Disconnect #1
After writing a blog and
using Facebook and Twitter for awhile, I am starting to see why some people are
confused with social media.
Twitter, for example,
has a split personality. Some
people, about 45%, use it for telling what they’re doing; while another 40% are
trying to engage in conversation.
Then there’s the 5% news, 5% spam and 5% other. Basically, Twitter is half babble, half
branding.
It’s disorienting when
you open up a Twitter home page and are confronted with a big “What are you
doing?” You might think it’s none
of your damn business, and second, how are you going to help me brand my
business?
I believe it is this
split personality that makes it hard to get a handle on Twitter, and to connect
the dots, so you can appreciate it’s branding potential.
Disconnect #2
Most of you have
probably also heard the social media mantra, “to succeed you need to provide
content that has real value.” It
sounds like a cop-out.
But, the mantra is
true. The problem is that there is
often a disconnect between what a brand manager thinks is real value and what
the reader thinks it is.
For example, a brand
manager might post a link on Twitter or Facebook for a press release about
their hot new product. They might
think this level of marketing is OK.
On the other hand, the reader may be thinking “this is a pitch,” — too
much like selling or spam.
The bottom line is brand
and marketing managers need to walk in their customer’s shoes if they are going
to successfully use social media to talk about their brand.
Please comment on this
blog.
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thoughts @
twitter.com/BrandingComm or visit us on Facebook.
#branding #social media
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