How Squidoo, a social media company, don't get social media

Squidoo is a really interesting website. The idea behind is that people can create a 'lens' about a subject that interests them. You can see my 'Twitter for Librarians' lens for example, in which I have linked to various different resources under different headings that Squidoo has helped me create. I can add in various modules quickly and easily to link to Amazon resources for example, and I can get reader feedback and so on. It's been around for several years and it's seen off competition such as Google's failed 'Knol' attempt.

But here's the thing - their grasp of social media is just about zero. They used to have a bookmarklet that made it really easy to add new content to a page - they're very common and resources like Scoop.it, Pinterest and of course your blogging tool all use them. Recently they dropped the use of it. Now, if I want to add something to a lens, I have to do it manually, and I don't have time to do that, so my lenses are not going to get updated as much as they would have done, and that's a shame. I tried to find out why, but Squidoo isn't talking. Nothing on the site told me why it had been withdrawn or if there was some sort of replacement - there may well be, but I couldn't find it. And if I can't find it, it's pretty damn well hidden. But hey, if they want to emasculate their product, that's up to them, and that's not the point of this post.

I wanted to talk to someone at Squidoo about it, so I found their Twitter account. Take a look at it. It's really interesting, because it's a great example of how NOT to do a Twitter feed. It's broadcast only. They don't respond to tweets, they don't interact with people, they just throw stuff out promoting the product. Even when people tweet about a lens or a trophy and refer to @squidoo it's completely ignored. They very seldom actually RT anything, and while they promote specific lenses, it's in their own interest to do so. That's not cool Squidoo, not even a little bit. They're so clueless, they haven't even filled out their biography - and I expect that only of people who are just starting out with a Twitter account.

So let's take a look at their Facebook page instead. Again, we find exactly the same thing - their Facebook team writes AT people, it doesn't engage with them. Indeed, someone posted a question to their wall recently and after a delay with no answer posted a rather plaintive 'Is anyone there?' Quite clearly there isn't. Their use of Facebook is exactly the same as an old, out of touch company that thinks putting content onto a website and throwing it out there is top level interaction with customers. Well it isn't, Squidoo, not even a little bit. The point of a Facebook page is to interact with interested people, to have discussions with them, to listen to what they have to say and to respond to it.

Surely they must have something though? Well they do - the Squidoo forum, Squidu. The problem with this is that right at the very top of the forum page it proudly states "A Squidoo ideas forum run by lensmasters for lensmasters. Not moderated by Squidoo employees." Interestingly, even if you're logged into your Squidoo account and visit the forum, you have to create another account to access it. So even on that level, Squidoo doesn't want to know about, or talk to its users.

Is Squidoo anywhere else? Well yes they are - they have a Flickr group. It has a grand total of 309 members who have posted just over 800 images. That's about as lightweight a group as you're ever going to get really. There's also a discussion page on the group as well. 19 months ago someone posted the question 'Alive or not?' and the most recently posting, asking a question remains unanswered after 7 months. There are various Google+ pages that related to Squidoo, but nothing I can see is official. Individual members of Squidoo (and it's only a team of six) are on Google+ though, so let's see what they're up to:

Seth is the guy who started Squidoo, and he's generally regarded as a very big cheese in the whole social media world. Busy guy, and probably far too busy to use G+. Perhaps the co-founder is a little more proactive?

Nope. It would seem that Megan Casey isn't that interested in social media either. How about another key Squidoo player, Corey Brown?

Nope. But at last - we have Gil Hildebrand, Chief Engineer, and he is posting to Google+ - this is his 'about page':

What's amusing is that in one of his more recent posts (Aug 4th) he says "Anyone notice that Google+ has really quieted down in the past few days?" Gil - y'know, before you start commenting on other companies use of social media, you need to take a close look at what your own is doing, because it's not exactly setting a good example.

Let's go back and look at Seth Godin again. Start out with his Squidoo page which is very interesting. It tells us that he has a blog. Doesn't actually link to it mind you, but I loved this section:

So his own page is a good 2 years out of date. His 'about' section, written by himself says "Seth Godin is the bestselling author of more than seven books. He writes about marketing, the spread of ideas and managing both customers and employees with respect." Seth - really, if you treated your customers with respect, you'd update your own pages, you'd encourage your employees to interact with them, and you'd treat us with something less than the contempt that quite clearly you feel. I thought I'd take the time to visit his blog 'Seth's Blog' to drop him a note, but unlike this one, and most others that I read, his doesn't accept comments. Still - be fair, he's at least got a blog, unlike Megan Casey.

So really, it shouldn't come as any surprise that Squidoo is not interested in talking, discussing, sharing and getting involved with users, since the founders of the company are - well, not very good at it. So if anyone is going to be attending anything they're speaking at in the near future, please do ask them 'If you know what you're doing with regards social media, why aren't you doing ANY of it yourselves?'

As a final thought - if you'd provided me with an answer to my 'what happened to the bookmarklet?' and actually interacted on social media, this post would never have been written. Seth, Megan, Gil, Corey, and all the other Squidteam players, you're most welcome to comment on my blog because, unlike you, I actually appreciate the value of social media, and interacting with people.

Comments

[Ashly Lorenzana]

Hi there, appreciate the time you have taken here to question Squidoo and their weak social media strategies.

This is something I hadn't thought of much on a conscious level. I had also visited their Twitter and noted their broadcast tweets, but it hadn't struck me as particularly odd at the time.

I was much more disappointed upon visiting Seth's blog a while back, when I wanted to comment on a post of his that I had read in my feed reader. Discovering that he does not allow comments was incredibly lame, I have to agree.

They are a small team, as you pointed out. So maybe resources are spread thin. They also don't sell anything directly, since Squidoo is free to use. So maybe they are less worried about social media than companies like Starbucks or Dell.

I love using Squidoo myself, but you have an excellent point here and it would be nice to hear from Seth or another team member at Squidoo so that we could better understand their position on all these things.

[Kevin Leland]

Great post. As much as I like to "chew ass" it's nice to see someone else do it. Best of all, the "ass chewing" applies to me as well! I am very complacent with social media, yet I'm in full agreement with you that it is extremely important, especially when you want to show associates that you are interested, and especially that they deserve the respect of "an open door policy"

I'm going to search out these people, do some social/business intelligence gathering, and see if I can discern if they wear white hats or black ones. Like the head hancho's at Factoidz and EzineArticles...Mike Quoc and Chris Knight:

http://judithgiustovskevinleland.blogspot.com/2011/07/death-of-content-farms-like-ezine.html

So far, I like what I hear about Seth and his crew, even though you make a valid point about them being "aloof" ...As you said, it may be because they offer a platform for free, and the associate to big cheese ratio makes it impossible to go one on one very much. However, there is nothing too difficult about updating social media at least once a month. Even I do that!

I plan to start practicing what you preach though, thanks for the jump-start!