Mapping your social presence

An interesting read courtesy of Immediate Future. It’s a transcript of an interview with Guy Stevens from the Carphone Warehouse about the way they use Twitter. Like many large brands, it’s been a case of strategy following experimentation, trying things out and learning as they go along.

According to Guy, currently they have around 10 accounts. Nowhere near as large an encampment as some companies but still potentially confusing from a customer standpoint. Consider this is only on Twitter. The problem very quickly scales up if you count all social media. The larger you are, the worse it gets in most cases. Dell maps out its Twitter presences well but the webpage is pretty hard to find and *is* only for Twitter. Individual presences are generally better at mapping where social activity is happening but it’s still not enough for customers to see the big picture.

What’s actually needed is a new kind of site map on every socially active company’s website. It’s an excellent way of using owned media to help customers and prospects find you socially as well as help them understand what each presence is actually for.

There are other benefits. It helps the company think holistically about what it’s doing out there in social space. It coordinates disparate efforts, identifies overlap and encourages synergy and collaboration.

Who out of the biggest brands will be first to put their social site map on the main menu bar and really explain why they are out there and what each profile and initiative is there to perform?

Brought into the world on Friday, August 7th, 2009 and filed under Uncategorized.