Kleenex produces about 190 billion tissues annually for those who lose the fight and end up needing to blow their noses endlessly morning, noon, and night. The brand, which is owned by Kimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc., was started in 1924 to be used in place of face towels when people were removing makeup or cold cream. It is now distributed in 170 countries. It has a major foundation on which to build a really smart digital strategy. But so far, we’re afraid, it’s pretty much blowing it.

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One look at Kleenex.com, and it’s obvious that the company’s target audience is women. Three rolling images take up the majority of the home page. In one of them, a smiling woman takes a proffered Kleenex from another (because everybody knows how happy we all are when we need a tissue). Another image features a woman with a huge smile who seems to be dancing; it appears that her Kleenex box is making her very, very happy.

The three big messages here are to Share the Softness, which is also the also main thrust of the product’s Facebook page. The dancing woman is promoting Kleenex Expressions, a line of “stylish accessories that offer exceptional softness.” The third is a link to the product page for Kleenex Hand Towels, which offers up “a clean, fresh towel every time.”

Drilling down, the Hand Towel page features hand-drying facts (that “coincidentally” help sell Kleenex) such as “Regular washing of bathroom hand towels does not ensure clean hands” or “Hand drying with disposable towels can help prevent the spread of germs.” This section of the site also features a children-centric Hand Drying Song along with a video and video remixes of the tune to share with hand-washing-challenged kids. (Hit it, boys! “Warm water and soap and bubbles that shine/Kleenex Hand Towels that’s mine all mine.”) Cute, but seems like a missed opportunity to reach women — and perhaps better promoted to moms on the home page?

The Kleenex Expressions section features a variety of “stylish” boxes for tissues, including the “Upright Marquetry” or the “Oval Spellbound.” There is a Store Locator in this section so you can find a retailer near you that sells your favorite tissue. Unfortunately, when I typed in my ZIP Code, the site couldn’t name one Kleenex distributor near me even though I can think of five off the top of my head.

Other areas of the site include a full listing of all of the company’s products (moist wipes, napkins, etc.) A Tips and Facts section uses technology in fun ways, including an interactive map to see where colds and flu are currently most or least intense. (Be glad you’re not in Arkansas where it sounds like a sneeze convention has been taking place.) It also provides good tips for avoiding colds and info for teachers to be aware of in the classroom, such as “One sneeze can spray 3,000 infectious droplets into the air at more than 100 MPH.” Um, thanks, Kleenex.

“About Kleenex” offers what you’d expect: a history of the brand as well as responses to frequently asked questions and news from the company. What is also here — and surprisingly isn’t pushed forward in other areas of the site, especially considering that this a paper-products company — is what Kleenex is doing on the sustainability front. Another missed opportunity, Kleenex!

Instead of providing information right there on that page, though, Kleenex asks readers to take the extra click and jump over to Kimberly-Clark’s website to see what the mother ship is doing in order to stay environmentally friendly. Kimberley-Clark also owns such brands as Kotex feminine-hygiene products, Huggies diapers, Cottonelle toilet paper, and a few others. And while it’s nice to know what K-C is doing for the world and its children, it also successfully short-circuits any attempt to know exactly what Kleenex is doing for the curious consumer.

Kleenex maintains a Facebook page that more than 3,300 people “like.” Its catchphrase, like the big push on kleenex.com, is “Softness Worth Sharing.” The Facebook extension of this campaign is to convince Facebookers to sign up to send a free pack of Kleenex to someone they are thinking of. More than 462,000 packs had already been sent by this writing — a modest success, but not exactly a big idea.

The Facebook page’s Wall is filled with testimonials from everyday consumers (“I love the feel of you when you touch my little nose :)”) as well as minor frustrations on not getting something to work on the site (“WHERE do I enter the text confirmation???”). Kleenex marketers have posted a few images in the Photos section of its Facebook page, and it’s good to see a few fan-uploaded photos below. Any folks who visit the Kleenex Facebook page are engaged enough with the site and product to also leave feedback and suggestions in the comments.

The design of the brand’s Facebook presence is modest and straightforward, especially since if you want to Share the Softness – and who wouldn’t want to do that? – it pushes you to the Kleenex Web site to actually fill out the pertinent information.

There is no Twitter account for Kleenex in the U.S. but Americans can expect that to change soon. (Bet you can’t wait for automated Tweets every time Sneezy takes a tissue from the box.) In the United Kingdom last year, Kleenex started a Twitter account called @KleenexHayfever, which generated only slightly more than 350 followers but also brought lots of media attention.

The site asked Tweeters to attach the hashtag #atishoo and the first part of their postal code along with a ranking (from one to five) of how bad their hayfever symptoms were. Using this, the site was able to build a national hayfever map to show where the suffering was at its worst. The map then appeared in The Evening Standard newspaper as well as on the home page of its Web site.

Kleenex had never before tried to position itself so strongly before the hayfever season kicked off. It had predominantly marketed itself as something to have on hand when the cold and flu season got started.

The success of that effort apparently has Kleenex marketers around the world trying to figure new ways to use social media to generate press, revenue, and consumer satisfaction.

But when you’ve got to blow your nose, there’s still only one name in the tissue business: Kleenex. Still, the brand has yet to leverage its top-of-mind consumer awareness in a big way on digital.