3 Things Companies Should Do To Be More Social Media Friendly
September 18th, 2009Author: Nazim Uddin
When I do research on a company’s social media presence, I keep coming across a common recurring problem: It is almost darned impossible to find out what some companies are doing in social media from their corporate websites. This is especially true for websites of major multinationals and comes across as if they don’t want the consumer to find them in the medium. Too often, social media activity is hidden away on a distant website or with a forgettable name resulting in loose links to the brand.
While it may help us PR folks in researching what a company is currently doing in social media, more importantly, it will help potential consumers connect with your brand on a daily basis by making it easier for them to find your social media assets quickly and easily. As such, these are my top three recommendations in making it so:
1. Have a clear section on your website that lists and links to your social media assets.
This is now about as important as the About, Contact or Products sections on the corporate website. It simply befuddles me to know that a company is active in social media, but there is virtually no way of finding out what they are from their corporate website. If the company is a multinational then they can be forgiven for not having this on their global website, but this is absolutely a necessity for their regional or national website for each country.
2. Keep your social media assets as closely branded as possible.
Facebook has a process of reclaiming branded pages if they are currently taken by someone. Your corporate url and your Facebook page name should be as close to each other as possible. Meaning, if your corporate URL is: www.yourcompany.com then your Facebook URL address should be http://www.facebook.com/yourcompany. This goes for all the other platforms as well, so people can easily guess what your page may be if they want to connect to it directly. Twitter profiles can be changed a little due to space constraints but it should still be as close to the original as possible. If the consumer is not able to find your social media profiles directly, they should always have the option of going back to your website to look it up, as mention in number 1. Too often, I have found myself typing in the most logical URL on Facebook for a company, only to be disappointed for not being clever enough to guess the page for their super awesome campaign that is temporarily going on at the moment.
3. Make your content shareable.
This all about doing what social media is all about. Just today, I came across some great photography tips by a professional on the website of a major camera company. I really wanted to share the video but there was no way for me to do it. The content was locked and the only way others could see it too was only if they were compelled to come to the website. This was a missed opportunity for the company in turning a single consumer into their evangelist who could have reached tens if not thousands of others in his or her network. Now repeat this for every other consumer who may have wanted to do the same and you can easily see the loss for having locked content. So, make your content shareable and at the very least it will get you more exposure.
I am certain others have said this before but it bears repeating in the hopes that this becomes the M.O. for all companies using social media.
(Photo by Andy and Becky on flickr.)
