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. 

Nowhere to hide- Role reversal in consumerism

What we as consumers know and what we want has changed.

We are labelled by what we consume and what we consume is stamped with our own identity trial. There are new expectations in the world of consumerism. Consumers are becoming producers in their own ‘brand’ new world.

Consumers are in search of a branded identity; and therefore consumption choices are dictated by what we stand for, or maybe it is what we want to stand for. There is no room for deception or disguise. Consumers are increasingly savvy. We are smart and will therefore make a choice lead by authenticity and trust. This behaviour applies in the real world as much as it does in the virtual world.

We are living in the age of corporate transparency, harnessed by the rapid development of the virtual world and online social networking. In this world of social networking there is no room for error, or mistake, because the spread of communication is instantaneous. Word of mouth is a powerful force. We don’t just look at brands, we look into them and we judge them. We consume them and assume their identity in doing so. Simultaneously, our identity is transferred to the brand. 

The role of consumerism has been reversed from the heady days of mass marketing to the smarter way of mass customisation, appealing to the individual as a single profitable resource. Selling one product to everyone on a mass scale has disappeared to the development of the individual market campaign. Where we collaborate with the corporation to produce a customised offer tailored to suit our own needs.

Through consumption, we as consumers construct an open curtain. This revealing habit established through consumption, allows technology to track our habits, motives and record and store information for various continuous analysis. In this way, we too are more transparent in our behaviours and motives than ever. This relationship dynamic between the consumer and the corporation is very much based on trust and delivered through the interface of brands.

Corporations have a new power, which is stronger than ever to develop products and services that nurtures loyalty and meets our specific requirements. This power is found by observing and being close to the consumer, understanding the consumer at a new depth and monitoring their behaviour in order to allow mass customisation.

Brands are the gateway between the consumer world and the corporate world and they hold a bold responsibility not to let us down. Corporations have the ability to make a positive impact on society with strengthened ethical and moral standards. Technology can take this message throughout the consumer world and similarly throughout the virtual world in an instant. Brands therefore have to be genuine to the core as there is no room for disguise or deceit.