The company’s many different areas of expertise are evident right on the Fuji Film home page with sections called out on the bottom of the central image: optical technology, nanotechnology, sustainability, and social responsibility.

Each of the sections gets a turn as the main image on the home page as the attractive images roll at a steady pace from one to another. When you’re a company that’s all about images, you better make sure they’re attractive and intriguing. Fuji seems to score on both counts.

And the text doesn’t disappoint, either. On each section front, the copy sells the company as innovative and forward-thinking: “Pictures let people transcend space and time to convey emotional experiences across generations,” one section front reads. “The latest digital technology from Fujifilm preserves precious memories with intimate realism for posterity.”

Another reads, “Photographic film and human skin share an essential ingredient called collagen. Fujifilm combined its ultrafine particle technology with its in-depth knowledge of collagen to formulate innovative skin-care products.”

Of course they did. Makes you wonder why you didn’t think of it yourself, right?

Across the top of the site are your more general, work-a-day section heads: Home, Products, Support, News, About Us, and one that is clearly a subject the company is trying to showcase itself as being involved in: Sustainability.

This section features info on just how the company is trying to shrink its carbon footprint, use more natural resources, and package things more efficiently, among other things. One impressive thing in this section is the company’s forthrightness with sustainability reports. It provides PDFs of reports that fills curious consumers in on just how they are doing in different areas. For those who only want to fork over their cash to corporations that are environmentally conscious, the reports are a welcome touch.

Each of those work-a-day sections is stuffed with info, which works in stark contrast to how Fuji uses social media.

Social Media

At the top the Info tab on Fuji’s page presence, it reads, “Basic Information.” This could really be the title of Fuji’s overall social-media efforts.

Around 8,398 people “like” Fuji’s Facebook page at this point, but it doesn’t offer a lot of extra goodies to consumers. The page’s Wall consists of people either singing Fuji’s praises or expressing displeasure in one product or another. Customer-service reps seem ready to deal with either response.

The Info page gives a very basic rundown of the 76-year-old company: “On October 1st 2006, a new era began in which FUJIFILM Corporation has taken over the business operations of the former Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd. under the overall direction of the” … and that sort of thing.

There are no past or future events on the Events page. There are actually seven discussions on the Discussions page, but the latest attempt at one was a month ago and it appears that five of them have only one post from the person who was trying to start the conversation. Kind of sad.

Meanwhile, Fuji only has only about 2,500 followers on Twitter, but that may be because the info handed out is a series of retweets and “thank you for following” and that sort of thing. One post, though, is an eye-catcher: It asks for people to post photos to the new Fuji Flickr page.

Fujifilm teamed up with Ning.com to create a social network called ZSpotNow.com that would focus on a single digital camera manufactured by Fuji, according to TechCrunch.com. The cameras were built to make it easy to upload images to the Internet, so one guesses that this site would have allowed for that. The plan for the site was to also host some live events in Miami, New York, and Los Angeles and have the bands and DJs involved post content to the site.

The company must have grown from that experiment because it has also launched SeeHere.com, a site that seems to compete with the likes of Picasa and Flickr. It was relaunched in April.

SeeHere has its own Facebook site, which has more than 4,800 people who like it as well as a Twitter page that has around 460 followers.

For a company that clearly has a lot of engineers and designers working for the company, the social-media offerings are surprisingly basic and unengaging. IN a way, it all feels a bit clinical and as if it’s done because it needs to be done. It’s a whole different experience from the company’s web presence, which showcases Fuji more as a company full of surprises and fascinating innovations. Its strongest asset, though, and where it engages its market best is in showcasing photographs. Everyone wants to show off their best stuff to the world. Let’s hope Fuji does that a little more in its social-media offerings as time goes on.