I can only assume this happens to millions of people on a daily basis...
So I’m currently working for an internship in the city, and for the most part it’s a great time. My job is to take advantage of the twitter/Facebook/2.0 craze and create a profile for each social media tool. At first this seemed like an easy task… I have a Twitter therefore I can control my organizations twitter.
This is not the case.
"The depths and knowledge one must understand to manipulate these technologies goes to a way deeper, psychological level."
When we use our twitter and facebook accounts, we take for granted the fact that whatever we choose to write is a free expression of our thoughts and ideas, unchallenged by a business’s brand or ideology (for now at least). Imagine if someone monitored your tweets for language and “brand cohesion?” It would probably tare the very fabric of your being apart. Today was such a case.
I was on the business twitter account (separate from my own) about to send an update to our many fans when I had to stop and wonder… “did this sound like the business or like me?” I was stuck. For a solid five minutes I couldn’t decide whether the diction was a reflection of my own sentiments or of the brands. Remember, when working with a company, one must take into account its fanbase, its attitude, and it’s identity. As I sat there writing what I thought was a perfectly good tweet, my co-worker came across the screen and asked me “do you think this would be something our company would say? Is the language and syntax appropriate for our fan base?”
"And like a brick to the face it hit me: I had no idea what my company was supposed to sound like."
I thought I knew: A mixture of the company’s image with my own branding knowledge. But this was not so. The company’s syntax, it seemed, followed a faceless, informative tone which I had no relation too. I had to wonder…Do people act like their favorite brands are people? And if so, do they grow offended when they step out of character? All these thoughts were making it hard to understand my role in this company let alone the twitterverse. I decided to take a break and get some lunch.
“it’s one thing for companies to create content…but quiet another to live and breath content"
While walking in the city, I thought of all the advertisements on the buildings.
This was nothing like social media advertising.
Never before could old mediums take on such a humanistic personality because our personal social tools were far from developed, and broadcasting was way out of the consumers reach.
Snapple couldn’t sponsor a family next door and give it special offers or the day’s fun facts (although they do now).
It wasn’t possible because companies and individuals did not use the same social tools to interact, but now that we do, the balance of power has shifted. Both parties are on the same level.
"If you worked at a company twenty years ago you could have created a billboard but by no means would you have bought one for yourself."
When I returned to the desk, I plopped out something resembling cardboard in the hopes that our fan base wouldn’t be too offended as to miss Thanksgiving dinner and see the children.
The question is: What is the impact of brand personalities that act as though they are a single voice ? Will all brands have full blown personalities in the future? One can already see companies which converse with their fan base like a normal person would (or rather, adapt a tone to reflect their customer). If this trend continues, be prepared to see WholeFood's mood ";)" and favorite movie's in the near future.
I can only hope their is a place for people like me who suffer from this illness...
I think with established, traditional companies it's a compromise. The reason you'd want to stick with a very impersonal tone is the expectation has already been set. You wouldn't expect Coca-Cola, as a company, to start tweeting about their favorite restaurants.
ReplyDeleteThat said, new companies, and companies interested in REALLY taking advantage of social media should adopt a wholly different approach...
As a company, Comcast has no personality. They are a for-profit, corporate entity, and as such should behave and present themselves as unbiased as possible in order to avoid irritating any current or potential customers.
Their employees, on the other hand, are not without personalities. Earlier this year I was having major service outage problems at home. This is when I discovered that Comcast has a presence on Twitter. Not only that, but several employees of Comcast each had their own Twitter accounts, working on behalf of Comcast, and identified as such.
They do not censor what they say, do not hold back their personalities, and thus have become an incredibly effective, personal touch to the customer experience. I dealt with a single person, in natural language, and with the utmost confidence that they, in fact, genuinely wanted to help me.
Social media, in my opinion, is not a change in advertising or branding; rather, it's a wholly new approach to connecting with your customers. A company wouldn't recommend a movie, restaurant, or service to you (other than their own, of course), but an employee most certainly would share that opinion with you.
As long as it's clear that you're a person (by using a personal tone, and not speaking in the third person), I see no reason why you can't present yourself as a human working on behalf of a company, rather than as the company itself.