I doubt there is anyone out there who actually believes that this image (which was #1 on images.google.com when I searched for "photo") will do any good at all. And I 100% agree.
However, I see businesses/brands do this all of the time. The create a Facebook Page because someone said that they should. Worse, they create a Twitter handle because it seems like "the thing to do". Brands join Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest, and/or numerous other Social sites simply because someone told them to or they feel, for some unknown reason, that they have to.
Trust me, throwing up a Page or creating a Social account without clearly thinking through the strategy and objectives is a recipe for failure. You will be unhappy with the results, your customers will be unfulfilled my this empty Social promise, and no needle will move (not customer acquisition, not brand awareness, not revenue generation). In short, you're wasting your time.
An abandoned or poorly functioning Social site is actually worse than not having a Social site at all. It's like promising a back-stage tour and turning your customers away at the door (or worse, standing them up for a Valentine's date).
Before setting up your Social channels, make sure you think through your overall Objective (gain customers, retain customers, provide customer service, etc.) and nail down your initial Strategies (voice/persona, types and frequency of content, architecture and/or hierarchy of sites, etc.) before launching straight into the Tactics (FB, Twitter, Yelp, etc.).
And if you have already jumped to tactics, take some time this week to reverse engineer your plan, to analyze what has and has not been working, and put a strong effort into rejuvenating your Social brand. If you're lucky, your customer will still be sitting at the restaurant waiting for you to arrive.
But you might need to bring flowers.
shanti,
mjh
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