Google wants to get into the social networking arena with Buzz, a platform that they introduced on 9th February this year. However the social networking tool that is accessed via Google Mail has not taken off so far.

Of course, on the day of launch Google saw a massive response. Searching online with particular terms is considered to be a measure of public interest in something. According to Chitika here were 1,500 searches that day for the term ‘Google Buzz.’ However just three days later searches were only in double digits compared to Twitter who has on average 87 search queries a day.

Google itself reports that from the 26th February on some days there has been only one search for Buzz.

So why has Google Buzz failed to capture peoples imaginations? One explanation is that the social networking market is already saturated and that Twitter has spent four years building followers. Is Google prepared to input the time needed to grow an enterprise in this marketplace?

The fact that Gmail already has 140 million users should have made Buzz an easy tool to use.

A big problem that Buzz has encountered relates to privacy. The tool allows others to see a great deal of private information including which website users are connected to, who they are following and who is following them. Last month Congress members asked for an investigation into Buzz and the privacy issues it raised.

Buzz product manager Todd Jackson said in a blog post:

‘Shortly after launching Google Buzz, we quickly realised we didn’t get everything right and moved as fast as possible to improve the Buzz experience,” said

“Offering everyone who uses our products transparency and control is very important to us.’

Buzz has since been tweaked and it remains to be seen whether Buzz will take off as a social networking tool.

Once you have identified your main keywords then its time to use them. Making sure that your main keywords appear consistently in all your online marketing will help to maximise your campaigns.

Optimising your website
This is a technical area. For some people websites are just attractive windows that consumers will enjoy visiting and hopefully engaging and purchasing from. In reality website construction needs the involvement of people who know about search engine optimisation. Keywords need to be embedded in:

• title tags
• headings
• links
• the website navigation system
• document titles, directory names, file names
• the body text

Optimise all your digital output
Use keywords when labelling your videos, audios and all images. These are all included in many search facilities and are becoming more and more popular with the general public.

Social networking
Use your keywords in all your social networking. Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, they all allow you to bookmark tags (your keywords) which make it easier for people to find you. This is particularly important now that search engines are using live search results.  Even posts on online forums have search facilities.

Back Links
Using your keywords in links that go to your site is very important as the search engines take this as one very important indication of the usefulness of your site to the readers. Building up good back links takes time, be patient.

Press releases
Use your keywords in everything you put out there including press releases, emails, articles, bio’s. It all counts because it makes it easier for people to find you.

Documents
Optimise any documents you have online with keyword content: pdf’s and word documents can all be used in search engines.

Think in terms of keyword optimisation for every piece of material you produce and you won’t go far wrong.

Inbound links can really help you get good natural search rankings for your website. There are hundreds of ways in which you can achieve this. Here are a few ideas for your link building campaign:

Fantastic content
Yes, fantastic content itself will eventually create natural inbound links to your site. If you are writing unique and unusual content and its what people want to hear about then your information will eventually pick up an audience. The search engines will rank it well and a regular audience will boost the rating.

Social Networking
Participating in social networking can raise awareness about your company and what it does. Extra links from sites like LindedIn, Facebook and Twitter can provide valuable traffic.  Many social networking sites allow people to search for content with particular keywords.

Blogging
Having a well frequented blog with lots of audience participation can create the desire to find out more about your company. Make it easy for visitors to find your site.

Participation
Participating in online discussions with other bloggers and in online communities can help to feed traffic to your own site. Don’t leave a message without leaving your website or blog details. Equally, genuine communication only is valuable in these circumstances. Leaving links just for the sake of it looks phoney and will not encourage traffic – it will just waste your time.

Capitalise on all your marketing
Submit your blog posts to blog directories. This increases your blog audience which you can then direct to your website.

Online video
Creating online video enables you to have another type of media and audience to link back to your site.

Link Swapping
Swapping links with other site owners can increase the number of inbound links to your site but it is important to choose relevant sites to appear on your site. The sites you link to need to be relevant to your readers.

Article submission
Interesting articles with your details attached to the end can hold links back to your site or blog. Article sites are always happy to get good content to fill their pages.

Find out
Find out who is already linking to you. Often this uncovers sectors that are interested in your work that you didn’t even know existed. You can pursue this avenue by finding out where your audience ‘hangs out’ and targeting them there

Quality links
At all times be aware that it’s not just inbound links that are important, they need to be good ones. The best ones have your important keywords in the hyperlink text as part of the link back.

With so many forms of online marketing now available to you the key to making the most of everything that you do is to fully harness the potential of each and every piece of material you produce.

Keep in touch – the power of RSS
Make sure that everything you produce has an RSS feed link so that anyone who wants to be kept up to date can get the information they want automatically. This applies to all social media (blogs, social networking sites) as well as your website information. Don’t make people have to find you again. Make it easy for them.

Effective Keywords
Choose the most effective keywords and key phrases to use accross all your online marketing. This will make all your efforts more targeted and effective. Who are you audience? What have you got that they want the most at this moment in time? This is the basis for your keywork search and online marketing campaign.

Social Networking
Are you a member of social networking sites? It is very easy to send information to social networks. For example if you write a blog post you can easily send a link to Twitter and Facebook to let your contacts there know about the new information.

Do you have easy links on all the marketing material that you produce so that people can pass your name on to others in their social networks?

Press release
Announce your press release on your website. Make this the link back target so that when people read about you on other sites they link back to your company website or blog.

All information
When you produce a piece of marketing allow people to follow you in the way that best suits them by having all your contact information available: your website, blog, Twitter, Facebook and site information.

Break it down
Think creatively when using multi-media. Your time and money investment can go further if you look at all the options. For example, if you create an online video, then break it down – use the script as a pdf download, use the audio as a podcast on your site.

Conventional Media
If you use conventional media marketing whether its print, radio or TV advertising, add your online details. People like to look you up.

Many companies have decided that social networking is not for them. However new developments online mean that companies who don’t opt in could be missing out.

Google search now includes a live search section which updates by the minute with information from all over the web including up to date blog posts, Tweets and feeds from FriendFeed. To a certain extent when Google moves in a direction it is unwise to ignore it. It is the search engine which generates the most traffic.

Choosing not to include a social networking element to your online marketing campaign means that you might be missing out on extra traffic. If your competitors are involved they could have the advantage.

There is also a possibility that you could be misrepresented online too. UK political parties, for example are leaving themselves exposed in the social networking arena. Tamar, a search agency, undertook research which looked at the reputation management of Gordon Brown and David Cameron to see how well they had positioned themselves online. They found that neither leaders had protected their position in Twitter.

The Twitter accounts with the names of the leaders were not official accounts. @davidcameron was featuring unofficial party news but currently has the message:

‘This unofficial Twitter is now shutting down, at the reasonable & very polite request of Tory HQ. Please follow @conservatives for updates.’

The Tamar report said:

‘With the explosion of real-time search recently, it’s even more important for the political parties to take both factual and ’social’ search seriously. Simple actions such as registering the names of key figures, opening Facebook accounts and engaging on Twitter.’

This is good advice for all businesses.