The Social Network - Play by the Rules



Image via Tom Fishburne: Marketoonist

Every brand, big or small is jumping on the social media wagon thinking it to be the solution to all their problems. What they sometimes forget is that it's not the media which holds the key to great branding, it is how they use that media.

This pic depicts a facebook page for a brand (the cartoon is by Tom Fishburne) and brilliantly sums up the problem that brands high on social media face today. Why should I "like" a page and get updates on my feed if the brand had nothing to offer other than talk about how great it is? Wouldn't you hide the feeds or even block a real person like that?

Right from the start of print ads, engaging the consumer was the most viable part of any campaign and it hasn't changed since then. Brands should find a way to promote themselves not just by bragging about benefits but also offer an incentive to the consumer to make sure she interacts with the brand via the facebook page. Remember that the entire web is vying for her attention and each brand is just a click away!

Social media has done much to humanize brands, more than we ever thought possible. So if your brand was a person and his benefits were say like personal attributes, try building a personality people genuinely like.

1. Don't be shy, rude or boastful.
2. Treat your facebook fans like friends.
3. Be accessible.
4. Have a sense of humor.
5. Share. Don't just dump information.

Crowdsourcing for Flavors

"Vitaminwater is turning to Facebook fans to come up with its next flavor. The Flavorcreator Facebook app, which launched this week and runs through Oct. 20, is designed to crowdsource the company's next product." - reports BrandWeek.

I am sure Vitaminwater has done enough research before spending money on this venture but I could not help think of Henry Ford's famous quote "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses."

I checked out the Vitaminwater Facebook application and found that it demands a lot of time of the user. So if you are looking for the ever elusive involvement quotient, it's high. But I still don't know if this is a good idea. Let's wait and watch.

Focus Group vs. Facebook

According to Nielsen NetView, users are spending more and more time on Facebook. The study suggests that the average US user spends more than 4.5 hours a month on Facebook, beating competitors like AOL, Google, Yahoo and Micrsoft hollow. This obviously explains why everything from the Lexus Convertible to a no-calorie Sweetener is nowadays advertised on the said site.

But Splenda Mist has gone one step further by doing away with focus groups altogether. Yes, the dreaded panel of freebie-lured opinionators is slowly on its way out. Because Facebook offers various advantages.

1. Basic information about the target group is already available.

2. According to Adage, "Facebook offered us the opportunity not only to advertise with a brand message and a product message but also the opportunity to solicit feedback and to have our target raise their hand and say, 'I want to sample this product,'" said Ivy Brown, group product director-Splenda. Which probably explains why Splenda gave away more than 16,000 samples in two weeks when it had hoped to distribute 10,000 samples in 12 weeks.

3. Feedback is interactive and sometimes, in real-time.

4. Reach is easily extended to the friends of the target who signs up for a sample or becomes a fan of the product. The fact that he or she has sampled or joined a fan-base immediately shows up on the news-feed of their Facebook homepage.

But what is in it for Facebook in terms of revenue? Makes sense only if it does this for lots and lots of brands. One niche player like Splenda Mist is not going to bring in the moolah.

Social Media - What are the rules?

Image Credit: Fred Cavazza
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fredcavazza/2564571564/

Click on image to enlarge

On March 1 2009, Skittles gave up their corporate website and replaced it with user-generated content from social websites like Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and You Tube. The result: more than 600,000 fans on facebook, zillions of blog posts and in short, a frenzy amongst netizens or as I call them, "the web-connected". People who are constantly in touch with the virtual world. Just type in skittles social media on Google and you will be bombarded with information on the campaign. The approach is detailed out with screen shots and charts, the pros and cons are discussed in excruciating details and the campaign is praised and shot down in equal measure.

The Result:

Brand Presence - Unprecedented. Check out any of the blogs that come up on your google search. The world "skittles" have more mention than the financial crisis, says one post.

Numbers - Short term sales are likely to be impacted but like in all fads, long-term gains are debatable.

Drawback - Lack of monitoring has resulted in brand abuse in some cases and irrelevant references to the brand in others.

The last point is not very desirable, right? Social Media when used randomly can prove to be fatal for a brand because you don't pay for it so you can't monitor it. It is unearned brand talk and like most things "unearned", quite "uncontrollable" as well.

Television channels seem to have a somewhat handle on the problem. For e.g., when you watch a news program on CNN, they give you the opportunity to blog, email, twitter or facebook it. Then they screen the comments in real-time and only the relevant ones show up on your TV. I prefer the lack of abusive or inane content. Also, if you want the audiences' point of view on a particular subject, opinion polling is a cakewalk. No phone calls, no jammed lines. Just the touch of a button on the screen of your phone or computer.

As with all emerging media, there are no set rules yet and the applications are mind-boggling but instead of dumping the conventional media altogether, it makes sense to use both. Every brand has its unique personality. After all, it wouldn't be very nice if all your facebook page had was comments from other people. You want to say stuff about yourself too!