How I See Google Buzz Fitting With My Social Marketing

Figuring out where things fit in on the social web can be daunting, even overwhelming.  Seriously, with Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, a Blog, Email Lists, and now Google Buzz, how does it all fit together?  I often gravitate to graphs, charts, and illustrations.  Maybe it has to do with the old phrase, “a picture is worth a thousand words”.  I find words can get in the way where a graph or chart can explain a complex idea in seconds.

How I See Google Buzz Fitting With My Social Marketing

I’ve had this image in my mind for several days now, and even though I’m not a pro graphic illustrator, I finally took the time to put it together.  PowerPoint is probably not the best program to create something like this in, but I welcome your feedback.

Understanding the Intimacy Curve in Social Marketing (Does an Awesome Graph Need Explaining?)

After my wife saw this chart, she hesitated with the term “Intimacy”.  In case you weren’t enamored with the chart itself, let me offer some further explanation.

Y-axis Intimacy – Speaking of my wife (of 12 years in just a couple weeks), while we didn’t have a typical courtship I didn’t ask her for a date the first time I met her and didn’t ask her to marry me after the first date.  I realize this example can be overused, but the social web isn’t much different.  Depending on the product or service, future customers need some warming up first.  As they get to know you better (consider this expanded view of email marketing strategy), the information shared gets more and more exclusive -  I’m talking about subscribers only info.  The ultimate sharing happens when they trust you enough to purchase one of your products.  This is what I call ‘customer only’ information.

X-axis Profile - Social websites go from very public to private.  Twitter is public (unless you have opted to protect your tweets) and nothing can stop someone from seeing my public profile.  If someone opts to follow me on Twitter, they are probably more interested in what I have to offer than someone who doesn’t.  As they initiate connections on other, more secure networks, they are self selecting for more information from me.  So as they go from Twitter, to Facebook, to my blog, etc., intimacy goes up.

• Suspect – No idea if they are in my target market.
• Prospect – May be qualified for what I have to offer.
• Customer – Have rewarded me with a sale or engagement, have purchased access to me, and mutually obligated ourselves to each other.

Google Buzz is near the top in terms of intimacy and to the right because if I want Buzz to remain more useful than just Twitter, I won’t permit just anyone in my Gmail address book, or follow just anyone who decides to follow me.  “Buzz” appears right below the words “Inbox” in my Gmail (and yours), which is visited by my readers more than my Twitter feed will ever be.

What Say You of this Graph? Ugliness aside, where am I going wrong on how I’m viewing where Google Buzz currently fits in my social marketing?  Chime in below (charts welcome).
Photo Credit: 1.stream

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