What’s Up with Google Buzz; Do I Need It For My Social Media Strategy?

Is anyone else starting to feel overwhelmed with the number of social media networks to keep up with? To add to the long list of ways to “join the conversation,” Google Buzz is a new social networking platform that launched this last Tuesday, February 9, 2010.  It is social networking tool that allows Gmail users to share updates, photos, videos, links and more instantaneously online and on Android phones and the iPhone.

My question is do users really need or want a new social network? Facebook has become most people’s default choice for social networking, making it easier to find old friends and business contacts. Do I really want to post everything twice in order for all my friends to see it? That may be reason enough to hope for Buzz’s quick demise.

On the other hand, it seems that for small businesses that rely on customer referrals and word of mouth marketing, Google Buzz can act as another megaphone for customer conversations by publishing them to the inbox of millions of Gmail users. If consumers mention a product or service, their comments can spread virally through their social connections without the need for services like Twitter or Facebook.

The service appears to be optimized for the mobile web which will be very useful for businesses that engage in linking their geographic locations to instant messages which is a benefit.

The bottom line: Google Buzz is a powerful new social media channel that offers a simple way for consumers to voice their opinions about products and services they use. It offers another opportunity to listen to what customers are saying and to drive awareness and enthusiasm for their brands by participating in the conversation.

For social media savvy small businesses, only time will tell if it makes sense to use Google Buzz instead of or in addition to Facebook or Twitter for communicating and engaging with customers.

What do you think? Will you be using Google Buzz? Will it become part of your online visitor engagement strategy?