Anti social
Are brands becoming over-involved in social networks? Is our relentless quest for involvement leading to a new incarnation of spam? Many web 2.0 pundits will argue that “friending is the new branding”, and that the value in social media executions is the sense of appreciation and involvement that is granted to the consumer.
Not long ago this was certainly true; an active profile on a social network would bestow a sense of involvement in the company. Currently, it seems that the practice is so widespread that the sense of importance one now derives from being “friended” by a brand is about as compelling as seeing a TVC the day before your best mate. That’s not to say that there aren’t some memorable stand-outs (Victoria’s Secret Pink Myspace page and Apple Student Facebook profile both come to mind), but as a whole, the sense of recognition one derives from “befriending” organisations has been mitigated by the sheer number of bands, brands, nightclubs etc which engage in the practise.
As Michael Arrington writes in “Friend Spam is the worst kind of all” on Techcrunch “The result can be dozens or hundreds of messages a day asking you to join some service that you really don’t want to join.” So the fact that it’s in a social network, doesn’t really change the fact that unsolicited messages / friend requests / application invites are frequently met with hostility. Something to consider . . .
March 25th, 2008 at 11:35 am
Future success on social networks for brands is counterintuitive.
Brands WILL NOT win favour by pushing themselves into these social spaces and masquerading as if they were desirable individuals. Most are not. Sorry guys.
Brands need to see themselves as being the enablers and supporters of social interaction and ‘friend interaction’, not as egotistical entities that demand a central position on social network sites.
It is foolish to think Social Networks can essentially become Brand Networks. It just doesn’t work. People want social interaciton and will migrate away from Social Networks where brands are aggresively encroaching on their social space.
Instead, brands will win (indirect) favour by supporting innovative applications and those teams of developers behind them. In this sense brand managers need to look to seeing this as an aspect of developing their ‘brand personalities’.
Ask these simple question, is your brand social? playful? selfless? Does you brand respect and support the value of Social Media? If so, think about supporting creative ideas and developments in Social Media instead of dominating it.
By all means get involved but remember, broadly speaking social network users will only install those applications and join those groups etc that;
1. Enhance their self-expression
2. Allow for more creative and stimulating interaction with their ‘friends’
3. Will enable them to gain in some way for little or no outlay of time or money
Brands need to think “brought to you by…”, instead of ‘I am the centre of the universe’.
March 25th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Couldn’t agree more Craig.
April 8th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
To extend this into an example, I imagine that we don’t want the AAMI girl on the insurance billl to be stalking me down on Facebook, sending me Cupcakes and Poking me occasionally. (Re Craig’s point about intrusion, AAMI is not a social media brand)
Perhaps though we are looking for attributes of a friend in a brand, that attentive, eager to listen, eager to help, authoritative and professional sales assistant to understand our needs, our personalities and more importantly remember the conversations we’ve had since I last called/interacted with the brand. God forbid we call the call centre and ask us straight up if we’re happy with the service we’ve received since you paid the insurance.