Take a popular local restaurant (part of a larger, national chain operation) that was smart enough to put “Follow us on Twitter!” at the bottom of their guest checks. Pretty smart, right? Only problem was they failed to give their Twitter handle. So they want me to follow them on Twitter–heck, I even had my iPhone with me so I could’ve followed them on the spot–but they didn’t give me their Twitter name. If I wanted to follow them on Twitter I was going to have to spend my precious time trying to find them.

So, did I? Sure. But that’s because I live and breathe social media and I became insanely curious to see if I could find them and identify exactly why they were so elusive in providing me with that incredibly important information. Imagine investing valuable time and resources to create a successful social media campaign and then not telling anyone where you are or how to connect with you?

Would most people in my situation have tried to find the restaurant’s Twitter handle? No! The average person would leave the restaurant, get caught up in living their life again and never give the restaurant’s Twitter name a second thought. Opportunity? Lost. In a big way.

What can you do to make it easy for others to find you in the broad world of social media?

Be consistent
When creating social media strategies that include tools like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, etc. use your company name or as close to a reasonable variation of it as you can get and use the same name whenever possible across all social networks.

Be simple
Don’t use a name or handle that, while seemingly related to who you are and what you do, still doesn’t spell out, quite simply, who you are. If you’re a hospital, use your hospital’s name or a close and easily-guessed facsimile. Don’t use generic names or terms like “HealthCares” unless it’s part of your company’s recognizable slogan or tagline that people would use to find you. (After some investigation I found that the restaurant in question above used the following Twitter handle: @restaurantnameSanAn, not at all something I would have easily guessed or found–I had to dig deeper with several Google searches to find them, something others won’t take the time to do).

Be everywhere
Adding “Follow us on Twitter!” to your guest checks is a great idea. But if you don’t include your Twitter handle, your Facebook fan page name, your blog’s URL, or your other social network names, don’t bother wasting your time. Customers and prospects certainly won’t waste theirs trying to find you. Including your social network handles in invoices, email signatures, newsletters, stationery, business cards, guest checks – absolutely everywhere you can – is an easy way to spread the word that you’re active on social networks and it’ll help you build your follower/fan base too.

Don’t let the hard work and effort you’ve put into your social media strategy be for nothing. Make it easy for people to find you online.