Several times in the last week I’ve observed signs, napkins and place mats that all say “Follow me[us] on Twitter[Facebook].” While I think this is great, I find it both amusing and alarming that more than half these messages do not contain the handle or URL to follow/connect with. The image above shows that whoever is advising Horny Goat Brewing did so the right way.
Who is advising these other businesses?
As far as social media goes, I’m simply an experienced practitioner who has learned the ins and outs mostly in the school of hard knocks. I’ve made more than a few mistakes along the way but none I paid a “professional” to make for me. What’s the point of putting a Facebook or Twitter icon on your coaster if you don’t include information on the account to follow? Better yet, include a QR Code with a link to a mobile friendly website that allows the client to connect to you without having to type in the account names and URLs.
Who you hire matters
There are plenty of folks passing themselves off as experts in the interactive, digital and social media space. The trick is to separate the professionals from the out-of-work freelancer more interested in finding another full-time gig than being a social media consultant. The problem is they will pass themselves off as a social media consultant to pay the rent this month. The bigger problem is you will end up with thousands of coasters that have fancy Facebook and Twitter icons, but no account names and URLs.
Ask for references and a portfolio
Before I hired Shelby Sapusek of Panoramic Interactive, I learned as much about her and her business approach as I could. I watched her behavior and interaction on Twitter. I attended events she helped plan. I looked at print and digital work she created. Then, after all that, I gave her a small pilot project. She rocked that project and met the deadlines.
The big traditional ad agency or PR firm you have used in the past may not know a thing about digital and social media. Sounds crazy, but it’s true. Evaluating new young firms may take a little more time but I think it’s worth it. For example, Shelby grew up in the digital age. All things interactive, digital and social media are truly second nature to her. Of course, in her case, you get to add the decade and a half as a professional journalist. She gets communication.
And it’s all communication. So, find and hire someone who will inform folks how to follow you, the right way.
Great post, Jim! Jenn and I have always believed our journalism backgrounds, desire to teach and ability to be agile are the skills most desired by our clients. Social tools come and go, but they are just that – tools. What matters most is what you’re actually saying, how you’re choosing to interact and the value of the product or service you’re trying to raise awareness for. Glad you found someone amazing to work with!
Jill, I keep telling every out of work or underemployed journalist I meet the same thing – businesses need your communications skills. It’s all about the story and telling the story well. Who better to do that than a journalist?
Jim, I recently came across a printed piece that contained only the icons, and no supporting text. My first thought was, “How do I follow them?” but my second thought was, they have the confidence that their brand is strong enough, and well-known enough that people will find them. Maybe it’s a credit to their “followers” that they are smart enough too find them easily. (And while I like QR codes, not all clients are sold on them, for various reasons, including the fact that they are often unattractive.)
I see the “icon only” approach similar to the dot com thing. Back in the 1990s brands put their domain name on everything, printed material, TV commercials, etc. but as the web matured I think they had the confidence to believe people knew how to find them. Maybe this is the same thing… It’s more of a “yeah, we’re on Facebook and Twitter” than a “Go directly to this place and follow us!”
Pete, My thoughts go like this. We have the attention of the person looking at the piece for like 2 seconds. I want to make it as easy and painless as possible to follow me right now. I’m into social media and will give up within 30 seconds or less if I’m having trouble following a business or checking into their location on 4square.
Disagree with the example photo. All Facebook Like directions should have the vanity URL. Otherwise it’s like saying “Come find us in the United States!” and it requires searching and clicking the right location. Never leave your business to chance.
If they don’t have 25 fans to be able to create a vanity URL they shouldn’t market yet. 😉
Good point on the Facebook portion. Shows you how Twitter-centric I can be. 🙂
Some of us in this business get so “insider” that we forget that there are still huge numbers of people who have no idea what any of this stuff means. Our job is to empower them by helping them understand. As a web development firm since 1996, our guiding principal has been the phrase “Don’t Make Me Think” ( http://amzn.to/miIGxw ). The people and businesses who will do well in this new paradigm are not the ones whose public facing efforts exude elitism (Yeah, look how cool WE are) but rather the ones who look for every opportunity to help make their clients, followers and the entire community smarter. The more educated the entire market becomes, the greater the likelihood of success for all of us.
Tom, Your reply made me think 😉 Okay, seriously, you are one of the “good guys” and so get this stuff. People looking for digital agency help need to look to folks like you and Shelby who understand not just the digital side but the consumer (as in those who have no idea what this stuff is) side.
The one that makes me shake my head every time is the WISN12 ads that brag about their digital “accessibility.” The spot ends with a huge row of really cool looking icons. A closer look and you realize of the eight icons, four are just browser logos… Firefox, Safari, IE and Chrome. I realize the whole quality control issue of browser compatibility for websites, but that’s not what they’re trying to do. Someone said to the production department “make us really uber cool.” And the result was “This makes us look really hi-tech.. and our audience is so stupid to they’ll have a reaction similar to fireworks on July 4th. Duh. Winning!”
Can’t agree more! I have tweeted multiple pics of these failures…pizza joints seem to be really bad at this.
I like pizza but I don’t like wanting to follow a business in social media and having to “search” for them. I agree with Tm Snyder – when it’s me trying to follow your business please “don’t make me think.”
I think this goes along with radio commercials that give out URL’s that could have multiple spellings (or just hard to spell).
I’ve seen a few campaigns even recently that made me think about checking to see if the other spellings were still available. If their competition was just a little grey hat they would buy them before the malware and bot nets do.
Oh, I like the way you think. And that is grey hat – there’s really nothing wrong with it and if the agency running the campaign is not smart enough to buy up the misspellings then shame on them.