Okay people, it is time to do something simple and get ahead of the crowd. One very frustrating thing I keep running into across web sites I visit and I want to stay on tap with is difficulty finding the social network icons or “buttons.” Companies and organizations large and small are guilty of this infraction, and it’s really starting to surprise me. I – along with God only knows how many other web-savvy people – am getting spoiled and lazy and in our world of instantaneous technology I am not going to take the time to a) comb through your site to find your twitter name or Facebook page, or b) perform a search on these platforms guessing how you’ve got your name id’d and hope for a result.
Granted, some are easier to find than others, but on more occasions than I’d like to recall, I’ve found no lead to twitter, facebook, linkedin, etc., and had to log into my account on these networks and spend more time than I should’ve entering multiple combinations of people or company names to try to find the person/organization I’d like to follow. Twitter isn’t perfect. Example: I just searched Richmond grocer ‘ukrops’ and Twitter tells me: “We couldn’t find anyone named ukrops.” I know they have one, and turns out, the search field requires the apostrophe before the s. This wouldn’t slow people down, and good for Ukrops.com having their links on display, but imaging hoping to find an individual and running to that problem. Take a few stabs in the search field and if you haven’t guessed the exact combination, you very well may give up and forget about it. Lost opportunity!
Here’s a big offender: The New York Times. Currently I stay abreast of breaking new with email alerts. But, what if I don’t want that cluttering up my inbox and just want to set up to follow them on Twitter. I go over to nytimes.com and – I’m still looking – where is the link to their Twitter profile? Now I have to log in to Twitter (extra step, and if I’m mobile on a smartphone additionally frustrating) and look them up. Pftt.
What are they? Social media badges/buttons/icons are a visual flag to your web visitors that you have a profile on any given social network. Check our Contact Us page to get the idea. If you prefer to limit competing graphics on your site, a text link works just as well.
What do they do? A badge/button/icon/text link properly positioned on your site will signal visitors that you have presence on these social media platforms, and given they are on the same platforms, with a single click can connect and follow any latest news from you or your organization.
Why are they important? More and more people are keeping informed about the happenings in their personal and professional lives by connecting with people and companies on social networks. I no longer dial the weather to get an “instant” forecast for my local area, I check with RVaWx on Twitter to stay updated. Takes 2 seconds. No more dialing and waiting for a recording to pick up.
MAKE IT EASY for people to find your updates on Twitter, Facebook, or whatever social network you are using that best suits your purposes. Put them ALL up there. Maybe you’ll catch extra videos to a YouTube channel or your blog. Put it clearly in a corner of your main web page or contact details page, your email signature, etc. Don’t make potential followers search that information out, because with the pace of technology we are experiencing today, we are ALL becoming too spoiled to do so.
