Brands in social media are being disingenuous. We might have the best intentions but we're not carrying them through to execution. Instead, we're alienating our consumers and making them wish we'd go away. So, let's stop the nonsense and do social media the right way - even if the right way means not doing it at all.
9. “The involvement of most
brands in the social media
lives of the public remains
clumsy, inept and
disrespectful”
Richard Huntingdon
Director of Strategy, Saatchi & Saatchi
@adliterate
Photo by @insideology
10. Why are we surprised
that our efforts aren’t
translating?
13. 3/5don’t follow/like ANY brands on ANY
social networks
71% are more selective about “liking” a
brand on Facebook than they were last
year
>1/2
feel overwhelmed by brand
messages on social media
Source: TNS Digital Life,
November 2011
24. Take a photo. Upload via our
app. Send it to five friends.
Like us on Favebook. Retweet
our retweet of your pic.
Subscribe to our blog. Get
your mum to like us too. Pin
our product shot. Download
our ringtone. Forward this
25. 40% feel that brands’ social media
promotions are too complex to enter
20% feel that incentives aren’t worth
the effort
Source: TNS Digital Life,
November 2011
29. “I compromise my own
values and integrity to
avoid rejection or
others’ anger”
By choosing to be vanilla we’re giving nobody a reason
to feel anything. Like a co-dependent we might be
desperate to hold on to our customers. We need them,
after all. Boring them to death isn’t going to make
them choose us
33. Us Our Customers
Loyalty that
Share what
breeds enough
interests us with
positive word-of-
people that are
mouth to recruit
interested
new customers
34. Our
Us Customers
?
Loyalty
Share what
Word-of-mouth
interests us
New customers
35. Our
Us Customers
Loyalty Where is the Share what
Word-of-mouth common interests us
New customers
ground?
36. Be interesting
An annoyingly simple
answer, because it’s
profoundly hard to do well
37. Belief!
You have to
believe in
something to be
able to get
others
interested in it
38.
39. 7.5 Over the long-term,
purpose almost always
pays, by a margin of 7.5:1
- Mark Earls. Herd
40. Everything that consumers see,
get’s bent through the prism of
their beliefs
Consumer beliefs and brand equity
go hand in hand
Dan Hill , Emotionomics
41. Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I
am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is
much, much more important than that
- Bill Shankly, Manager of Liverpool Football Club
42. Our
Us Customers
Loyalty Where is the
Share what
Word-of-mouth common interests us
New customers
ground?
43. Our
Us Customers
Loyalty
Share what
Word-of-mouth Belief interests us
New customers
I’m not here to evangelise about Social Media\nI think we’re all bored enough of that\n
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Social is great. We all know and agree on that point.\nBut it’s not magic. It’s not going to answer all our prayers just because we turn up.\n\n
We know the buzzwords. Two-way communication. Democratisation of the web. Rebuilding trust in brands... \nAnd yet...\n
There’s the biggest one: Engagement.\nWe’re all banging on about engagement. Very few of us even know what it means or what it looks like when we see it. Let alone how to plan for and create it.\n\n
There’s the biggest one: Engagement.\nWe’re all banging on about engagement. Very few of us even know what it means or what it looks like when we see it. Let alone how to plan for and create it.\n\n
There’s the biggest one: Engagement.\nWe’re all banging on about engagement. Very few of us even know what it means or what it looks like when we see it. Let alone how to plan for and create it.\n\n
There’s the biggest one: Engagement.\nWe’re all banging on about engagement. Very few of us even know what it means or what it looks like when we see it. Let alone how to plan for and create it.\n\n
There’s the biggest one: Engagement.\nWe’re all banging on about engagement. Very few of us even know what it means or what it looks like when we see it. Let alone how to plan for and create it.\n\n
We might think we’re getting engagement all of the time. But it’s not always the case, clearly. \nI have to agree with Richard.\nWe’re far from engaging.\n
ROI is becoming increasingly important for social media initiatives.\nBrands are spending more money in social and rightly so, they want to see the rewards on their bottom line.\nWe need to be better committed to being social, rather than “doing” social before it’s too late. \nToo late for what?\n
Well, currently I think what we’re mainly doing is just going to make things harder for ourselves in the longer term\nSo eager to “join in” the conversations that we’re ignoring something really important...\n
We’re about as welcome as a fart in a space suit (to coin a Billy Connolly phrase)\nWe’re not wanted in social media any more than we’re wanted elsewhere. Not when we’re just doing what we’ve always done in every other media - talk AT them. We’re being screened out there and now we’re having to be screened out here too.\n
And we are. In spades.\n
So, why aren’t we getting the love that we want?\nWell, one of the innately great things about social is its human qualities\nAnd yet for the most part, brands are demonstrating some of the most unappealing human attributes that there are\n
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We’re constantly begging for people to like/follow/love us.\nWithout demonstrating what about us is really loveable.\nWhen did begging ever bring about positive emotion?\nWhat we’re really trying to do is generate reach. In pure media terms. We want as many people as possible to give us the permission to talk to us, but...\n
...at what cost?\nIt’s not free and certainly not cheap to constantly run ads that drive up audience numbers. And what are we building this audience for?\nBut what are we really doing with them that’s going to a) drive advocacy and b) get them to spend their hard-earned money on our products? \nAre we even really thinking beyond being able to tell our MD/COO/Big Cheeses that we’ve managed to acquire 100k likes on Facebook? How long until theyhold us to task about what it is that those 100k people actually mean in REAL terms? \n
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A megaphone is a weapon. Assaulting the ears of those nearby with noise.\nThat’s the theory behind why consumers have been blocking out unwanted messaging within traditional channels for years. We all jumped into social media with a lot of talk about opening two-way communications and having learned our lessons about pushing messages all of the time. But most brands are just using social media to do the same thing. We’re just creating more and more unwanted noise.\n
Who cares that a shoe polish is glad that it’s Friday? Or my local mechanic is on twitter to link sunshine to oil changes. WTF does that have to do with anything?\nYou can’t shake someone’s hand while reaching for their wallet.\n
What are we creating this noise for? Too few brands really think about what the action they’re trying to incite it. \nI’m sure as shit not going to buy your product because you commented on the weather that’s outside my window. I’m not going to tell my friends to spend time with your brand either, if you just bombard me with spurious reasons to connect your brand with my life that are borne out of nothing.\n
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Once we’ve got our audience and decided to “engage” them we seem to operate under the delusion that they’re sitting there with baited breath, waiting for us to tell them what to do. Upload this. Follow that. Blah blah blah.\nThey REALLY aren’t.\n
Not surprisingly they don’t want to do it. It’s not worth it. What’s in it for them isn’t compelling enough. And frankly, who can be arsed?\n
Only the very few, very engaged minority is likely to participate. \nWe’ve all heard the 1:9:90 rule before - 1 participates, 9 respond to that 1, 90 see it all happen.\nBut the 90. Or probably the 99 (as I think that principle is on the generous side) are the ones that we need to spend their money with us. The 1 already is. They’re already into us. They’re convinced enough to dick about with the silly things we ask them to do. It’s the rest of the population that we need to bring into the fold.\n
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Anyone remember the last time a brand’s social media feed actually demonstrated a personality? One that you could distinguish from every other brand out there?\nProbably when they cocked up and said something they shouldn’t. Or when they made you laugh - remember the Shippham’s Paste spoof?\nMost feeds sound like most other feeds. Frightened to elicit a strong reaction. But you can’t build meaningful relationships with tedium. \n
Qualifying statement to diagnose codependency.\nEliciting strong emotions like love means that you might polarise people And that’s OK. \n
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You’re probably all sick of this quote, but it’s worth showing from time to time. \nEspecially while we’re being all of these things. We’re doing more harm than good. Not to our consumers (70% of brands could disappear and they wouldn’t care), but to our chances of getting them on our side and doing the things that we want them to do.\n
Unicorn punching = restoring balance to the universe after a saccharin brain rinse has affected something by the thankless act of punching a unicorn in the face.\nWe need to stop being disingenuous in social media. Stop pretending it’s a panacea for us. And start approaching it with maturity and rigour. Or, quite often, just piss off and leave it alone.\n
Let’s look again at what it is that we and our consumers want from social media.\n
Where is the common ground? How can we genuinely build a relationship in this space?\n
Where is the common ground? How can we genuinely build a relationship in this space?\n
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People can spot disingenuousness a million miles away. In the short term they might tolerate it. In the long term they’ll not like you for it. \nLike a cheap one night stand - you’ll get your kicks now, but you’ll hate yourself in the morning\n
Apple - personal and creative liberation\nStarbucks - fill souls not bellies\nNike - Everyone should feel the thrill and reward of being an athlete\nIkea - Bring better everyday life to the many\nSpotify - square the circle between music fans and music makers online\nAll proud owners of fierce, proud fans. Fans who demand a lot in return and kick up a stink when they don’t live up to it. But fans that demonstrate immense loyalty and advocacy. Fans that spend money and recruit other people to spend money too. \n
But they’re fans that evangelise. And fans that spend money.\nAnd it pays. \nJerry Portas and Michael Collins research for their book, “Built to last” compared the fortunes of belief based companies and those without a core belief. Belief based companies win. \n
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A belief strategy means that consumers no longer think about what brand to buy.Aligned beliefs mean the choice is moot. It’s a done deal.\nThink about the power of that for a moment.\n
So when we look at the common ground we were seeking earlier. \nIt’s in belief. The question we should be asking ourselves as brand owners, guardians, custodians, whatever you call us is... what do we believe in?\n
So when we look at the common ground we were seeking earlier. \nIt’s in belief. The question we should be asking ourselves as brand owners, guardians, custodians, whatever you call us is... what do we believe in?\n