There are the sorts of blogs that are calm, reasoned observations of the world. Then there are the other ones - the acid-fuelled rants that come off a bit like Michael Douglas in “Falling Down”. Apologies, but this is probably going to be one of the latter.
And it’s all been triggered by such a little thing – seeing a line on the bottom of some posters for cereals and chocolate bars instructing me to “follow us on Facebook”.
So, let’s get this clear…you’re a cereal and you want me to add you to an intimate portal of my life where I share laughter, fun and interesting experiences with my friends?
Just to remind you of your role in life – you’re a breakfast cereal: your job is to get half a pint of semi-skimmed poured on top of you each morning. What are you going to do with me on Facebook? Tell me what movies you’ve enjoyed recently? Invite me out for a drink?
Now, I’m not arguing that there isn’t a place for brands in the social media playground - that would be self-evidently insane given its potency and importance in our post-digital age. But in order to play with me in this universe, you need to engage me, entice me, fascinate me…not just tell me to follow you.
It’s the equivalent of people walking round holding big placards inviting strangers to “please be my friend on Facebook” – it’d obviously make them look like friendless losers. It also smacks of Social Media tokenism – just whack a Facebook logo on there and it looks like you’re “down with the kids” and you’ve got that all-important SM box ticked off.
I think we need to distinguish here between putting a web address on a poster and a Facebook request. One is merely providing people with a link where they can access information, another is asking in a bare-faced way to become part of people’s lives.
In essence, there’s no doubt that, as marketing professionals, we need to find a way to engage people in the Social Media environment. I just happen to think we need to be a whole lot subtler in how we go about it.
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