to a Facebook friend

Last week’s launch of Google Buzz was met by some of the active social media community with a combination of excitement and skepticism. People were excited because of the audacity and reach of Buzz (Social media, built right into one of the most popular email services, with millions of users already? Wow).

And we were skeptical because it feels as if we’re already over-saturated with social networking services (plus, wasn’t Google Friend Connect supposed to be the next big network? Or was that Google Wave?).

We have already invested our time growing our Twitter network, and we’ve built up quite a community on Facebook. We’re tweeting and sharing links, we’ve spent the requisite time developing relationships with our clients, our customers, and our peers on those networks, and now here comes Buzz.

How are we going to manage yet another one?

After a week of using it, I’ve got a few observations on Buzz:

When I first opened Gmail and saw Buzz already waiting for me, I jumped right in, and quickly noticed that while Google had already connected me to people I email or chat with regularly, I needed to change that. I’m already communicating with those people on other platforms – I don’t need to also follow them on Buzz.

My second thoughts were “Are we going to have to go through the process of following and attracting followers again? How can I use this differently than Twitter?”

Since many people were already connecting their many services to Buzz, I was getting their Twitter updates, their Google Reader shared items, their blog RSS feeds, and updates from digg.com and Friendfeed.

Every time I checked, I had numerous unread items, and it was rapidly becoming a source of noise, not information. So I unfollowed everyone except those whose updates I really didn’t want to miss, and started only following people that are leaders in their field – people I wanted to be sure to listen to.

My advice for using Google Buzz:

Your Buzz activity shows up on your Google profile, so keep it relevant. You might not want your next customer to see the latest picture of your family poodle that you sent to TwitPic, unless you’re in the dog business.

Only connect feeds to Buzz that won’t overload your followers (like Twitter, for heavy users). Those feeds will update automatically, so make sure you aren’t sharing the same link from multiple services)

Follow the thought leaders in your industry, commenting on their Buzz posts regularly. But don’t act like a spammer or link dropper – only comment if you can add something.

Listen deeper. Find other influential or interesting people to follow through their comments on those posts. Many blogs are now sporting a new “Follow us on Google Buzz” button, making it easy to connect.

Only share the best. We don’t need to know everything you read today in Google Reader. The tendency is to want to share everything with everyone, thinking that gives us a bigger reach, but the reality is that smaller, targeted networks are more engaged.

Manage your attention. Just as you shouldn’t check your email all the time, or leave a tab with Twitter open continuously, you will need to keep the time you spend with Buzz under control. Or, if you’re an info-glutton, you might want to consider a social media diet.

Use filters and labels to manage the flow of information and keep your inbox empty. Find some other Buzz tricks to make it work for you.

How have you been using Google Buzz?

Derek Markham is a writer, a father, a WordPress addict, and social media butterfly who loves to share what’s new and interesting in his world in under 140 characters. Hit him up with an @ reply anytime for help, advice, or just to say hey!

Image: topgold at Flickr