Yesterday, I had lunch with a colleague who recommended a business professional that might need my social media services. We went to his website and found a very cool array of social media icons.  I said, “Oh wow, look at this.  He’s not going to need my help.”

Let’s face it:  If you’re smart enough to add these items to your company website (and even better if know what they are), you probably already have a social media strategy in place. Next, we checked out his Facebook page, where we saw a really slick landing page.  “See?” I told my friend. “This guy doesn’t need my help.” We decided to check out one more thing… the Facebook wall.

Oy.  This business needs my help… big time.  Today’s date: October 26.  The date of his last Facebook post: January 20. That’s right, it’s been more than 10 months since he last used his Facebook page.  And he only has 17 fans.  His Twitter account has 1 Tweet.

Back on his website, he has a button that said “Blog.”  We clicked on it.  NOTHING.  I said to my friend, “This is worse than not having social media icons at all… potential customers click on these and expect to see something. They feel deceived.”

“That’s right,” said my friend, “he’s a poseur.”

It’s Not Unusual…

I have to say I wasn’t completely surprised to see this.  Many companies invest in setting up Facebook pages, but don’t use them for any number of reasons:

• They don’t have time (or staff) to post regularly;
• They don’t really know what they’re doing;
• They don’t truly value the benefits of social media; or
• They don’t have the budget to create and implement a social media strategy.

If You Build It, They Will Come… NOT!

Why on earth would a company go to the trouble of spending money to put these absolutely amazing tools into place, and then not use them?  This is like a kid begging his parents for a new iPad, receiving it, and then never even opening the box.  

As the professional who sets up these social media properties for my clients, I feel sort of like an orthodontist who puts braces on a child, but then the patient never brushes his teeth, wears the rubber bands, expander, etc.  The evidence of my work (and this orthodontist) exists right out there: everybody can see that you got started but there’s no positive results.

The fact is that if you’re going to pay for the tools, YOU SHOULD USE THEM.  Just getting clients to know about your social media properties and your blog is not enough. It’s up to you to keep these properties alive, as a living breathing tool.  This isn’t a Kevin Costner movie, where the 1919 Chicago Black Sox team is going to show up in your corn field baseball diamond simply because you built it.

I’m going to repeat what I told my friend at lunch: having social media properties which you’re not using looks worse than not having them at all.   At the risk of sounding like I’m slapping the wrist of some of my clients (it’s okay… they know who they are!), it just doesn’t look good.  Can you imagine what the customers of the business mentioned at the beginning must think when they see the date of his last Facebook post (January 20)? Yep! “Well, I’m not coming back here.  What a waste of time.”  

Question Time

Ask yourself: Is that what I want my customers to think about me?  

Ask yourself another question: Do I want to be seen as a poseur?  Or do I want to be seen as somebody who is social-media savvy and gets it? 

A social media professional can help a client plan out a content calendar, do the postings and respond to fan comments.  A good social media person also keeps up with the latest and greatest tools and trends, and can make recommendations for expanding your social network.  The truth is, this same person can keep you from looking like a poseur.

Time to ask yourself some hard questions.