Stop Putting Twitter Icons Everywhere!

Companies put Twitter icons, Facebook icons, Instagram icons, Google icons, and other icons on their front doors, on their packaging, on broadcast ads, and in their ads…It has to stop!

No Shit

Your company has a Facebook account?  Wow.  Impressive.  The dumbest, ugliest guy from my high school has one too.  Your company is expected to have social media accounts.  It’s not special…It’s not high tech…It’s not modern…It’s nothing you need to advertise. Would you put in an ad “Hey, we have a fax machine!” and expect to look cool and get business via fax? A few years ago, every ad had the icons on them.  Companies were trying to look cool in 2007.  Companies were trying to figure out social media and obviously, many companies are still trying to figure it out. Advertisers were just following trends and we put icons there because we assume we need to put them there.  If Tide has a Twitter icon on its ad, why couldn’t every detergent do the same? I assume Toyota has a Facebook page.  No shit.

What are you Expecting?

So you post a sticker on your front door of your bakery…What are you expecting your customer to do?  You already got them to your front door, focus on selling a cupcake. If I show up at your front door, I want a cupcake, not a twitter post about a cupcake. You can’t click on a print ad.  You can’t click on a sticker. Even having social media links on your website isn’t a great idea. You shouldn’t want your visitors to leave your site and go surf Facebook.  You have them on your site.  Convert on the traffic you have.  I think we put social media links on our websites out of habit.  Everyone else does it.  What if my clients would rather contact me via social media?  Let them go to LinkedIn and search your company.  FYI, they don’t. Your social media efforts should drive business to you…you shouldn’t just dive traffic to social media.

Facebook, Twitter, and Google are Companies…Separate from Yours

Let them do their own adversing.  Don’t take a spec of space from your message to promote these companies.  Facebook owns your Facebook page, not you. Why not promote the brand of car you drive or the phone you use.  Would you run an ad for your business with a small apple icon because you have an iPhone?  Is that a silly idea?  of course it is. Putting social media icons gets you nothing.  Stop it.

So What Should Companies do?

This is how you use social media…Engage your customers on social media.  They are already there. Post engaging content.  Run contests.  Promote products.  Offer discounts. Get them interested in your bakery and maybe they will come in and buy a cupcake. The goal is to pull the customers off of social media, not drive them there.