Whether is the allure of a new network, or real apathy with Facebook and Twitter, a lot of people are ready to tackle the learning curve of a brand new social network.

We’ve created a quick video tutorial to help explain the basics for the new Google+ user. Enjoy!

A few weeks ago, Paul Adams of Google put out a truly insightful analysis of our online social spheres. He explores how our online connections differ from our offline ones, how we identify friends (as opposed to connections), who we are truly able to keep tabs on, and how all of these things collide in the online space. He argues that targeting people based on perceived influence ignores that we are most connected with roughly 3-10 people who we truly trust. Based on this, it could better serve brands to focus on the breadth of marketing messages, and not individual influencer outreach, to actually impact the end consumer.

And Do You Listen to Them?

This is a scenario that is somewhat contrary to the way we build connections on Twitter. Twitter is not comprised of our inner circle. We are likely to have multiple degrees of separation from some of the people we follow. Paul points out that proximity is more important than perceived overall influence, so hitting multiple people with fewer connections may be the best way to influence the end user. We trust those with close proximity to us more than we trust those who have “influence”, which would suggest that examining Facebook connections is a greater indicator of a sphere of influence.

Trust vs. Influence

Here’s a question, though: Is there a difference between people who influence us and people who we trust? And if there is, how might you hone product or brand outreach based on that?

Klout, the current hot influencer score, takes into account number of followers, importance of followers, reach of information and velocity of information, among other things. It does not, however, take into account quality of information or impact of information. I may retweet Lance Armstrong, but I’ll likely buy a bike shoe that my boyfriend loves. So are there types of information that spread better through influence, and types that spread better through trust?

Identifying Many Kinds of Influencers

A recent review of our  influencer outreach here at Room214 led us to determine that, in entertainment, we were dealing with two types of influencer: the Identified Influencers and the Eager Masses. Under these two separate strategies, we’re reaching out the the people who have big voices and spread through Influence, as well as smaller individuals who are simply excited about entertainment products and spread to friends through Trust . In one, we hone and personalize. In the other, we give access to many people who, through their simple passion, have the ability to spread the word.

Every industry is different, but I think it’s important to start to acknowledge the importance of the voice of the everyday (and often quite passionate) consumer.

At the risk of paraphrasing, she basically indicated the importance of optimizing web pages is going away. If you consider how referral traffic is migrating from search engines to social networks, I’d say it’s easy to agree.

Of course, what we are seeing is search engines staying relevant by indexing social content. Case and point: I do a quick search on Google for “iPad” – and what do you know: My friend and business partner, James Clark, shows up on the first page of the search results.

Wow, over 48 million results, and his mug comes up on the first page? Yes, because Google is now recognizing and leveraging the relevance of social connections.

And although the optimization of web pages may be bearing less weight, I’m not throwing out the baby with the bath water (ugh, I used that phrase). Keywords, for example, remain foundational to online visibility from both a topical search, and monitoring perspective.

There is a great deal more to the social search discussion recently written by Brian Solis. One of our (Room 214’s) responses has been to create a formal Social Search Optimization program for our customers.

What are you doing to optimize for social search?

It’s not a surprising statement, either. What is interesting, however, is that this statement is becoming relevant for consumers in all age brackets. 78% of consumers say they trust peer recommendations. We’re all easily influenced by each other, meaning that information sharing in social media is very valuable.

Enter this:

What you are looking at are screenshots of Google Buzz mobile. Not only can I see who near me is buzzing, I can see where they are. If someone is in a location I’m heading towards, I can see what they are saying. In this case, one person has just told me that the Florentine’s at a local coffee shop are more expensive than at CU Business School.

Real-Time Reviews

As more people adopt buzz, the aggregated conversations in one location can paint an incredible real-time picture of what is happening around you, based on the opinions of other people. Is your favorite restaurant out of their nightly special? Did someone have terrible customer service at the running store you’re headed to? All of this information is immediately accessible, in addition to being timely and relevant.

Large User Base

Geo-location services are by no means new. Consider, though, that Gmail’s active monthly user base is rumored to be around tens of millions (compare that to Foursquare’s 350k and MyTown’s 1mm total users). Add that to the fact that buzz is an opt-out rather than opt-in feature, and we’re likely to see a much higher adoption rate.

It’s Google

I’ve had a few debates about this since Buzz launched Tuesday, and I continue to argue this: A lot of people use Gmail. Through Gmail, a lot of people who aren’t early-adopters have tried out new Google products like docs, calendar and wave. Because these people have an established trust for what Google can bring into their lives, they’ll be willing to try out Buzz, much more so than they’d be willing to try out a similar product from an unfamiliar company. And as our designer Andy Stone pointed out, Google’s “Do No Evil” policy has also helped build trust within a distrusting consumer group.

It’s Social

Now the medium that we (or at least, I) need most on a daily basis to communicate is directly connected with a sharing function that isn’t tied to a type of content (ie Yelp for reviews, Foursquare for tips and frequency). Buzz is just thoughts.  I, for one, am going to share, and I’ll share whatever is on my mind. Freed from the constraints of types of reviews, I think we’ll soon be seeing a geo-tagged map of candid consumer thinking.

Good, Bad, Viral

This is great for the way your brand engages with individual consumers. Fast Company already took a look at user-targeted advertising through Buzz. You may soon be able to target individual consumers based on very individual habits, an act which can help build relevant and meaningful relationships, one person at a time. It also means you need to monitor and play an active role in the buzz (Buzz?) going on around your company. You can respond to any comment that is public, so any time your brand shows up on a map, you should be there to discuss. More importantly, you should be there before the discussion starts, letting us know what’s going on in your kitchen, your factory, and your main conference room.

Take, for example, Bonnaroo’s decision to let individual bands announce their presence in the 2010 lineup (along with individual announcements through MySpace). It took resourceful individuals to piece together the entire lineup, and the news spread like wildfire. What if you had a single person in your brewery Buzz about your latest creation, rather than announce it through press release? Which one would spread faster? Which one would spread organically?

Google Buzz has the potential to create huge buzz, both positive and negative. So get to using it. I am.

Direct from the Google Help Center, here’s what the ads look like: Mobile ads contain two lines of text, with a limit of 12 or 18 characters per line, depending on the language in which you write your ad. Your destination URL appears on a third line if you choose to enter one. If you select the option that allows customers to directly connect to your business phone, a Call link will appear next to your destination URL. You can also set daily budgets and establish scheduled marketing messages.

The big advantage could be for advertisers looking to draw in local customers. For example, people who are on the road traveling and looking for a restaurant, hotel or service. David Utter from WebProNews.com commented on Google’s strategy: “We know that Google and its competitors have been actively engaged in a battle for dominance in the local search arena. It makes sense to corner the mobile search market for advertising if possible.”

Businesses purchase the ads through the Adwords interface, and must have either a mobile web site for pay-per-click ads, or a toll-free phone number for pay-per-call ads.

Now that mobile phones are fully integrated into mainstream America with over 200 million subscribers, mobile phones are and will continue to be an important place to deliver advertising.

With Google's new Link Unit feature, you can place links to ads on your site without displaying the ads themselves. This provides a less obtrusive way to earn money from advertising on your website, and potentially a more relevant path for people to locate topic-specific information.

Why is this kind of thing important? Just ask someone like our good friend, Tim Carter, from askthebuilder.com who clears $30,000/month from Adsense revenues alone. There is also a growing population of companies from India who have come to rely on Adsense revenue to make up eighty percent or more of their entire operating incomes. Any advantage Google can offer to increase click through rates is a good one.

I’ve been talking to people about companies like Umbria for several months now, all in the spirit of using tools that collect the kind of data that can help predict the future (as opposed to simply summarizing the past). Now, we are beginning to see this topic talked about more in main-stream news circles. If this isn’t the future of Marketing, I don’t know what is.

If you are a mall-loathing online shopper like me, you’ll enjoy Google’s new Checkout feature which simplifies the check out process, enabling you to purchase from many stores with one login – no more entering the same info each time you buy, and no more having to remember different usernames and passwords for each store.

Google’s official blog entry explains how Google Checkout works with Adwords, offering online stores a more complete solution to attract customers and process sales. When Checkout is combined with Adwords, a small green shopping cart icon appears next to the display URL in the Adwords ad text (see picture). Now if I have a super-easy-to-use Google Checkout account and see that little green icon in the ad text, you bet I will be more likely to follow that link than one without this functionality.

As the creation of effective Adwords ad text and display URLs has become a science, it will be interesting to see if you will have the ability in to split test ads with the icon vs. without. Overall the set up process was painless and the checkout/purchase history interface is very google-esque – simple, clean, and uniform – I’m down.