Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Social Tuesday - Your Brand is not a Social Media Rock Star

Unless of course you are a Rock Star!

With all the Social Media Talking Heads trying to con Brands into thinking that Social Media is such a game changer for Sales in hopes of raking in Speaking Fees and Selling Books, does their Yapping hold up to reality? No of course not. 

I have blogged about why Social is not in the C Suite of Major Brands. LINK
I have blogged about why we don't care about your Brand being on Social. LINK 
Unless of course we are pissed and then you had better be. LINK

But the question comes down to why. Why do we on average only engage with about 4 Brands regularly via Social Media? Seriously think of the hundreds of Brands in your life today all around you. How many will you engage with via Social Media today? Do a test. Count them after you read this. Remember almost every Brand now has a Facebook Page or Twitter Account. Count them.

I think the reason is passion. 

We are passionate about a lot of things in our life. But very few Brands are we passionate about. And even fewer are we so passionate that we want to engage with them during our day. I might love surfing or rock climbing and have specific gear I am sold on. But it's the sport not the gear I am most passionate about. So here are some recent observances to prove my point:


The Chemical Brothers have 755,000 Fans on Facebook and got 270 Engagements in 15 minutes from a post.


Doritos with 5 million fans posted this on Jan 16th and I took this snapshot on Jan 28th. 723 Engagements in 12 Days!


World reknowned DJ Sasha has 166,000 Fans and got 135 Engagements in 3 Hours.


McDonalds has 7.1 million fans and had 918 Engagements in 3 Days.


The Glitch Mob has 95,000 Fans and got 777 Engagements in 3 hours.

But some Brands truly drive passion. But this is rare.


Volcom Clothing has 1.15million fans and had over 1500 Engagements in 17 hours yesterday. I am passionate about Volcom. Though as with any Facebook post I did not see this because we only see 5-10% of Posts in our stream on a good day!

The moral of this story is people are never going to be as passionate about your Brand as you you feel they are. You compete with a lot of things in people's lives. There are priorities. Many consumer Brands are beloved and bought and used by loyal dedicated customers, but just because you are now using Social Media does not mean you will be elevated above a Band or someones best friend.

Remember Social Communication Technology is a Revolution in Interpersonal Communication. Not a Revolution in Marketing. 

At any moment Brands can be locked out of the conversation. People will be migrating to new networks and take more of their discussions private, which is going to happen. So the best advice you can have because a Facebook Page or Twitter Account is not going to impact a big Brand the way the Talking Head you overpaid for advice told you:

Stick to the three pillars of excellence Great Product, Right Price, Great Customer Service.

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