Google Buzz shows need for multiple social networks

The recent rollout of Google's Buzz social networking tool underlines the need for companies to expand their social network outlook, according to one industry analyst.

Gartner Research vice president Scott Nelson suggested in a blog posting that the news showed how fluid and fast-moving the social networking could be. As such, he warned against companies centring their social networking approach on one site or service.

The analyst pointed to the Buzz release as a prime example. Nelson suggested that should Buzz catch on, companies who invested heavily in competing services as the cornerstone of their social networking projects could be left scrambling to adapt.

"Today’s hot site is shutting down before you know it. The little up and coming site that you never heard of will have 100 million users by year end," said Nelson.

"If you get too tied to a particular site, you end up with the problem that clients are calling me on. When a new one comes along, you don’t know what to do."

The solution, said Nelson, was to distance the company's strategy from a single service and instead take a big-picture approach. Rather than focus on how one site can be used, Nelson suggested that companies assess what they want to gain from social networking services as a whole.

"It won’t be the last of the social media announcements that your firm will need to deal with," he said of Buzz.

"Set your eyes at the strategy level. Then the tactical issue of which sites will fall into place."