R. Ethan Smith

Social Media BS: Brand Engagement

FYI:  This is one of those posts that could easily be understood as a snark-fest.  I promise, I don’t intend for it to be that way.  I just want you to understand that people are much better at judging a company/brand’s intentions than “marketers” give them credit for.

I don’t like social media.  I hate the term, I hate how the term is used, and I believe that if you are doing “social media marketing” you are already losing.  I think most “social media experts” complicate the social web in such a way that they actually cause their clients to lose the sense of authenticity and originality that is so necessary.

On the other hand, I like Twitter, I like Facebook, I like blogs, and I think that they, along with others, can be extremely effective tools to inform and interact with customers.

Marketers have coined the term “brand engagement” to refer to a brands purpose and activity across platforms on the social web.  Their stringent and unnecessary rules and how-to guides call for brands to create brand pages on all relevant social platforms, to create content for their niche, to respond to all inquiries/mentions, to make funny videos that will go viral, and to just engage, engage, engage, whatever that really means any more.  The social web was, and still is, a series of platforms that allow everyone to become media-makers and content creators.  To place this exciting open frontier into such a small and confined box is a bit disheartening and completely boring, especially to consumers.

I would submit that brand engagement, as it is largely done now, does not work as a strategy anymore.  The general public is privy to the formula.  If your intent is to do marketing, you need to know that the average consumer is smart enough to realize it.  What happens when consumers know they are being marketed to?  The ignore.  If you need proof, look no further than the incredibly low conversion rate of display advertising on the web.  Still not convinced?  Ask anyone that uses a DVR how many commercials they watch.

My suspicion is at this point, and on a much grander scale in the future, that people don’t want to engage with a brand, people want to engage with people - who may happen to represent a brand.  A ^name tag to appended to a tweet doesn’t work anymore.  ”Engagement” at all levels needs to get real and get personal.

So, what does this look like?  

It looks like @ExpressLisaG, the CMO of Express.  People know she works at Express and that she shares a lot of information about the company’s newest lines and trends.  People also know that she is human because she also share information about her life, travels, meetings, etc.  

It looks like @thatdrew who unabashedly owns up to working for the company that developed the TextPlus app.  In addition to his pro-texting skills and ability to get his followers excited/evangelized about TextPlus, he also causes a nice corner of the web to have a case of the lolz thanks to his comical/real/raw/caring commentary on life.  

It looks like whoever else out there is a brand/product evangelist that mixes business with pleasure (@dens (4sq), @louisgray (My6Sense), @Hup (iSocket), @jonsteinberg (BuzzFeed)), representing themselves and their lives as well as their company.

People don’t connect with brands, people connect with people.  Just ask Oprah.