The Social Web is Sink, Swim or Grab a Life Jacket
You know how you go to a website and you see those little buttons with the logos of Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and other social networks on them?
Those aren’t for decoration, but many businesses, organizations, and other websites seem to think they are.
Case in point:
The other day I was looking up one of my favorite water ski show teams. I grew up competitive show skiing and lately have really been missing my sport. My best friend (we grew up involved in the same ski club) and I are thinking about taking a for-old-times’-sake trip to the U.S. Show Ski Nationals this year, and I was curious to see what a few of my favorite teams were doing.
I’m not going to call out which particular team I’m referring to, because it is a legendary team, near and dear to my heart. Besides, I’ve seen this happen all too often online.
However . . . upon going to the team’s website, I noticed it had been redone since the last time I had visited it, which was about six months ago. Right there, front and center, is “Follow us on . . . ” followed by the standards buttons for Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
As a social media professional this excited me to no end. I couldn’t wait to see what my favorite team had been up to, and was looking forward to seeing some videos of their latest shows and acts.
Their Twitter account hadn’t been updated since August 19, 2009. Their last sign in at their YouTube account was a year ago, and their featured video was highlighting their 2004 show. Their most recently uploaded video was dated January 20, 2009.
On Facebook, 1,183 “like” them, but their last update was almost two months ago.
This saddens me for many reasons. As a fangirl for this über team, I was very much looking forward to seeing what my favorite team was up to and interacting with them online. As a social media professional, it further emphasizes one of the key aspects of the social web:
You must cultivate your garden if you want it to grow.
If you don’t keep your content fresh, both on your website and your social networks, not only will you will fade into SEO oblivion, but you will disappoint your brand enthusiasts/evangelists, and your community will either a) wane, or b) not grow to its full potential.
The social web is no joke. If you’re going to make the commitment to have presences on certain networks, you better be fully prepared to fulfill that commitment to your community with frequemt updates. If you’re going to put the “Follow us on . . .” buttons on your website, people expect you to be active. If you don’t have designated people to update your social networks, if you have organizational problems internally, if your legal department is a PITA, or if there’s some other reason why you’ve got presences on social networks and you’re not active, please take the social network buttons off your website. You’ll be doing yourself a favor.
If you, your business, organization, or whatever are willing to dive into the social web waters head first, reality is that there’s no boat to tow you and your team. It’s sink or swim, and if you can’t do it yourself and need a life jacket, that’s what agencies are for.
Photo by Spierson82.
- Date: 06.28.2010
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