A post by Jeremiah Owyang about Google’s social media team in the US describes how a number of influential individuals in the company are reaching out to and engaging with people to take Google’s story directly to market.

Jeremiah’s post includes this statement that caught my interest:

[…] to truly be a solution partner to brands and agencies, Google will have to deliver the right services, support, and reporting – not be a one off technology vendor.

And this one that really grabbed my attention:

[…] You see, Google has a story to tell about how they can help brands with social media, while most overlook YouTube, and Orkut as marketable social networks, there’s quite a few tools they offer such as iGoogle, Google Friend Connect, and the protocol they lead called OpenSocial.

That’s a very sharp view of what I’ve thought almost every time I use Google Reader or take a look at iGoogle or one of the Google Apps, even Gmail – usually when I’m running a workshop or seminar focused on organizational communication where social media is a key element – and I ask myself: Do I really know as much as I could or should about these products and why someone should be paying attention to them let alone using them?

The trouble is, I know I don’t. And I never have the time (nor, frankly, much inclination) to discover more than I see on the surface.

But I often think to myself, I wish it were easier to ask someone or connect with someone at Google to ask about this stuff.

Many’s the time when I’ve been running a workshop about social media when we get to the tools, someone usually asks something about a Google offering that deserves a better explanation than I typically give.

So I’d love to find a simple way to hear the Google story in terms that I can use.