Any efforts using social media tools should be an integrated part of your overall marketing campaign including offline things like signage, posters and ads. One of the most common mistakes I see is companies announcing their presence on Facebook or Twitter by including these familiar icons but failing to be specific. Here’s an example of what not to do:

This advertiser wants to engage with customers through these social networks yet they expect the customer to do all the work. Why should they go to the trouble of searching for your brand? The reality is that people don’t do that. Worse still, if your brand name is similar to another company’s then you may drive traffic to those accounts. A better way to handle it is like this:

Muskoka Woods included this information as part of a full page ad in the April 2011 issue of Canadian Family magazine.

This is exactly the right thing to do. The ad shows the child-friendly summer fun that Muskoka Woods wants to exude about their camp yet makes it easy for busy parents (and kids!) to receive further information in the way that works for them. Type in a brief URL and they connect to the company’s social network on Twitter or Facebook in no time.

So, how are you making it easy to connect?