Thursday, September 9, 2010

Have some brands gone too far in their use of social media?


My university, like most universities has a portal, which is intended to be used as gateway communication between lecturers and students. I happily engage with this server every semester to make sure a fluid channel of communication is kept between my lecturers and me. I don’t share the information with my friends. This portal behaviour is private to me and is kept between the university and me only.

However recently one of my courses decided that instead of connecting with me on the university portal, it would set up a Facebook group and engage with me using the platform of social media. This meant I would have to become friends with my university course code. Not something which appealed to me in the slightest.

Over the last few months I have grown aware of the dominating presence of corporations and brands joining Facebook. Become friends with Air New Zealand (47 friends to date) or Coles (a little more promising, with 1500 friends). The question is why do we want to be friends or ‘like’ every brand we use. Why do I need to accept friend or group requests from companies and brands from my external environment?

Have some brands gone too far in their use of social media?

Suddenly I feel obligated to become friends with my university, when really I don’t want too. Facebook is not a popularity contest to display narcissistic behaviour; I can become friends with everyone! I do accept this may be the aim of some users out there. However I believe Facebook is a transparent forum, a mediated relationship builder between those groups or people that you want to share with. Not those you feel you have to share with.

I have considered establishing an alter ego, a Facebook identity to shelter my real self from the damaging friendships I have to establish from those friends I truly value. Sure, there are groups I wish to engage with, brands which I am loyal too and unashamedly accept into my life. But there are aspects of my social life, my private life, which I want to keep private from the brands that co-exist in my virtual habitat.

What I use and don’t use in the physical world is as much a private matter as it is in the virtual world. I happily use Kleenex toilet roll for the cute puppies on the T.V ad and the habitual relationship established from my childhood. However I do not and I will not become friends with my toilet roll on Facebook.

Should social media be adopted by every corporation, every brand, and every product on the market? Is the trend to use social media as a self-promotional tool so blinding that marketers have forgotten how to understand the consumer? Brands should endeavour to create meaningful relationships with their consumers. They should create value through communication channels that suite their users, not connect with their users because they are on Facebook.

Are corporations forgetting the basic principals of consumer behaviour and engagement?  I believe brands need to be aware about how and where they connect with consumers, asking wether or not this connection is relevant to the relationship.

I refuse to become friends with my course code or my airline of preference; there are other channels in my virtual or physical world, which are designed to supplement my experiences and relationships with them. Corporations and brands alike need to remember that just because the social media channel exists does not mean it should be used. Understand the consumer, analyse their behaviour, see what methods of communication are effective in reaching them. If Facebook is the right method of starting the conversation between brands and consumers it needs to be done in away that does not offend or disrupt the current relationship.