Social media and brands

Touted by the early Gen Y'ers as the cool thing, social media has exploded in popularity during the last decade. Once where there were a few, now there are a vast array of social media sites, catering to all ages and professions. Facebook, the most successful, hit 500 million members in July 2010.

Brands began to pick up on this online dialogue, and social media became the "it thing" in the mid 2000's, it was where to communicate with "the kids" and still is.

Why brands use social media:

1. It provides a low-cost platform to build your brand, communicating who it is and what it stands for.
2. It allows brands to engage rapidly and simultaneously with its customer base, the broader public and especially younger generations, in a direct way.
3. It gives brands an opportunity to learn from instant information and unvarnished feedback.

Brands interact with their customers on a daily basis via advertising, PR and product interaction. They create a personality within the minds of their customer base over years, for example Coca Cola's summer ads: young happy, bubbly times with friends (and in Australia usually at a beach). 

It is apparent now that brands who use social media... become almost human like personalities in their own right, customers have an expectation that you will act like one of their "friends". The first point above therefore can work against brands if social media is used ineffectively.

Brands that do well on Social Media sites are those that engage with their "friends". Customers have consciously "befriended" brands like they were a person, or "liked" the page because they want to know about it. 
No one wants to think of some dweeby marketing guy on the other end of a computer writing boring status updates for Coca Cola. The Coca Cola guy is a cool, hip, laid back guy...potentially in some boardies with sand in his hair (for australian audiences)....writting the status update while doing something interesting. This is the brand personality they have communicated for many years, and consistency is vital. People want to be friends with Coca Cola, because the brand personality is something they like.

In later years social media in general has become all about "social one-up-manship". Status updates, check ins...they are all about making it publicly known to others that you're doing something interesting, or that you're smart, or cool, that you went to "that party"...or whatever it need be. Therefore being friends with Coca Cola is different to being friends with... broccoli (no offense to broccoli). 
Someone may be envious that Coca Cola befriended you, or replied to your comment...or asked a question that you replied to (probably wouldnt happen as much with broccoli). 


If brands are unable to communicate in a way that is relevant and interesting to their customer base...they will stop engaging with you. People only want to be friends with brands that matter to them...so matter to them. 


Some examples of brands who have recently used social media well/differently are:
Cited on: 9/12/2011
Sourced from: http://socialcommercetoday.com/category/f-commerce/


Macy's and Four Square: Popular location social media site Four Square paired with Macy's this year to unlock a special "Macy's Thanks Giving Parade Badge". This special edition badge will be unlocked for  viewers who locate themselves at the parade in New York. 

Walmart and Facebook: Walmart launched a Facebook app called Shopycat, which is designed to make gift giving “less stressful and more fun” during the 2011 holiday season.

Using the app involves two steps. First, Shopycat looks at your Facebook friends and analyzes their activity on the social network, including things like likes, shares and posts, then determines what types of gifts they would most likely want based on those interests.

Heinz and Facebook: The Heinz pop-up store on facebook allows fans (and-only fans) to send personalised ‘get-well’ cans of Heinz soup to friends suffering from post-summer distress disorder – i.e. Autumn colds and chills, for a £1.99 ($3.00) PayPal payment via an store app on the brand’s Facebook page.

A recent article written for B&T highlighted some of the issues facing brands and social media:

Sourced from: http://www.bandt.com.au/news/consumers-wary-of-brands-on-social-media

Cited on: 05/12/2011

Write up:

I think this article makes some very valid points. Brands do sometimes act as if because they're using social media, people should flock to their pages and engage with them. You're not engaging appropriately...or they would.

This research conducted by the Experian Marketing Services is a great addition to research conducted on social media. It helps provides a cause-effect link for brands, in that, poor communication = poor results...which is true of anything in marketing and advertising, be it a TVC or a website. 

The fact that "59% of consumer stopped engaging with four or more brands as a result of poorly targeted communication", doesn't surprise me in the least. Who wants to be friends with a boring brand? This now provides evidence that you have to be relevant and engaging. 

This research will enable advertisers and marketers to develop more targeted social media strategies and reap better rewards for the brand from the use of social media.

It isnt going away, social media is only growing. Brands have to grow and progress with it.