You've probably seen the TGI Friday's campaign to get 500,000 facebook fans for Woody (the fictional hipster Friday's guy) by the end of September.

It's an interesting idea (who doesn't like free stuff?), but it has me wondering a few things.

What are they trying to accomplish?

I became a fan of Woody and registered for a free burger.  Why not - it's free.  I'm not a big fan of Friday's, and frankly when I signed up I figured I'd un-fan Woody after the end of the month when we all got our free burger.

I had to give my email address but there wasn't even an opt-in for future mailings, so they shouldn't be using this as a way to create an email list.

In essence, they've created a group of people who are fans of free burgers. Now they need to build the relationship.

What is there retention plan?

They've set fan expectations pretty high - fan us and we'll give you free stuff.

How are they going to maintain fan happiness?

Videos of Woody's antics might satisfy the most loyal of fans, but they need to deliver great content and offers - facebook-only promos, coupons, event announcements, choose which retired menu item should be resurrected, and maybe even an occasional recipe.

Will they follow through?

They'll undoubtedly get to the 500,000 mark (as of this writing they're at 421k).  Do they have a post-free-burger social media plan?  To make this successful they need to have a Part B.  Fans want interaction.  They want to contribute.  They want to feel connected.

Right now they've done little more than pay for 500,000 fans. 

It will be interesting to watch how this evolves.  If done right, this will become a case study that we all present when talking social.  If done wrong, they'll become the footnote for how to *not* get into social.  Either way, it will be entertaining to watch. 

And hey, in the end at least I'll get a free burger.

If you're working on your social media presence (isn't everyone?), be sure to include search engine optimization in your tactics.  As we all learned in the 90s, "if we build it they will come" does not play.

Social media is about distributed information - a blogger posts a review and links to your product page, a fan posts an your facebook page, a follower replies to a tweet.  All of these interactions required (at some point) for your customer to find you online. And once they do find you, make sure they have easy access to the content you want to highlight.  You can't control the conversation, but you can influence it.

What does this mean for you?  Here are a few relatively easy things to do to make your site Social Media friendly.

SEO

• Use a single version of your company name - don't dilute the brand.  If your company is "John's Limo Service" don't refer to it as "John's Limos" or "John's Limousines".
  
• Avoid "click here" links and instead link via descriptive text (see the first bullet above for a good example).  Links are given higher relevance and the description will be used to help index it appropriately.
• Add a "What's New" box to your home page, and list the headlines of your last few blog entries.  You'll accelerate indexing of the new content because the spider doesn't need to find your new entry organically - it's right there on your home page the next time it indexes your site.

Content Organization

• Prominently link to your social media channels, and use their icons for easy recognition.  There's a great set of Web 2.0 icons available from iconarchive.
• Feature consumer quotes throughout.  Social Media is about consumers' experiences with your brand.  When you come across a positive review or comment, request permission to quote it and use it on your site.  Note: An upcoming post will be about the tools you can use to monitor your brand on message boards, blogs and other online channels.
• Make it easy for users to bookmark and tell a friend.  Use a service like Share This to enable social bookmarking.

This list is just a start - but they're quick things you can do that will have an impact.  Do you have other suggestions?

Up next - social media monitoring tools: how to keep up with activity and still have time for dinner.