Seleena Hoban | @seleenahoban Social media is now one of the top sources of marketing for any kind of business out there.  You don’t have to be a fortune 500 company to afford free Facebook pages or a Twitter account.  The larger your company gets the more marketing you start to need in order to grow demand, and who doesn’t want to grow demand?  Surprisingly, there are major brands out there without social media or that have poor social media.  These three are just a few of the companies we found to have poor social media.  The question is though, are we surprised by it?

Apple Inc.: No Social Media

Apple Inc. has absolutely no social media accounts.  I am sorry, I take that back.  They do have a Facebook page that has nothing on it but 6,667,686 “likes” as of June 27, 2012 2:16pm Central Time.  Granted, they don’t seem to need any more marketing as every time a new product comes out we hear about it for at least a month straight.  People camp out at Best Buy just to get their hands on the new iPad.  When the iPhone4s came out, it was as if the next savior was born.

Does Apple think they are too good for social media marketing?  Perhaps, but it may come down to the good old business saying of, “Why fix it if it isn’t broken?” The Apple brand has some of the strongest word of mouth, and the social status that comes with owning Apple products means automatic market power.

Disney: No social media icons on home page.

Disney has pretty good social media accounts.  The Disney Co. Facebook page has 36,806,862 “likes,” as of June 27, 2012 2:26pm Central Time.  Take that Apple Inc.!  Out of the millions that have consciously “liked” Disney Co. on Facebook, I am curious to know how many are grown adults?  I won’t judge, I will give the Disney salute.  The Facebook page has consistent updates and very entertaining pictures not only from recent releases but they also give nod to the old days when some things weren’t in 3D and the animations were actually drawn on paper.  The Disney Twitter is of the same impressive consistency.

When it come to guiding people to their social media accounts, however, Disney is lagging.  The Disney Home page at http://www.disney.com does not have any social media icons to encourage people to visit their Facebook page or Twitter account.  How could they not have the intelligence and sense to put these hyperlinks on the webpage?  Don’t they understand that kids and teenagers these days are on Twitter and Facebook like it’s their job? With this little extra effort, Disney could launch their social media a blockbuster level.

Donald Trump: No social media icons on website, no FB website and twitter account is lame.

Donald Trump has been mentioned countless times in Forbes magazine, is one of the richest men in the world and “knows so much about business.”  Well Mr. Trump, would you say businesses today thrives off of media coverage and how well a person can connect with them via the internet and social networking?

Donald Trump’s website does no include social media icons to his Twitter account.  His Twitter is not even very social media savvy to begin with, and he only follows 19 people while having millions of followers.  His Facebook page is a good old Wikipedia entry.  In fact, there are more “likes” on pages created against him than there are on his personally branded Facebook page.  We all know he is a busy man, but we also know he has enough money to pay for some great social media marketing.

What it comes down to is the fact that these brands think they are already successful enough to not need the help of social media.  True, these companies and brands are very well established. Although, one thing we all know about business is that with time comes change. New ways of marketing are ever evolving while old ways of marketing strategies are gradually left in the filing cabinet and never seen again.  And which companies and brands survive? The ones who stay on top of innovation in all areas, including social media marketing. Get on with it.