MonjesMedia

With all of the buzz surrounding Twitter and Facebook lately, I feel compelled to share a video I recently came across on YouTube, explaining what social media is, in layman’s terms. While watching the clip, please keep the following question in mind: What is social media?

Although you may think you know the answer to this question, you may only be partially correct. To most of us social media is a way to connect with friends and family. To organizations, however, it represents an entirely new way of communicating with potential customers in the marketplace.

A well run social media campaign can save an organization millions of ad dollars each year. Social media and eMarketing campaigns hold a tremendous advantage over traditional media channels; trackable metrics. With it’s ability to connect, along with it’s ability to be tracked, social media is an arena that your business can no longer afford to avoid.  Enjoy!

During the early AM hours last Sunday, inside a dimly lit server room somewhere in the ether, Skittles.com made the switch from a conventional candy retailers site to what can be described as a social networking hub.

Upon visiting Skittles.com, users are taken directly to the candy maker’s Twitter stream. In lieu of any conventional form of navigation, the user is instead greeted by a widget-like console which floats directly on top of the Twitter stream itself. Users can click on links reading: Home, Products, Media, Chatter, Friends and Contact; which in turn link to Skittles’ profile pages on Wikipedia, Flickr, YouTube, and Facebook.

In what is being viewed as an intelligent and innovative move within the social marketing and E-marketing communities,  Skittles is essentially speaking to its audience using the language of its audience.  While doing so, Skittles is aligning itself with some of the Web’s hottest and best known brands. Through simple brand associations, Skittles is letting the public know that they not only get them, and feel them, but also that they are one of them.

While the concept is very good, the execution leaves a bit to be desired. From a Web usability standpoint, the widget-like navigation is a little obtrusive. While users can minmize the component, there is no way to recloate it to a different part of the screen. On most sites, this covers up the top left quadrant of the page, which usability studies show, is one hot piece of web real estate and often where very important information can be found on sites across the Internet. Please, Skittles, add “drag and drop” functionality to the component and you’ll improve what is already a very strong social makeover.

Although I personally don’t believe Skittle’s latest campaign reflects a website architecture  that will be widely adopted by other organizations, I do believe it recognizes the importance of connecting with members of the community, on a never before seen level. Skittles definitely gets it. Kudos to you!