During our last night on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, I uploaded this photo to my Facebook profile and my twitter account. The response I got back from their twitter presence (@HiltonHeadSC), was this:

Great photo! The beaches on Hilton Head have great critters such as ghost crabs, fiddler crabs, starfish, sandollars, etc.

Hmmm…. felt like an awkward, forced response. I responded:

thanks — what kind of crab was the one in my photo?

I asked that question 20 hours ago. As of this writing, I still don’t know what that crab is, but from the choices they offered, I’ll assume it’s a ghost crab.

That’s the thing about social media: presence isn’t enough.

Hilton Head’s online persona was quick (within minutes) to tell me offer information I didn’t ask about, and but neglected to directly answer the question I subsequently asked. Their response to my first post offered information about them, but was not really about making a connection with me.

It The exchange got me a little more than curious, so this morning, I went through their twitter stream and found this response pattern to be the norm. It’s apparent that they see a question or post by an individual not necessarily as an opportunity to connect, but as an opportunity to tell that individual more about the island and their offerings. If that’s the strategy, fine, but it’s not about getting to know me. Maybe that’s not important, and that’s okay.

What could they have done? Here are a few suggestions:

1. “Great photo of a [blank] crab! We’d love it if you uploaded it to our critters flickr page! <link>”
2. “Nice photo. Joe Blank provides a guided island tour where you’ll be sure to get more stunning photos <link>”
3. “Nice photo! We’re going to post it on our Facebook page for all to see!”

(Of course, I don’t know if the services I described on #1 and #2 exist, but you get the point.)

Big difference in tone and approach — and even bigger difference in effect.

What do you think?