just a way to advertise but it’s a way to connect with your core market! This connection will build the brand to new heights by giving the core audience a feeling of trust and understanding about you and the company.

Let’s take Twitter as an example: Twitter is a way to quickly post a comment, suggestion, or idea to all your followers. This post is then read by the followers and this may initiate a conversation between a customer and the business. This conversation (if public) can be seen by all of their followers and the reach of your brand can be endless. This will build value into the company without spending a dime!

So, my message to all small businesses is that you should start using these networks to maximize your brand and build trust! Marketing with Social Media plus a great website will give you more recognition and hopefully get more customers.

HootSuite makes managing your Social Media easy, much like Brizzly, by offering an interface to manage your feeds from Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. It’s easy to post new statuses and updates via the interface to just one account or all the account that you linked to HootSuite . The accounts are separated by tabs, so navigating the feeds are very simple! The Twitter account manager is split into five different sections and at a glance you can view the Twitter feed, Mentions, DM (Direct Messages), your profile feed, and Pending Tweets. The Pending section is offered to all accounts and this section is what sets HootSuite apart from the other web apps because this will allow you to post tweets or statuses at a different time. Why is this important? Keeping your account up-to-date will help build your brand by Social Media.

Lastly, HootSuite offers stats! It is very important to understand what your followers are clicking on your feeds. I can’t stress how important this feature is to your success on Social Media accounts. The stats will show your views by region, clicks, and links clicked. Analyzing the stats on your postings is huge! Did I mention signup and usage of HootSuite is free?

Please try this app and let me know what you think of it?

Now, I’ve reviewed other Social Media managing web applications in my other posts (Gist and Brizzly) and you know they have their pros and cons which I will highlight in a roundup article very soon.

Don’t worry, all of the features you find on the feeds of Twitter or Facebook remain the same; the ‘Like’ button, ‘Comment’ section, ‘Retweet’… etc. So, using it is intuitive and easily. This is a simple feed manager with some added security and bonuses, unlike Gist which is a secure feed and email manager and much much more (Read more about Gist).

Here is a video explaining Brizzly:
A video introduction. Getting started with Brizzly.

Brizzly is very cool and I hope you enjoy managing your feed now! Let me know what you think about it.

1. Facebook App : Facebook did a great job on this iPhone app. It simple and gets the job done. You can update your status all day and manage your profile in the simple to use app. Check it out here.
2. Gist App : After my review of Gist. in a previous article, you know I really enjoy their web app. So, it’s at no surprise that I would recommend their iPhone App. The ‘importance‘ feature let me quickly control the list of people/companies on the feed from an importance ranking from 1 to 100. I can narrow down to just tweets, emails, or blogs. It’s very similar to the web app, so it pretty awesome! Check is out here.
3. Twitterific App : Iconfactory made another pretty app that is simple and to the point. Twitterific only works with Twitter and gives you the power to manage your contacts, tweets, and feed. They did add a geo tracking feature that lets you view tweets near your iPhone geo location. Check it out here.
4. Skype App : This is basically the Skype desktop application in the palm of your hand. Chat and voice is allowed through the app and it works on 3G. I recommend this if you are working on the go. Check it out here.
5. Wordpress 2 App : For all of you using Wordpress 2.7+ or a Wordpress.com account for blogging, then this is the way to go! Create new posts, edit old posts, and review comments on your iPhone. Nothing beats that! I do recommend not using the app when writing any longer than a paragraph. Check it out here.

So, there you have it, my top iPhone apps for managing your social media on the go.  If you have any other apps you want to recommend just comment on this post or email me. Let me know what you think!

You’re probably asking, why would I want that mess in one feed? Well there are a few reasons to wanting everything in plain site. One reason is that you can quickly skim your feed for relevant information, you can divide it to individual feeds and you can sub divide the feeds to contacts. This will allow you to read emails, blogs and tweets from one single contact! Awesome, Right? The other reason is that the Gist. platform will let you quickly look through the attachments and links that were sent to you via email, twitter or blog. Instead of searching for the email that you think the attachment is in, you can just search the attachments from the feed and “boom” you go it!

In short you can manage your feeds and emails easily and quickly.

I highly recommend this web application, but I do warn that it is in Beta. The term “Beta” in weblingo means that it may have a lot of errors or its just not 100% complete. The company is just looking for feedback.

Try it here: http://gist.com