So if you aren’t familiar, a “relatively new” network, Foursquare is getting a lot of attention.

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Recently, I had the pleasure of attending the Gravity Summit where I had the chance to learn about how business professionals were using social media. Among the many topics that were discussed at the summit, one topic in particular was brought up on a few occasions. That topic was Google Buzz . For many professionals in attendance, the question they wanted to know was whether or not Google Buzz would become relevant. As it is, Facebook and Twitter are big question marks for some businesses because of the simple fact that companies don’t want to jump too far into something if there is a chance it will disappear in a year or two.

So the question now is what do you do? If you are a business owner or a marketing professional, how will Google Buzz play into your campaigns?

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(Social Media is so easy a Caveman could do it! – Photo by Don Hankins)

We like to make social media difficult to understand. We like to keep creating new shiny toys, sites and systems and the new one always seems to come out just when you got the hang of the “old thing.”

Bloggers that blog about social media and marketing experts like to complicate things that should be relatively easy. Social media is all about, ironically, being social. You know listening to and talking to other people in a social environment. The Internet has just changed the location, not the message.

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photo by teamtinybike

When you are making new resolutions to train for a marathon, eat better or to improve your mile time, do you wake up the day after you start with all your goals met? No? Why not?

During training you experience pain, sore muscles and even failure. Social media is the same. It takes practice, repetition, dedication and the understanding that not all the same tactics will work for everyone.Before you start tweeting or facebook fan page-ing why don’t you take a step back and think about some things:

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Viral Marketing for the Rest of Us

Viral marketing, online word-of-mouth marketing, social media marketing…they’re all under the same umbrella. They all encourage the consumer to interact with the brand, creating tighter bonds between the two parties. With such readily accessible tools as social media, brands can create big-time buzz without a big-time budget.

Measuring Social Media with Web Analytics, Part 1

The say the problem with using social media as a marketing tool is that there is no easy way to measure its effectiveness. Here is the first installment on how Web Analytics can provide a solution for this social media measuring dilemma .

Is Content King? Then Distribution Is Crown Prince

No matter how good the content is, if nobody reads it, then it has totally defeated its purpose. The Internet provides a wealth of useful tools for distributing content and reaching an audience. The main issue now is to find the right niche for the content to be propagated .

Whither Twitter?

Since the rumors have spread that Twitter would be releasing its own ad platform for marketers, many have been speculating over how it will affect the social media giant’s momentum. Companies that already integrating their brand messages on the social media platform provide clues as to how Twitter may or may not change with the introduction of paid placement .

Twitter: Why does it work (so well) for small businesses

Small businesses benefit the most from using Twitter as a marketing tool. The social media platform is easily accessible, cost effective, and can reach a wide audience while still targeting a specific market. Not to mention it fulfills the business’ aim to build relationships .

photo by brainflakes.org

What does “New Media” mean to you? Where do you see Social Media, Blogging, and the Web 2.0 world heading next? For me, “New Media” is about allowing anyone and everyone to create this media themselves, encouraging creativity, and providing low barriers of entry (so everyone – regardless of tech-know-how – can participate).

Recently I launched a project called “The Epiphany Moment ” – what took several months together has resulted in something that truly defines what “New Media” means to me. Every element of this was 100% crowd-sourced – individuals submitted their own videos to be a part of this, which were then edited and set to original music – all of which was done at zero cost.

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Photo by .: Philipp Klinger :.

The advertising and marketing industries run at a very fast pace, but even they can have a hard time keeping up technology. It’s rare that an ad agency gets the chance to present a tech-based idea to a client when it’s still in it’s early adoption phase and has a chance to blow up with the platform, and it’s even rarer that they are able to sell the idea. The truth is, simplicity is a rare commodity in the technological age, but it is crucial to save your idea from being killed in the boardroom.

As technology evolves and the opportunities grow, the job of selling your tech-based ideas will grow even more difficult; if something sounds complicated, it doesn’t sound good. Even if the idea is great, it is hard to sell the idea when you also have to sell the technology or the medium, so take a look at a few tips to help you bring your social media and technology-based ideas to life:

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