Three Pitfalls of “Easy”
Today, it’s simpler than ever to get into the social media game.
Pick up a free Wordpress install, use crowdsourcing to find a great template designer, install some widgets to bring in your Twitter feed, and set up Flickr and YouTube accounts so you can bring in your photos and videos, and voila! You have a super professional-looking publishing platform with a complete content management system, ready to show virtually any kind of media you’d like.
Something like this, in the early days of the ‘tubes, might have easily been a seven-figure site. Today, I’ve seen people pull these sites together for three figures, including outsourcing of design and template implementation.
Pretty amazing, huh?
And the ease of getting into social media is great. For corporations big and small, it’s one of the best ways to increase your search engine cred. For individuals, it’s a stunning way to get your voice heard (or your photos seen, or your videos watched . . . but you see where I’m going.) There’s nothing wrong with having more people online with greater capabilities than they’ve ever had before.
But.
(You knew there was a but, didn’t you?)
Maybe I can provide some cautions for companies and individuals rushing down this road. Advice that will make your site stronger, more distinctive, more likely to get attention. So, without further ado, consider these three pitfalls as you design your social media presence:
1. The pitfall of design-sameness. It’s funny. Yes, good design is more accessible than ever. We’ve managed to kill most of the worst design abuses of early websites. We’ve found nice, clean ways to present information effectively and provide easy-to-use navigation. But when you see the same simple, rounded-tab-with-glass-effects design fronting the simple-and-easy-Flash piece on eleven hundred websites, it gets a little tired. If you’re in a business where you need to stand out from your competition, you may want to push your designer beyond these Web 2.0 tropes. And, when you get right down to it, is there any business where you don’t need to stand out?
2. The pitfall of info-blasting. You have a 4-column layout with 16 navigation buttons, 10 of your most recent posts, top comments and commenters, Twitter badges from 5 friends, a calendar highlighting the dates of your last posts, a sidebar full of scrolling Flickr images, and "post this to" badges from 8 different social news sites. A simple question: is this really enhancing your visitors’ experience? Does it communicate, at a glance, who you are, why you are different, or what you have to say? Or did you do this because there was a good-looking 4-column Wordpress theme readily available? Stand back and ask yourself: "What is the minimum I really need to say?" Because then it will really stand out.
3. The pitfall of site spread. It’s not enough to have a corporate site. You have to have a blog site. And a separate blog site for your development team. And blogs from key executives. Oh, yeah, and a captive social network. And a microsite for your e-newsletter. And a microsite for a specific product. And another. And a third microsite that has grown into a site of its own, thanks to input from the product manager. The problem is, now you have to manage all these sites. And figure out where they fit in to your brand heirarchy. Do yourself a favor and ask three questions before you launch a new site: (1) Can you manage it? (2) Does it do anything that can’t be incorporated into your main presence? (3) Do you really think your audience will be excited about it? If the answer to to any of these questions is "no," don’t launch the site.
And again, I’m really excited that producing versatile, well-designed sites is so easy. But sometimes it’s best to sit back, relax, and think about it a bit. Think about how to be different. Think about what your single key message is. Think about what site design and functionality will truly support that message.
And then go do something truly stunning.
