Why isn’t your phone number listed on social networks?

From Nick Westergaard (@NickWestergaard), founder of Brand Driven Digital, in a piece in the Iowa City Gazette this morning;,

If you hide your phone number online, you are telling your customers that they don’t matter.

It’s so simple I’ll say it again. When you obscure the path to your phone number on your website — or worse yet, if you don’t include a phone number at all — you are sending a message that answering your customers’ questions and talking with them isn’t worth your time.

Lawyers are notorious for making it hard for people for to call them, some do it purposely, others are clueless.

Today, we’re not just talking website, where each and everyone of your lawyers and team members ought to have their number in a format that it dials when touched.

We’re talking social networks where the world, including your clients, prospective clients, and referral sources are interacting.

It may not be just clients and prospective clients looking to reach you. From technology and social media evangelist, Robert Scoble (@scobleizer) in a comment over at Facebook:

One day the BBC called me at 5 a.m. and asked me to be on at 7 a.m. This was back when I worked at Microsoft. I asked “why didn’t you call Microsoft PR?” They answered “we did, but couldn’t get through.”

Which explains how I got on the BBC the day Bill Gates announced he’s retiring and why I always have my phone number everywhere (it’s +1-425-205-1921).

LinkedIn has a ‘Contact Info’ link displayed at the top of your profile displayed on smartphones, tablets, and desktops. Is your office and cell phone number displayed?

If not, it’s a gross inconvenience for people looking to call you. People much more likely to look you up on LinkedIn than on your website.

How about on Facebook? Facebook has a seamless interface for dialing from a smartphone, where most people use Facebook.

I know, I know. Facebook is only for personal, not business. Facebook is part of a grand conspiracy to violate your privacy with their studies and new messenger app.

Get over it. More of the people you want to be able to get hold of you are on Facebook than any other social network.

One-third of the time people are online, they are on social networks. It’s where people are. Make it easy, not hard, for folks to call you.

The idea that you’ll get bothersome phone calls is baloney. I liberally share my cell number in blog posts and on Twitter so people can get a hold of me when I am sharing word of an event or my travels.

My cell, 206 321, 3627, is listed at LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google+. Google Kevin OKeefe cell and it’s the number one result.

The ironic thing is the more I make my cell available the less people bother me. It’s a trust thing. People know I trust them to be able to get a hold of me when they need to. So they don’t violate the trust.

I also don’t get cold calls from salespeople like I do on my office line or did on the home line we used to have.

Social networks have revolutionized communication. It’s how people connect, build relationships, and remain relevant. One avenue of communication connected to social networks is the cell phone.

Not liberally sharing your cell on social networks is saying “I am too good to be connected to you. I am too busy in my lawyer world to enable you to call me. If you are a client, jump through few hoops and go over to my website.”

I’m with Westergaard, “Show them they matter. Make it easy for them to call you and just a few of them will. And that’s not a bad thing.”

Image courtesy of Flickr by Dave Catchpole