Are you up to speed with Twitter, do you have thousands of fans on Facebook? If you thought you’d got social media sorted when it comes to promoting your business, things may be set to change with the introduction of Google Buzz.

Google Buzz is integrated into Gmail, so potentially has an audience of tens of millions of people. Buzz combines element of Twitter, Facebook and the quickly rising Foursquare, but with unique elements that may set it apart from its predecessors.

Gathering Customer Feedback: Like Twitter, Buzz lets you post a message to a group of “followers” that subscribe to your updates. However messages can be longer than 140 characters, with replies all grouped under the original message.

This makes conversations easier to track and follow up. You can also reply privately using Gmail.

Collaboration: Buzz can be used both for broadcasting a message to all of your followers and to select groups of them. Posting a private message on Buzz works exactly the same as posting a public one – you just select the Group you want to be able to see it, and then only those people will be able to view and comment on it.

Marketing: It’s too soon to tell whether Buzz will have the type of impact for businesses that services like Yelp, and increasingly Foursquare, have had, but it has a very similar feature set. Users can “check in” at business locations, in turn notifying their followers of their whereabouts.

Sharing Content: Just like Twitter and Facebook, Buzz has the potential to be a powerful medium for sharing content. You can use it to share blog posts, special deals, or interesting links related to your niche. Just like other social media services, you shouldn’t overdo it though – you want to mix promotional messages with a balance of other useful information and conversation for your followers.

While Buzz clearly has some promise, it’s also not yet ideally designed for businesses – there are no business accounts, no multi-user support, and a host of privacy issues that nearly derailed the service in its first couple weeks – though Google has been quick to address them.

At this stage, web savvy businesses should approach with caution – however familiarising yourself with Buzz’s features and opportunities now, could be immensely valuable in the future – with a Google App planned and the power of Google generally, it is likely that this new social media platform will take off.

Social media is an increasingly important tool for businesses wanting to engage with their customers, to build a brand identity and hopefully sell products and services. Follow me @AccountsAssist to ask accountancy related questions and see how I use this medium to help boost my business.