Along with social media familiarity among businesses and non-profits communities the number of these organizations active on Facebook and Twitter and branded social networks is growing. Congratulations! Now, can I find you?

Social linksShortly after budgets were poured into building substantial websites, the address was included everywhere. Every printed piece including mail, brochures, letterhead, and business cards all emails, online newsletters, radio and TV ads included the www. It became ubiquitous. It is just as important to make it easy for people to find you on social media sites. Facebook and Twitter links should be easily identifiable and near the top of the front page and included in everything produced from marketing and public relations.

There is a fast closing window when it comes to having the attention of consumers or supporters, the likelihood of people taking time to find you is low. Then there is the concern of whether or not it's the right you they follow. Unfortunately there are some bad actors who pretend to be someone they are not, there are also detractors with names similar but slightly different than your company or organization distributing negative or inaccurate information and there is the simple fact that there are many companies, small businesses and organizations with similar names and acronyms - AMA could be either American Marketing Association or the American Medical Association.

The same goes for branded social networks. With free social networks available like Ning (my current favorite for ease of use; best if personalized to make visually and functionally unique) groups can develop internal or branded social networks. If you take the time to build a branded network to meet your goals, then make it easy to find. I recently visited a site where I knew a social network had been built. However, I couldn't find it. There wasn't a link on the website to 'Community', 'Network', 'My Page'. I eventually found it in small print listed only as the URL without an indication of what it was.

I'm still a kid at heart and hide and seek remains one of my favorite games to play, but just like when I was younger I don't like to count for very long before I come looking. Are you getting people where you want them before they stop counting? Looks like McDonald’s is.