In this video we show you how to get started with Ping.fm which allows you to syndicate your and other’s content to 39 different social media networking sites.

In this video we show you how to get started with Ping.fm which allows you to syndicate your and other’s content to 39 different social media networking sites.

Simple steps to ensure that you are getting the most out of you Facebook business profile.

First of all, before we get started, I want to say I love Google.  I am just frustrated that for all the things that they have gotten right, they are so many things they could do better.

In this series on Why Google is Failing at Social Networking we will explore some of the reasons why and what they can do about it.  Some of the major issues include:

• No Central Jumping Point
• Lack of Integration of Services
• Flawed Accounting System
• Needs More Third Party Application Support
• Needs Third Party Social Network Integration
• Needs a Memorable Brand

We will go through each of these below and in other articles in the series.

No Central Jumping Point

One thing that Facebook has going for them is they are a central point for jumping to so many other things.  You want to see what your friends are up to? Check. You want to see what your favorite business or celebrity or restaurant is doing? Check. You want to invite your friends to an event? Check.  You want to promote your business or website? Check.  You want to run any number of third-party apps? Check.

And you know what? With Facebook, you login to one place and you can get to the world.  You don’t have that with Google and it is sorely missing.  Sure, we have the Google Start page.  And there is a link to “My Account” in some of Google’s website, but not all.  But that does not really serve as a good starting point.  We need something deeper.

What is needed is a central page that I can go to that tells me what is going on in every Google community I am connected to.  I should be notified of any comments people make in Google Buzz or on my Blogger blog, replies to my comments on other Blogger blogs, replies to my posts on Google Groups, notification of any private messages I received on YouTube or Orkut.  Any Orkut scraps that were posted on my account. New posts from websites and blogs I subscribed to in Google Reader.  Any new friend requests and event invitations.  And whatever else we can think of integrating.

You create a central place where people can aggregate updates from all their Google Services in a Google Buzz / Friend Feed or Facebook News Feed style page.  Make it full configurable, and add third party app support, and you got a winner.

Integration of Services (or lack thereof)

You might (key word “might”) be able to get away with not having a central jumping point if your services are integrated together well.  Unfortunately, most of Google’s services have little or no integration other than being able to login with a single user account (the Google Account).

This causes many problems including problems with navigating from one Google service to another, as well as the fact that many people do not even know about other Google services.  For example, how many Gmail users actually know what Knol or Orkut is?

Then you have some of the most blatant holes, like why is Google Buzz not in Orkut.

Google could do a lot in the realm of integrating services, which would give a much better user experience and promote the use of other services they have.

I talk about this more in the article “Google’s Integration of Services (or lack thereof).”

Flawed Account System

The way Google’s current account system is structured is a result of mashing together the various web properties that they have created or accumulated over the years.  Some of them, like YouTube, had its own login system prior to being purchased by Google.  While the Google Account has created an ease in logging into various Google websites, it also has some major limitations.

For example, many users have one Gmail account, but then have multiple YouTube accounts, some for personal use and some for business use.  Yet you can only link one Gmail account and one YouTube account together.  And what is worse, once you link your Google Account with a YouTube account you can NEVER unlink it ever ever ever ever.  You are stuck.  Good luck if you accidentally linked your personal Google Account with your employers or business YouTube account.  You’re basically screwed.

The way Google Accounts are structured and integrated now show that Google really does not understand how its customers actually use their services.  The structure of the account system really needs to be completely rethought out if they are to succeed in the social media space.

I talk about this more in the article “Google’s Flawed Account System” (coming soon).

More Third Party Application Support

One thing that makes Facebook so powerful is its third-party application support.  Google sees the potential here and has been working on creating apps that work in Google Apps, Google Widgets that work in various websites such as the Google Start Page and Gmail, not to mention the Android apps marketplace.  So I think they get the concept.  They just need to grow this more.

What would be really cool is if they created a “Facebook emulation mode” where a creator of a Facebook app could easily port their app to Google Apps.  And think of the possibilities if Google Android apps could be ported to Google Widgets.  You could have a nice mini-app on your Google start page or in Gmail.

Third Party Social Network Integration

If you create some of the items I mentioned earlier like a centralized jumping point, and integration of Google services, take it one step further and integrate other social networking sites, such as Twitter and Facebook.  You see some of this in Google Buzz, but I am surprised that there are so few options.  This should be expanded to as many as possible, making Google Buzz your destination to interact with all your other social media sites.

I already use this type of integration with Twitter and Facebook.  My tweets (Twitter posts) get imported into Facebook and appear on my profile page.  People them respond to my Tweets directly in Facebook.  I use Twitter to broadcast it, but I use Facebook to comment on it and hold conversations.

And it should do more than import.  For example, in addition to replying to a imported tweet (Twitter post), you could have Google Buzz also send a reply in Twitter itself via your Twitter account.

Memorable Brand

Now, I may step on some toes here, but there needs to be a good brand for the social networking website, especially the central jumping point I mentioned before.  Right now you have Orkut, which is the closest thing Google has to a Facebook-like website.  I know that Orkut was named after its creator, and the domain name was available, but unfortunately it is not a good name for a social networking site.  For one, it took me years to even remember what the name of Google’s site was (Orkut), and then once I remembered it took me months to remember how to spell it.  That is not good.

Face it, most really popular sites and services on the web have a really cool or at least memorable name.  Google qualifies as that.  So does Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft, TechCrunch, Mashable, Amazon, CubeWeek, etc.

(*Well, hopefully CubeWeek is memorable. )

The Social Media Overhaul

Google really has a lot of pieces of the social media puzzle in place, but unfortunately they are scattered all over the place.  They don’t necessarily have to create a unified website like Facebook that encompases everything, but they do need to create a good jumping point and integrate their services better.  That and a cool name, and I think they have a winner.

While Google’s relative failure in the social media space has many reasons, one of the biggest reasons is integration, or lack thereof.  Google has some really great teams working to make great products, but because, for the most part, they are all different teams, any integration with other Google services is an often an afterthought and then requires collaboration between the teams that don’t normally work together.

One of the things needed for Google to really succeed in the social media space is to integrate their services together so that it is easier to access your information better, and to give a better user experience.  It also helps promote the other services.  For example, I wonder how many Gmail users actually know what Orkut is.

To accomplish this integration, Google will need to totally rethink their account system and corresponding privacy controls.  I talk about that in another post, but for now I will mention ways that various Google services could be integrated to give a better user experience.

Gmail: The Universal Message System

Gmail & Private Message Systems

Many of Google services like Orkut and YouTube have a private message system.  Instead of sending e-mail reminders to Gmail users, give them the option to have a separate view that shows private messages from Orkut and YouTube, similar to how they integrated Google Buzz. You should be able to reply to the private message directly from Gmail, where it it routed back to the Orkut or YouTube user’s private message inbox.

Gmail & Comment Notifications

A lot of services that Google offers have the ability to comment on things as well as subscribe to future comments.  Examples include Blogger, Google Groups, YouTube, Google Wave, Orkut scraps, Knol, etc.  Like private messages, their should be a separate inbox for comment notifications, and a way to turn off notification e-mails if you have a Gmail account.  That way you don’t clutter up your inbox with comment notifications, and they get routed to a nice separate folder, similar to how Google Buzz posts show separately from E-mails.  Ideally it would include a link and excerpt from the original post, as well as the comment itself.   You should be able to reply to the comment directly in Gmail, or click a link and be taken directly to the comment.

Gmail and Voicemails (Google Voice & Google Talk Voicemails)

This is something that they have started working on, which is good.  You can actually play your Google Voice voicemails directly in Gmail, which is cool.  One thing that would be nicer is if it was automatically routed into its own folder, like Google Buzz is.  I know you can achieve the same effect by using filters, but it would be nice if you could just flick a switch.  People should have the option to auto-archive or have it appear in their Gmail inbox like it does now.  This may be a perfect Gmail Labs add-on.

By the way, the Gmail & Google Voice integration is one of Google’s successes in integration, and could be used as a model for other integrations I mention here.  It would be nice if Google Talk voicemails get integrated the same way Google Voice voicemails are integrated.

Google Buzz & Orkut

My biggest question here is why wasn’t this put in Orkut from the start.  Of course, I know the answer.  Gmail has more active users than Orkut.  While it is innovate to integrate Google Buzz into Gmail, and a really smart move, it makes no sense that this is not in Orkut also.  I might actually start using Orkut if Google Buzz was integrated.  Right now there really is nothing for me to do in Orkut.  Leave scraps?  I’m not even sure what that is supposed to be.  I am guessing posting public notes to each other.  Anyway, back to the integration.  If you want people to use Orkut, Google Buzz needs to be there.

Google Friend Connect & Well, Everything

Google Friend Connect is everything that Facebook Connect is, except no one uses it.  Well, not exactly no one, but relatively speaking, you see a lot more Facebook Connects than Google Friend Connects.  Other than the fact that Google Friend Connect uses your Google Account to login, it really doesn’t appear to integrate with anything else.

Some ideas to integrate Google Friend Connect would be to integrate it with Google Reader and Blogger and Google Blog Search.  In Google Reader, you can show how many Google Friend Connect “Members” there are to a particular website you subscribe to.  You can also do the same in Blogger’s Blogs I Follow section.  And the same for Google Blog Search search results. You can show the total number of members, as well as a “friends in common” feature that shows what friends of yours also like that particular website or blog.

With Blogger, you could even add setup options where it is easy to add Google Friend Connect to your Blogger blog.  A couple clicks and Google Friend Connect is installed on your Blogger blog automagically.  Come to think about it, this might be a nice feature for admins of public Google Sites too.

Then you could easily integrate it with things like Google SideWiki where Google Friend Connect “Members” are shown as well as the comments.

And let’s not forget Google Buzz integration.  When you become a “member” of a website, you should have the option to broadcast that via Google Buzz, similar to how things you “Like” in Facebook appear in the News Feed, depending on your settings.

Tell Us About the Sender in Gmail

Gmail & Google Profiles & Orkut & Google Friend Connect

When you get an e-mail from someone, it tells you who it is from.  Underneath the e-mail itself or in a collapsible section above the e-mail, you could create an optional section that shows various information about the sender.  If they have a public Google Profile, show some information from that.  If the domain name the e-mail is from is the same as the domain name they listed in their public Google Profile, then it’s probably their website, and then you could also display Google Friend Connect “Member” information for that website.  And then let them become “members” if not already a “member.”  You could even show Orkut friends in common, and their Orkut profile, if they have one.  If they have Google Buzz active, you could show how many people follow them and if any friends you know follow them.

This would do several things.  1.) It will tell people more information about the sender, which is especially useful if this person is a business contact or a friend of a friend.  Seeing you have friends in common or have friends who like their website(s) gives the sender credibility they may not otherwise have.  2.) It would promote Google’s other services.  3.) People can control what is in their profile (or whether they have one), and encourage people to fill out their Google Profiles.

Universal Events & Appointments

Orkut Events, Google Calendar & Gmail

When you create an Orkut Event, you should be able to invite friends from Gmail who are not members of Orkut, and the event should appear in your (and your guests) Google Calendar.  Similarly, when you create an event in Google Calendar and you want to invite people, you should be able to invite your Orkut friends directly from Google Calendar. If someone is both an Orkut and a Google Calendar user, the event should appear in both places.

Gmail could have an optional separate section just for Event Invites, similar to how Google Buzz is a separate section.  Users should control whether invites appear in the Gmail inbox or are archived automatically.

Google Docs & Orkut

Be able to share Google Docs with Orkut users, even if you don’t know their e-mail address.  Also, in Orkut, see a list of documents shared with you, which allow you to click on it and go to Google Docs.  This could easily be accomplished using a plugin.

Unified Conversations

Google SideWiki & Blogger

Here’s a novel idea.  If people are commenting on a Blogger blog post in the SideWiki, have those posts appear as comments in the blog itself for non-SideWiki users, and vice versa.  In other words, for blog pages that have the ability to comment, merge the conversations.  It seems redundant to have two conversations about the same page.  Plus Bloggers will love it since more comments will be visible on the blog page itself. You can even mention that the comments came from Google SideWiki for an extra promotion of the SideWiki.

Also, if they are already logged into the SideWiki, they don’t have to login again to Blogger to comment, since they are already logged in.

Bonus:  Do this with WordPress and you will see usage of SideWiki grow tremendously.

What else could they integrate?

There are so many ways they could integrate their services, the possibilities are as endless.  Every time I try to finish this post I come up with another idea.  And I didn’t even mention how Google Buzz could be integrated into Google Talk, or why Google Talk is not integrated into YouTube, or Google Groups or Knol or Blogger similar to how it is integrated into Orkut and Google Wave and Gmail, or how Google Latitude can be integrated with other services, a la Twitter locations.

Until Google works on integrating its services a bit more, it will be hard to unify its following behind any new social media initiative it may come up with.