A lot of people have been talking about the newest form of social media, Google Buzz. In the first week after Google released its new venture into the social networking world, nobody would stop commenting on it, however, the comments weren’t all positive. Many users were concerned with the fact that they were automatically connected to people they sent and received the greatest amount of email on their Gmail account. Understandable, considering people don’t post their email correspondence or contact lists for all to see.

Google quickly took note of their error, and after four days the Google team posted an article on their Official Gmail Blog addressing each of the issues. They informed readers that the option to display the user’s following list has been made more prominent and “instead of an auto-follow model in which Buzz automatically sets you up to follow the people you email and chat with most, we’re moving to an auto-suggest model.” In addition, Google added a ‘Buzz’ tab in the Gmail settings, allowing users to change their settings, or hide Buzz completely from their Gmail inbox.

So, why wouldn’t everyone immediately head to their settings and disable this new feature? What is all the buzz about when there are already so many social networking sites that are already in existence and heavily trafficked?

Here is a quick rundown on the features, and how you can start to familiarize yourself with such a new tool. At this point, Google Buzz has unlimited potential for success… and failure, but it is best to be well equipped for either possibility.  

Buzz is built directly into Gmail, so anyone with a Google or Gmail Account has nothing to set up – everything is integrated right into the platform people are familiar with. The goal of Buzz is to make the sharing experience that people are already participating in on sites like Picasa, Flickr, YouTube and Twitter a more rich in-line experience. When you open a photo or video, they are viewed in the way they were meant to be seen – big and in full resolution. Rather than navigating away from the site you are at, you can view YouTube videos right in your Buzz window. By connecting other sites you are already active in, you have everything in one place where you can choose to share with the world or to a private network of friends.

Similar to Twitter, you can follow certain individuals whose posts you want to see and Buzz will help you out by recommending posts you might find interesting, or collapsing posts they know you won’t. As you spend more time on Buzz, the recommendations offered will become more accurate, providing you with only the best suggestions.

As your Buzz stream begins to grow (as it most likely will) you can manage your buzzes by “muting” them or changing your notification settings. After posting your own buzz, you have the opportunity to mute it a well, edit the content, delete some comments or delete the buzz all together. In order to make posting buzzes easier, you can create contact lists to post to – similar to groups in Facebook.

After you integrate your other social media sites, all of your posts (microblogging, photos and otherwise) will be compiled in Buzz. You can also choose to update your Buzz posts by email by sending a message to buzz@gmail.com, just make sure you have specified your email privacy settings ahead of time! Some other tricks of the trade include adding *asterisks*, _underscores_ or –dashes- to your text will turn it into bold, italic, and struckthrough text.

Okay, so now you’re on Buzz (maybe not by choice) and you know how to handle all of the settings and options. What should you be doing on there?

First, start sharing on Buzz. Post comments, links, videos, photos – anything that you would normally put on Twitter or Facebook. Next, start reading on Buzz. See what the people you are following are posting about and comment accordingly. Whenever someone comments, that post will bounce back to the top of your Buzz Stream – so everyone will see the most recent content posted. As with any social networking site, interacting is the most important feature. To grab someone’s attention, use the @ symbol before someone’s name that you have in your contact list or in the status bar. The person will then be notified via email that you directly replied to them. Last, but not least, search on Buzz. See what people are talking about, and whether or not it applies to you. You can filter by source, author, commenter and if the post has a link, video or image attached to it.

For those looking for the business uses of Buzz, a co-founder of Google, Sergey Brin, has already found it to be a valuable business tool, leading the company to plan a release of an enterprise version of Buzz. Brin commented that when he was writing an op-ed piece for the New York Times, he found sharing and gathering feedback from one person at a time very frustrating. The solution is to solicit comments and feedback from 50 people at once and see where that takes you.

At such an early stage in the game, it is difficult to say whether Google Buzz will survive the initial outrage (and possible lawsuits) regarding privacy issues and become part of mainstream social media use. With the “Buzz it” logo showing up on so many sites alongside the ‘retweet’ and ‘share’ options for Twitter and Facebook, it appears that Google is ready to enter the world of social media in a big way after their failed attempts with Orkut and OpenSocial. Only time will tell if the buzz will die down or quickly grow into a roaring worldwide conversation.

To keep up with the latest Buzz news, check out our Google Buzz posts follow @wris_oh on Twitter and become a fan of WRIS on Facebook!

We know, you've read the team bios on the website, but those leave a little something to be desired when trying to learn about who someone really is. As a company, we want to know as much as possible about our clients in order to better suit their needs and form better and lasting relationships. We thought we could get the ball rolling by sharing first, so here is a bit of information about all of our team members and what their family lives are like!

Charlie is the founder of WRIS. Lucky for him, most of his family resides in the Cleveland area and his parents even live in the house where he grew up! His father is a lawyer for a local land conservancy and his mother is an avid gardener and is actively involved with her church. Charlie grew up with two siblings; a sister, Mallory and brother.  Mallory owns her own marketing company (mallorytaylordesign.com) and lives in the area with her husband, son and daughter. Charlie’s brother owns a tree care company (hedgehogtree.com) and lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife and newborn son. Charlie’s wife Jessica teaches preschool and also has a large family residing in Cleveland. Charlie and Jessica have two boys who both enjoy playing with legos, cars and Nintendo DS.

Seth has been married to his wife Amy for almost 10 years and has three young children. In addition to children, Amy and Seth have two overweight cats! Amy has recently started a career as a pediatric nurse practitioner and works at a pediatrician’s office in West Palm Beach, Florida where the family recently relocated for Seth to lead the South Florida WRIS office.

Bonny’s family, in her description, is nothing but amazing. Growing up, Bonny was very close to her parents and grandparents.  Bonny was brought up in Michigan with her younger brother Braden. Bonny married her husband, Will after six years of dating, and they will celebrate their 15^th Wedding Anniversary this year! Bonny and Will have two young children, a son and daughter. While Bonny loves her family with all her heart, she can’t go without mentioning her two dogs. P.T. is a 13 year old black lab and Ruby is a yorkie-poo who seems to think she is a black lab! Bonny’s family bought Ruby on the Internet a year ago and she was flown to Ohio from her birth town in Kansas.

Adam was kind enough to create an outline of his family structure, just so nobody gets confused! Here is the recap: Adam’s father lives in New Albany, Ohio and is an artist. He owns a framing shop in Gahanna, Ohio. Adam’s mother lives in Avon Lake and works for The Cleveland Clinic as a Nurse on Call. Adam is one of 5 children. His two sisters live in Avon Lake, Ohio. One sister is a teacher and has 5 children, and the other is a doctor and mother of 2. One of Adam’s brothers lives in Norfolk, Virginia with his three children. He recently received his Master’s In Theology and used to play in the Navy band. He is currently teaching. Adam’s other brother lives in Columbus, Ohio with his three children and owns a Great Harvest bakery. Adam is married to Jennifer, who works at a PR and marketing company in Cleveland and volunteers at the Berea animal shelter. Jennifer likes the color red and has two sisters. Adam and Jennifer have a cat, Cleopatra who eats, sleeps and is all around a spoiled Persian cat!

Carmen lives in a house full of boys! In addition to her husband, Vince, the couple also has two young sons. They also have a cat named Isabelle, who, according to Carmen is kind of mean!

Nick is the youngest of 4 children. His father is a youth minister at in Chagrin Falls, Ohio and his mom is an art teacher at a local middle school. All of Nick’s siblings, one brother and two sisters, have children. Most recently, his sister had a son on in January. Nick is not married and is glad that he hasn’t joined his siblings in parenthood just yet!

Glenn grew up in Akron and remains in the Cleveland area with his wife Mollie. Glenn and Mollie have three children. They also have three pets. Oliver is their parrot, Oreo is their ‘guinea rat’ and they have a cat named Psycho Mittens the Kitten, however they call it ‘Psycho’ for short!

Debbie has been married to her husband Kevin for twenty years. Together, they have one teenage son.

Salli has been married for 8 years after dating her now husband for 15 years! They have two children, a daughter and a son.

Kelsey is the youngest of four children. She has two sisters and one brother. Her oldest sister Lindsay is married and has a one year old daughter. Her brother Kyle is also married and lives in Charlottesville, Virginia. Her other sister, Ashley, lives in Cleveland Heights. Kelsey’s parents live in Aurora, Ohio. Her mother works as legal counsel for a local university, and he father is a financial advisor.

Henry’s parents are alive and well, enjoying retirement in Florida! His mother is an artist and his father is a banker. Henry is one of three boys. His brother, Pablo is an account executive at AT&T and his younger brother is an attorney.

Drew was raised in Milwaukee and went to school in Ohio. His father is a self made business man and his brother is an attorney. Drew is married to Blythe, who he met on match.com! Together they have a son and daughter. His family currently lives in Twinsburg, Ohio.

Fernando grew up with loving parents and a younger sister. He recalls having dogs growing up but doesn’t remember what led to their demise… though he suspects one of them may have gone blind.

So there you have it - now you know who the WRIS team is spending time with outside of work, but what you don't know is what they're up to! Check back on March 4th for the second installment of "Getting to Know the WRIS Team" which is all about hobbies, hobbies, hobbies.