What Marketers Miss About Social Media
The Bruno Movie, starring Sacha Baron Cohen, has a Facebook page and a Twitter page. These destinations have been created for fans to get more Bruno content.
But what happens when the hype machine dies down? The Bruno brand is no longer active, and therefore, is lost to the ether that is “The Internet”. The Bruno social media presence is now lost. But how do you keep fans activated after a brand has dissolved?
This is what I think marketers miss about social media: that loyalty does not die after a brand has become irrelevant. Loyalty CAN be extended beyond a brand’s grave.
These brands are not long term entities: they exist for less than a year (or less than a few years, if they’re very lucky). The entities that have long term potential are the performers themselves. I would rather have brand loyalty for a director of a film, or an actor in a film, rather than the film itself. I would like to get more content about a TV or Film project from the people involved with the project, rather than a marketer. I think that is more genuine.
In my stream of content (in Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed, etc), I want to increase my signal-to-noise ratio. I want less spam, and more genuine content. I feel that marketers see social media as a way to push a brand, rather than adding additional content to a brand (but there exceptions).
My main question to marketers is this: why should I follow you on social media? What do I get out of it? Just being in those arenas for the sake of being “hip”, I feel, is not reason enough. There should be a reason why I need to keep you in my consciousness. Coca-Cola has a Facebook page, but why should I get your content? What is the reason to having you in my stream of content? There is so much noise out there, why should I be giving you my attention?
My message to Marketers is this: give me a reason to keep you in my stream of content. Internet users are digesting so much content a day, that they are leaving media sites that have too much noise. Give us a reason to stick around.
