Social Media How-To: Getting Started with Google Buzz

Google Buzz, though released a few weeks ago, is still trying to find its place in the social media mix after 2 years of planning and development. There are some good things being said about the social media tool, and there are definitely some bad. Google has addressed some of the bad, but I think there is still room for improvement.

I figured it was time to try using it myself. There are still some things that confuse me, such as some of my 24 followers that I had never heard of, emailed, interacted with online, or that I was even aware knew of me, and the time-line of buzz updates from people I follow not being in chronological order; it seems like a pretty easy tool to use otherwise. After signing into Gmail, you are able to see a link on the right hand side below the inbox link that refers to “Buzz”. If you haven’t clicked on this link before and created your first Buzz update, your Buzz profile will not be public.

First things first, however: you must have a Gmail account to use Buzz, so if you don’t already have one, get to it. Once you’ve logged into your Gmail account, you can click on the Buzz link on the right hand column to start your Buzz experience. You will be redirected to the Buzz homepage that will look something like this:

Under your name is a text field for you to create some buzz to share with your followers. You can reply to others’ buzz updates, “like” what they’ve updated by clicking on the “Like” link under their updates, share pictures, videos, and links, and find others to follow. In response to some negative feedback in regards to the privacy of Google Buzz, Google has responded and made it so you can keep your updates private, as well as the people you follow and are following you. This prevents others who are not in your followers to see who you connect with and where, since Buzz updates your account from your phone with your current location.

In the screen capture above, you can see the options I have to create an update with either public or private settings and if I want to share it with my followers or not. Also above you can see the option to share a link with my followers. Click on “Link” under the text field to see the “Add link to this post” appear. Once you enter the link, click “Post” to see your update shared with others. You can follow the same process to share a photo with your followers as well. Click on the “Photo” link and a pop-up box will appear so you can select an image to share from your desktop, other Gmail accounts (such as Blogger accounts), or the web.

To comment on someone’s Buzz update, click on the “Comment” link found underneath the update.

Once you’ve entered your text, click on “Post comment”. Here, you can also click on the “Like” link to share with others that you enjoyed this Buzz update, or click on the “Email” link to email this update to a friend.

These are the basic functions of Buzz on your end. To see the updates from people you follow, simply scroll down on your Google Buzz homepage to see what your friends have been buzzing about.

If you’d like to know more about the functionality of Google Buzz, check out their introductory video:

What’s been your experience with Google Buzz?

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