Social distortion

What’s wrong with this picture?

Nothing too terrible, really. Just a callout on the “About Us” page of a major consumer products Website. Pretty standard stuff.

But you will notice the “ShareThis” widget. Which is not itself too offensive but is emblematic of something that’s been bugging me a lot lately.

Laziness, namely.

As it has become easier to widget-ize, chiclet-ize, communit-ize or otherwise adorn a website with social media bling, I see an increasing number of companies – many in real estate – darting toward each shiny object on the social web, while forgetting that what matters, ultimately, is quality content. Smarts. Cred. Candor.

So I don’t think I’ll be “sharing” the Rubbermaid press page on Facebook. And who will? The QA team? A plastics fetishist?

Maybe I’m overreacting. But my point, anyway, having been in the trenches with lots of companies trying to play in social media, is this: Doing one thing well is better than being everywhere half-way, being gratuitous, or asking those whom your brand touches to do silly stuff.