As of September 2014:
- 71% of online adults use Facebook
- 23% of online adults use Twitter
- 26% use Instagram
- 28% use Pinterest
- 28% use LinkedIn
Just because there is an “app for that” doesn’t mean you have to utilize it in your marketing strategy. There are some social media sites that are just not appropriate for a business to utilize and would have little to no effect on the consumer.
Social media is more than just throwing content at an audience and hoping it sticks. We must humanize our brand. The more we put our message out into the world, the less control we have over it. It is important to humanize our brand as it begins to share around the viral world. The humanized message helps to build awareness, trustworthiness, and emotion among the consumers. The more relatable your brand can be the more people will relate.
Taco Bell has a great campaign going with Twitter. They use light hearted, witty banter to humanize their brand and to engage not only their customers but other brands. They are utilizing hashtags, promoting their products, and having fun on their account. They are connecting with their customers and humanizing their brand.
Pinterest is a social media site where brands can really humanize themselves and drive traffic to their website. Because the travel industry thrives on pictures to sell their destinations the Travel Channel does a great job utilizing Pinterest to reach their audience. Not only are they pinning images to Pinterest focusing on their featured destinations and online content but they are also posting food, fashion, cultures, and more from around the world. By diversifying their content on Pinterest they are reaching a larger potential group of users. Travel Channel also knows who their target audience is and is going after it. Women are the buying influences when it comes to making travel decisions and Pinterest’s user demographic is majority women based. This connection allows the Travel Channel to reach more women in a space that they are frequenting.
While there are some great social media marketing campaigns circling the viral world, there are also some poorly planned out campaigns also.
Good in theory but poor in execution McDonald’s utilized the hashtag #mcdstories as a way for customers to share their love of the long lived fast food giant. However, what McDonald’s did not anticipate was how many horror stories they would receive regarding food quality, poor treatment of employees, and gross restaurant conditions. What was expected to be a happy hashtag turned into an encouraged bashing of McDonald’s. While I can appreciate the humanization McDonald’s encouraged I do not think they expected how human the responses would be.
Auto-tweeting is a huge way to dehumanize your brand. Brands need to realize that not everything everyone says about you on social media is sunshine and rainbows. American Airlines had an auto-reply in place on Twitter and again, while good in theory, poor in execution. Brands need to remember that not every response they receive on social media will be pleasant. And while the auto reply can help brands respond to each customer it is not always the most appropriate way to handle a situation and can result in actually dehumanizing the brand.
Just tonight during the Super Bowl, Coke-Cola did a wonderful branding campaign to humanize their company. They took the viral issue of cyber-bullying and put it on display for all of the Super Bowl viewers to watch. The commercial showed several teen and pre-teen aged kids bullying each other through social media. A server technician accidentally knocked over his Coke into one of the servers and the Coke began to change the cyber bullying messages into positive, uplifting messages. Coke did a great job humanizing an issues and bringing it to the forefront of their consumers. By humanizing a real life issues Coke is able to relate to their consumer. This could be the beginning of an online campaign for Coke to stand up against cyber bullying amongst teens.
Other brands have taken real life issues and humanized them as well. AT&T did a great job with its viral “It Can Wait” campaign – an anti-texting campaign. They developed a smartphone app that blocks all incoming text messages when your car is traveling over 15 MPH and it will even send an auto response to the sending letting them know you are unable to respond due to driving. They also developed the Safely Go app which allows you to shut your phone off while driving but will still collect text messages and phone calls so you can respond when you are not behind the wheel. Lastly, they created a hashtag, #X, which you can send to people via text message or social media that will alert people you are driving and unable to respond. The expectation is you send this to someone or post it to social media to alert your friends that you are driving and unable to respond. By taking a real world issue viral AT&T humanized their brand and was able to relate to their customers.
Humanizing your brand and relating to your consumers is the first step in incorporating social media into your everyday marketing strategy. Having your consumers see you as a person(s) and not just a dollar sign makes you less disposable to the consumer.
I too think it is so very important for a brand—especially large brands with huge followings—to bring to light a societal issue to the forefront and try to help battle the issue. I love that you brought up the “It Can Wait” campaign. I work for an insurance company, every day we see another claim that involved a driver that was texting and driving. It is so tragic and to think it’s because someone HAD to send a message so bad they were willing to risk their lives and the lives of others to do it. Once you’re in the industry for a while you quickly learn that NO message is worth it.
ReplyDeleteI’ll be honest I used to be a horrible texter and driver. But after following the campaign some and starting to work for an insurance company, I have since downloaded the “It Can Wait” app and no longer do I text and drive. My company has partnered with AT&T to help advocate the importance of putting down your phone. At any event we will pass out phone covers with the “It Can Wait” logo on it, sticker’s for you car and even koozies, of all things.
I love when companies are able to make a difference like that. I missed the Coca-Cola commercial you are speaking about but it sounds like such an uplifting and empowering commercial. I know recently McDonalds has received a lot of flak for their new commercials, but I love them. They had one commercial with local McDonald’s signs from around the world that highlighted a certain event like a local’s birthday or a wedding in the community. I love that! I think it brings a sense of pride to a town. The “pay with love” idea? ADORABLE. It does exactly what you say companies should do—it humanizes them. And being able to relate to your audience in a real way is so important for businesses. It draws people into the brand itself. They feel like “hey man, they get it” and that feeling translates to the all mighty dollar.
Great post and great points :)