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The Problem With Social Media

TheProblemWithSocialMedia

Instagram now says it can republish and sell the photos users post on the platform without paying them or even notifying them, and this re-introduces the perennial problem of social media: you do not own your own channels. So you created a Facebook page for your business or organization and have spent years building up thousands of fans and populated that page with tons of fantastic content? Well, it could all disappear in a moment…on a whim of Facebook. But it’s not just Facebook. Whether you’re on Twitter or Tumblr or Pinterest or Pheed or whatever hot new social platform – a change in terms of service or a glitch or outage or a perceived violation in user agreement and you’re thrown out in the cold, content-less, identity-less.

The author/software developer Reginald Braithwaite, in translating Instagram’s new terms of service, pretty much perfectly explained social media as a whole: “You are not our customers, you are the cattle we drive to market and auction off to the highest bidder. Enjoy your feed and keep producing the milk.” I’ve talked about this before, but every instance like this is a reminder of just exactly how little control we have over what might happen to channels that we work so hard to develop and engage customers through.

But there is an easy solution: use social media as channels to engage your audience, yes, but, more importantly, use it to direct them back to your actual property: your website or blog. Those are the only places where you have control over what gets seen and how it’s presented. Almost all the content you post or share on social media should have a home on your actual website. I’m in a band, so I’ll use that metaphor: Think of social media platforms as venues where your band performs. You travel to the venue, play your show, hang out with your fans, but that’s all. You don’t store your instruments and equipment there, you don’t live in the basement of the venue. You may go play the same venue a number of times – but, if it closes down, it’s really no substantial loss to you because the venue is only a means through which you send your message. The band still has their albums, their merchandise, their band image that they can then go share (sell) at any other venue.

So, in this (only semi-applicable) metaphor, here’s what’s important: Be a rock star. Wait, no, that’s not it. The point is to have the hub for your content, your reputation, your online brand image somewhere you can control it, where you own it. Use Facebook, Twitter, etc. to go play your rock show, hang out with your fans, tell them about cool stuff – but always send them back to the hub: your website or blog.

2012: 12/18
CATEGORY: Social Media
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The Power of Presence

That’s the name of the new ad campaign for the Range Rover Evoque. The first commercial I saw for it (below) really does illustrate that power – both in the original context (physically in NYC) and in the secondary context (the commercial seen on the web).

Though I wouldn’t quite call this a PR stunt, it is a clever, though simplistic, approach to launching a product. One of the best things about the marketing strategy here is that there is no attempt to control or influence the message. It’s just a “here it is” approach that displays a “and we’re know you’re gonna like it” kind of confidence in the product.

Their method also works well to translate word-of-mouth buzz generation to online buzz generation. I like that (except in the time-lapse shots) the focus is as much on the people and their reactions as it is on the SUV. And, the commercial as film has some nice touches – some tilt-shift, some nice cinematography and some great shots of NYC. All around, this one is a win. I just wish they would only use this one instead of some of the other edited-down versions of this commercial that just don’t do it justice.

And all this got me thinking about this concept, the power of presence, in relation to social media. ‘Cause it’s sorta the same thing: you’re giving people something to “look at” that represents your brand or organization. And what you’re giving better be 1) interesting and engaging and 2) less about you and more about them. The same way that many of the shots in this commercial focus on the people walking up to check out the car, the focus of any good social media campaign should be on the customer. Listen to them, watch their reactions, highlight them…all to the end of giving them what they want. And, it sure won’t hurt if you’re a bit flashy (but tasteful) with the content you’re putting out there.

2012: 04/02
CATEGORY: Advertising
Social Media
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The awkward arrival of augmented reality

The best thing about being on the cutting edge of implementing new technology is that it’s pretty damn exciting. The worst thing about being on the cutting edge of figuring out how new technology will be most successfully implemented is that it’s insanely challenging. If I was a bajillionaire, I’d have like five think tanks that would work nonstop on new ideas I threw at them. But I’m not and I don’t, so I guess I get to do the brainstorming myself.

Image recognition (yes, QR codes are already outdated) and Augmented Reality (AR) on mobile devices are two of the new technologies that make the neurons in my brain start firing so fast that I can’t even keep up with my own thoughts. Ben and Jerry’s is the first company I’ve seen yet (see the video below) who is using them in a way that I think will be pretty successful from a marketing/promotional angle. What they are doing is super cool, and I’m probably going to download the app even though I don’t eat ice cream.

However, when I see what they’re doing, I realize it’s only a crude preview of what this technology is capable of, what it will become and, most importantly, what it will be used for. Here you see it used on a mobile phone, but just imagine what AR on an iPad could be, and I’m not talking about for silly cartoonish purposes…I mean for – well, I’ve got some ideas, but you don’t get to hear them. I want to keep my competitive edge, after all. Now I feel like I shouldn’t even be showing you this video. In fact, forget that you even read this post.

2011: 05/23
CATEGORY: Technology
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Social media and valuable communication

I just was reading an article that argues that your company’s Facebook or Twitter can’t make users feel like valued customers. I would change that statement slightly to make it more accurate: your company’s Facebook or Twitter alone can’t make users feel like valued customers. The digital marketing firm Razorfish just put out a report based on a study it conducted, and the findings indicate that “Across the board, consumers cited ‘feeling valued’ as the most important element of brand engagement,” which leads them to conclude that “companies should worry less about building out numerous channels and touchpoints and more about ensuring each customer interaction communicates value.” Social media can help customers feel valued as long as there is other value offered, whether that be service or content or whatever your business provides.

The challenge now with Facebook is that on most users’ News Feed, so many updates are coming in at such a high rate that a user doesn’t process much of that information—and even more of it the user doesn’t even see. The growing inundation of useless information and advertisements on Facebook may eventually lead to a dramatic shift in what people use the site for. It may become viewed as less reliable for important communications – and I think that’s why we should not abandon traditional websites and email.

The (Instant) Information Age has overloaded all of us, and for a business or organization to be successful, we need to give our customers less noise and more meaning. That means targeted (and less frequent) email blasts, meted out Twitter and Facebook updates, useful and continually updated content on the company web page, well-thought out and insightful videos or podcasts and an overall more intentional approach to digital communications.

Addendum 2/4/11:

In an article about entrepreneurs and their relationship to social media, I ran across an interesting quote from blogger Mark Henricks:

It’s not considered important enough to engage [entrepreneurs’] attention at this point. And I don’t believe there are sufficient success stories with social media for that to change soon. It’s interesting to speculate whether social media will remain vibrant long enough for it to be of great importance to the vast majority of small businesses. So many large corporations and sophisticated marketers are moving into the space so rapidly that it seems possible that it will become pervasively commercialized much more quickly than the Web at large.

He raises the relevant question of just how much time an entrepreneur should spend on social media. However, I don’t think that “whether social media will remain vibrant” is something to speculate about. Social media will continue to evolve, but it’s not going away anytime soon.