How brands should be better than people on social media.
Article by Emily Shaw
Shiny, happy people
There’s rather a pithy saying going round at the moment, ‘you’re never as ugly as your passport photo or as good looking as your profile picture.’ It’s funny because it’s true. Most profile pictures are chosen very carefully. They’re the most flattering, they don’t ‘try too hard’, they show us looking relaxed, healthy, wealthy and most importantly, happy.
If you think about it, a lot of the content people generate (and consume) on social media is staged to some extent. Think about status updates. While you do get a couple of friends who seem not to have got the social dynamic of what is acceptable and what isn’t, the majority of people post carefully. If they’re normally pleasant, they’re saccharine in their updates, the foulest mouthed in reality will asterisk out cuss words and if someone is quite excited about going to a concert, they’ll tell you where they’re sitting, with whom and how much the tickets cost. In upper case.
They’re faking a bit, aren’t they? And in turn, so are you and so am I when we say the show was ‘enjoyable’ when it was boring, the party ‘awesome’ when it was passable and when we upload photos that hide our double chins. Yet no one ever calls people on their fakery on social media.
The truth hurts
Imagine if you were following the conversation thread on Facebook between two women. Let’s call them Anna and Bella.
Anna has posted a picture of herself in her new jeans. She captions it:
‘Nothing beats a pair of Guess jeans.’
Now imagine if Bella came along and posted beneath it:
‘Anna! Those aren’t Guess! We bought them yesterday at that factory store, remember? 505 off!
No one would do that, even if they thought it. Because among us social media dwellers, there is a common understanding that, as humans, we are flawed. We allow each other our idiosyncrasies, our small triumphs (however false). In doing so, it has bred a generally happy and positive atmosphere on social media.
Enter the brands
Unlike how humans on Facebook forgive other humans for their fakery, they will not forgive companies for cover ups. To have the privilege of speaking to people on a very direct, informal level, brands need to up the integrity stakes. If ever it were important for a brand to be ‘human’ it is now and it is in this space.
If your old friend Jennifer from school tweets about her ‘blissful weekend’ while you know for a fact her marriage is on the rocks, it isn’t seen as untrue. People can pretend everything is fine when it might not be, but brands simply cannot.
Had a fight with a friend? It might sting for a few weeks but if it’s a friendship worth saving you’ll forgive and forget. Find a roach in your favourite burger from the brand you’ve been patronising for years? You’ll probably never go back.
As soon as there is obligation, there is very little mercy. As consumers we are always bemoaning our fate as the victim of giant brands and of being dictated to by the media and celebrities. But what if we looked at the rest of the world with our social media attitudes?
Kim Kardashian was married for 72 days. When she announced her divorce, she asked that the public give her and her family space to come to terms with the emotional upheaval. The public and paparazzi ignored her and continue to hound her and speculate about her misfortune – most often derisively. And the reason they and we do it could simply be because she SOLD us her wedding. The E! Entertainment special was sold for millions of dollars and Kardashian was paid to be a bride by various other suppliers. If we had bought into the brand by watching the show and buying the magazines with her pictures in them, we feel slighted by the divorce. We demand to know. It’s our right. Because just like Nestle couldn’t cover up the orang-utan debacle, the Kim Kardashian brand can’t pretend it’s ok either.
The moral of the story is, if you’re a brand in this space, be honest and open and ready to admit your mistakes. Don’t ignore us and don’t cover up. Your refreshing openness will be received gladly and you may even start working towards the holy grail of branding on social media: that of making friends of your fans and followers.
UPDATE: Emily beat Trendwatching.com to the post – they’ve just identified being ‘flawsome‘ as a trend for brands in 2012.
