Social Media Errors in Judgment

Icons but no URLs



An elaborate promotional piece from Sprint arrived in the mail. On the back panel, way down at the bottom below a large area of white space, were the icons for Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Very nice, except the mailer isn't interactive. Each icon needed its own URL next to it so that people who got the mailer could, if they wanted to, check out Sprint on these three social media sites.



Misleading metatags

I checked out the website of a woman who had given me her business card. The company sells proprietary online video tools. But the metatags for the site (title, description and keywords) were all about debt, foreclosure or mortgage.

What good would these misleading metatags be if someone is looking for information on foreclosure and instead comes to a site selling online video tools?

Websites are NOT about "design"

Effective websites have gone through several phases in the last few years. But nowadays most business owners realize that their sites need to be effective at attracting prospective clients and customers as well as attracting the search engines.

When someone told me that a designer was creating the company website, I asked if the designer knew "best practices" for today's websites. No, I was told.

But the designer would be trying to find out these things.

In the past design often took front seat in the layout of a website. Today, with so much online competition, design needs to take a back seat to a website that is created to be people friendly, social media friendly, and search engine friendly.

In conclusion, effective online participation requires having a marketing perspective when evaluating your online (and offline) promotional activities.

After all, isn't that why you are online? To attract prospective clients and customers?

© 2011 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder with Yael K. Miller (@MillerMosaic on Twitter) of the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic LLC.

Phyllis and Yael work with companies to help them use social media effectively to connect and engage with their current and prospective customers.

For free reports on social media, see www.millermosaicllc.com/miller-mosaic...