Brand Focus #1: Importance of Linking #SocialMedia Offline Right
It’s interesting to see how businesses scurry to take on social media without much thoughts or a strategy. Are you one of them?
Just last weekend I went to a restaurant with a bunch of friends for lunch. It is situated in a bungalow, well furnished and a pretty nice place to chat.
Putting that aside, what caught my attention was the menu, or rather, what’s inside the menu. No, not the selection of the food, not the price, but this:
It has a Facebook badge on the menu that says: Join Us On Facebook. I thought to myself that this is a good way to build a fan base or even an avenue for customers to give comments or feedback.
I began to look for the URL of the Facebook page – but found nothing except the domain name as seen to the left. Well, that isn’t too bad – I immediately looked up the site and guess what? It has no reference to the Facebook page either.
Now at this point of time I was rather determined to search for the missing URL but since it was a lunch gathering, I temporarily put the quest aside..
..until I got home. I went to Facebook and did a search and here’s what I got:
I was shocked. They DO NOT have a Facebook page at all. The only result that matched was “Jarrod Rawlins” which isn’t them and just random Facebook places that have not been claimed by the restaurant themselves.
Join Us On Facebook? But You’re Nowhere to be Seen!
Here are 2 quick lessons / reminder from this case:
#1: Putting a Facebook Logo Ain’t Cool / Impressive if it Does Not Work
Don’t / Never be inclined to put a Facebook / Twitter logo on your promotional materials if you do not even have it setup and maintained. If you do have one, make sure you have the URL or the Twitter handle to go along with it. Remember, it does not work like a button when it is printed so the URL is a must!
Additional tip: Stay away from http://www.facebook.com/pages/urlthatcannotberemembered12345.php – which is a default URL assigned to your page when you create one. You can actually get a pretty URL for Facebook here for a more memorable URL.
#2: Know What is it Supposed to Do
Know what you want to achieve with social media platforms. Directing customers to a blank Facebook page or an inactive Twitter account is counter productive. Offer discounts, offer exclusive updates, opportunities for customers to leave their thoughts on their last visit, maybe allow customers to redesign your menu or even just a thank you note – give value to your customers and they’ll be back for more!
Are you making the same mistakes? Have you seen similar mistakes by businesses? I would love to hear your experiences :)
It ought to be common sense, but what Iv’e found is a lot of business owners say they’re going to start a facebook page, or start using twitter, then it slides to the bottom of their to-do list.
A good social media manager to get that online presence would be a real asset in these scenarios!
It would seem that the common sense isn’t THAT common after all! Sometimes businesses tend to overlook some of the simplest areas because it just looks so simple and at times, that is what will cost them. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Kiera! :)
lol this is too funny! I don’t know what else to say ^.^
“join us on Facebook” but there is nothing to join lol
Haha spot on! Maybe they thought their menu is clickable? That is definitely a huge oversight on their part. Never mind if the link isn’t there – the page doesn’t even exist. That’s a mistake any business would not want to make.