Social Media URLs: How To Maximize Your Facebook & Twitter URL When Fishing For Followers

While checking in at Wegmans yesterday to hook up with some great fish for dinner (I LOVE their salmon) , I noticed their sign (see below) that promoted my Collegeville, PA store’s Facebook and Twitter page for the fish department. Pretty cool way for Wegmans to fish for social media followers! But, this URL was not seducing bait to get me to follow them. Their URL was as long as a “fishing line” instead of being something snappy to get me to “bite”!This got me thinking how they could learn a thing or two, or that a small business could learn from this “fish paux” to help them gain point of sale customers. When your customers are Waiting for their fish to be packaged is a great time to throw the social media line out!

Consider these four recommendations when creating your vanity URL or a point of sale call to action for your business:

• Size Matters (and smaller is better). A URL should shoot for a reverse fish tale! Yes, size does matter, but it’s a smaller size that is better!

• Use Capital Letters If You Have To. If you are stuck with a very long URL, like Wegmans, at least capitalize each word. For instance, Wegmans URL is much more readable if it is presented as facebook.com/WegmansCollegevilleSeafoodDepartment. I still would have left off the “Department” in the URL!

• Shooting Fish In A Barrel. Tell your customers why they should follow you and they might suffer through any long URL typing! You have them standing there, so it’s truly like shooting fish in a barrel! Yes, the Twitter call-out is great in the sign, but this handle goes the other way in being too cryptic and using underscores, a no-no!

• There Is More Than One Way To Catch A Fish! Make it easy for your customers to follow you by providing other ways to follow you, whether it’s a QR code to scan or by checking in with Foursquare! I much rather prefer Foursquare!

It’s the simple things that make adding fans and followers to your social media accounts a success. When creating any digital or social media experience, put yourself in the shows of the customer to see what is best for him or her! Unlike goldfish, customers do not wake up to a brand new day in their fishbowl. They remember and know what is worth doing and not worth doing. Get to work on the right social media bait to help you expand your community!

If you have a question on how to bait your social media hook, please cast a line to me @GerryMoran or [email protected]!