5 Current Social Media Stories That Mean Good Things For Your Business - reposted by andre di cioccio

5 Current Social Media Stories That Mean Good Things For Your Business
July 20, 2010
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5 Current Social Media Stories That Mean Good Things For Your Business
Chris Crum | Staff Writer

Drive Brand Awareness, Engagement, and Purchase Intent

There are too many happenings everyday in the social media space for any single business owner to keep up with. Today's web is fast, and very, very innovative. The production never slows down. New tools and integrations are launched seemingly every other minute.

While I'd encourage you to sift through the headlines and social media app directories on a regular basis, I've put together a few currently unfolding storylines with big implications for business owners.

What do you think is the most interesting social media development of which we have yet to see the outcome? Let us know.
1. Why the Google Buzz Firehose Will Benefit You

Google Buzz launched to a lot of hype, but that kind of died down to some extent after a while. The privacy-related issues that it launched with didn't help. However, Google Buzz has steadily been making more moves to become more relevant to the social media universe. It already has a solid user base, and we've likely only seen the service's infancy.

A couple months ago, Google launched the Buzz API, which was a big step in the right direction. This gave developers tools to build applications around Buzz, or integrate Buzz into their existing applications, hence making Buzz more useful. Just as Twitter became more useful when more apps were built for it, Buzz has similar potential.

That potential has now increased greatly, as Google has launched the firehose for the Buzz API. This means that all public information from Buzz users is accessible by developers for use with their apps, which opens the door for many more opportunities. See how some are already using it here.

From the business owner's perspective, simply think of Buzz as another group of potential customers, in addition to Facebook and Twitter users, which will probably be integrated into many of the same apps that are already utilizing these other groups. So any promotional benefits you are seeing from said apps should increase with the addition of Buzz data, not to mention the fact that this and other factors will likely lead to the growth of Buzz itself. That brings me to the next point.

Do you think Google Buzz will become more useful to your business? Comment here.

2. Google Me

For weeks, Google has been rumored to be working on a new big social network to rival Facebook. The company of course does not comment on rumors, but has not denied the concept. Details are scarce, but "Google Me" as it's commonly being referred to, will likely utilize existing Google profile pages, which are tied to Google Buzz. As I discussed in a recent article, Google is making all YouTube users connect their accounts to a Google account, which could mean that all of these Google account holders become part of Google's massive social network by default.
Without knowing Google's exact plans, it's hard to say exactly what benefits will become available that aren't already there, but you can bet that the implications will be big, and it might make all of Google's social properties more beneficial to businesses. YouTube is one of the most popular sites in the world. Add that to everyone else with a Google account.

Will Google be able to rival Facebook in social media mind share?
Comment here.

3. Virtual Goods Increase Purchase Intent

Virtual goods are becoming more popular within social networks, and businesses are already finding ways to utilize them to not only increase brand awareness and influence positive opinions about their products, but drive purchase intent.

In fact, new study from Appssavvy found that they can do all of these things, while increasing all brand metrics. More about this here.