The Birds and the Bees- Twitter, Buzz, and all that Jazz

• Tweet
• Sharebar

• Tweet

Buzz means nothing without honey

So we have a new social baby. Little Buzz was born this week, making his way into a crowded loud world of online social interaction.

I am one of the dinosaurs who can remember people being petrified to engage in any online interaction. The forums were considered geeky and exclusive at best; sordid and possibly dangerous at worst. Whole TV shows were based on the predatory nature of many people trying to engage others online. Social interaction online has changed to the point where people are, I would guess, about as honest with others online as they are face-to-face.

Here are a few links if you need some help learning how to use Google Buzz: this is about Google buzz on mobile and this is the bare-bones nuts and bolts of Buzz. If you need to find out about twitter, there are thousands of articles to help you.

I am not as interested in telling you how these work- that is covered elsewhere, and experience is the best teacher, anyway. I am also not assessing these apps from a social point of view- I can handle that addiction on my own. I want to tame them for business and make that time use productive. Things like SocialTalk and HootSuite can help organize your social media family.

But the question is: will I take the time to learn how to use Buzz? Will I push myself to start from scratch rebuilding a community on a different platform when I have more than 1000 friends on Facebook and more than 4 times that many on twitter?

Do we need to go wider? I noticed a couple of things that attracted some attention amongst my online friends this week. They both had to do with taking circles of friendship and deepening the ties. One was a Facebook group started by Rob Hahn, in which I am Queen of Boston and Abbess, Sisterhood of the Twitterati (a nod to my involvement with the TwitterQueens). The group, RE.NET, has made a place for people to socialize who are already friends- formed initially online and enriched at Real Estate events. Rob has been a perfect host, making people comfortable to share and- if the truth be told- miss each other. I check in a few times a day, and that is something that I don’t do with almost any other interface.

Something else that I think is going to really take off is similar but more business oriented. I have been seeing the hashtag #rett on twitter with no real explanation. Trying to figure out what was going on with context clues led me to guess that people were coming together to discuss the business of real estate- not as competitors, but as confederates. I also saw the new RETT page on Facebook. The “About” reads:

“What if a bunch of real estate types (agents, lenders, title) sat around in an open space, working, chatting and collaborating? #rett”

Buzz, you are cute, and I may end up attached to you, but right now I am staying up nights with your sibs twitter and blip. I know you all serve different purposes, and that’s valid. But isn’t the purpose- the real, underlying purpose of all of this- to connect and offer something of value, whether that something is friendship or service?

I am at the point where I want to go deeper, not wider.

Real estate or social media questions? Find me
...On Facebook where you can access a home search
...All of my online links
...On LinkedIn
...Email me at diane@realtyman.com
...or call 978-840-4014