Okay, let me get started by saying that I don’t blog a lot about social media anymore because I don’t want to fall into the category of being a self-proclaimed guru, but I do this for a living, and yes I have clients that pay me to do this for them as well, so I feel no shame in admitting that I might know more than a lot of people handing out advice these days because this is my full-time gig.  Not bragging, just saying.  At Pleth, we have clients reach out to us on an almost daily basis for social media consulting and it’s something that I think we, as an industry, pretty much do right w/ the exception of a few bad apples and of course some companies that try to do it themselves internally.

I am not for sure who all out there is advising their clients to do these two things, and maybe some are just taking this upon themselves, but I know of at least one firm (won’t mention any names, they are out of state anyway) who advised a client to do this and it sent shivers down the base of my spine. I wanted to set the record straight, or at least weigh in on my opinion as to why these things are being handled completely wrong…

Businesses / Organizations Should Not Be Facebook Profiles (They are not Humans!)

Here’s the thing, there are right ways and wrong ways for your business or organization to get involved on Facebook.  You even have some options when it comes to pages or groups, depending entirely what your motivation is for getting involved.  I hate to see a friend request from a business or an organization.  This is not correct. 

Surely at some point during the process while this profile was being setup, this had to seem like it wasn’t right.  I don’t know, maybe at the point where they asked you your birthday, or your sex, possibly even relationship status.  I mean, does your business date?  Does your business have a gender?  Hopefully not, that would be illegal in most states.  Sorry if this sounds like a rant, but this gets under my skin a little bit, especially when I find that a firm has consulted someone to do things this way so that they have some different options that pages or groups presently don’t have. I have to scratch my head and wonder if that is not some sort of malpractice somewhere down the lines.  Don’t we, as an industry have a fiduciary obligation to our clients not to steer them wrongly?

Companies / Organizations with Geo-Social Profiles (Where you Goin?)

Why would a company add me as a friend on Foursquare / Gowalla?  You got me, I have no idea but I have had 2 do this recently and it made me wonder.  I mean I know your company, the request wasn’t out of line, but your company is comprised of hundreds of employees and you have 2 physical locations.  How come you want to be friends w/ me?  Your company is not representative of one person, where are you going to check in at?  Are you physically going to move your entire building to another location and check-in?  Of course not.  If you are interested in knowing where I am checking in at, you don’t have to be my friend to find out that information.

Now that that part almost sounded like a rant, so let me back up a little bit and commend you on your interest in wanting to be involved with geo-social.  You are on the cutting edge my friend, no doubt.  But, there are right ways and wrong ways to get involved with trends, and honestly by doing it wrong you can make yourself look worse than had you not even tried at all.  (example: me trying to sing karaoke).

If you want to get involved with geo-social as a company or an organization, I would advise contacting these companies (Gowalla, Foursquare, Brightkite, Loopt) and seeing what they recommend, or possibly by going off on your own and offering discounts for mayors / checkins / etc.  You might even consider getting a custom stamp for your business on Gowalla, I won’t go into all of the details on this right now, but trust me, these companies are startups so they are eager for your involvement, just call them.

In closing, I am sure I am not the only one that these things bother, please comment your thoughts on this. Also, what are some other things that you see that bother you today w/ corporate / organizational use of social media??  I am personally inviting some heavy hitters and experts that I know to contribute to this discussion.  Please feel free to weigh in with any other pet peeves you might have.  I would love to turn this discussion into a podcast at some point soon…