The Big Gap

It’s obvious to me that big companies are making strides with social technologies. Every day, I hear about a new and promising initiative by a stalwart attempting to leverage social media or networks. At the same time, though, there’s just so much more they ought to be doing.

Case in point: I recently shot a really cool video for a division of AT&T. The production is amazing and I certainly can’t complain with the results. There are links on the video’s AT&T page to easily share the page on sites like Digg and Technorati. You can grab the HTML code for easy embedding.

So, what’s wrong?

The author page includes my bio, but no links to find out more about me or the book discussed in the video. I noticed this immediately and asked my AT&T contact if they could be added. Easy enough, right?

Nope. Another long story short, that’s not allowed.

Think about the silliness of such a policy.

Simon Says

Of course, web-savvy folks can Google me or my book very quickly. Sure enough, The New Small comes up at the top of the results. But they shouldn’t even have to do that. It isn’t hard to include a URL. Companies of all sizes need to make things easier for people interested in more information. So, even while I applaud AT&T for the opportunity, it’s hard not to notice a major area for improvement. And if it’s true for my little video, I’d bet the house that it’s true in other places.