This post was written by Troy Janisch and Mark Anderson. Both contributors have two decades of digital marketing experience and lead social-media activities at American Family Insurance, a Fortune 300 company. Janisch blogs at SocialMeteor.com and Anderson shares his art at Doodlehaus.com.
Many companies judge social networks’ value by what they can get out of them. In reality, the value that these networks provide is better judged by what a company puts into them.
And sometimes, that amounts to very little.
The bulk of outgoing brand communications are self-centered: press releases, company announcements, product information, links to a company blog, company-oriented retweets and sweepstakes that are more focused on collecting e-mail addresses than rewarding followers. Companies fill their Facebook wall and Twitter stream with selfish content and wonder why their presence on social networks isn’t driving customer interaction, recommendations, publicity or purchases.
Social-media pro Tara Hunt, author of “The Power of Social Networking: Using the Whuffie Factor to Build Your Business” and co-founder of Shwowp.com, said self-serving communications have little value on the social Web. “The greatest value activities are human activities: falling in love; being sad; being happy; getting a new job; eating the best bologna sandwich of your life, reliving a childhood memory; being proud of your kids,” Hunt said. “These activities let people in. They tell people who we are. They identify how we differ and how we are similar. Ultimately, they connect us.”
An important aspect of socializing any brand is humanizing it. Consumers “like” and “follow” brands that they can identify with. Humanizing your brand means “loosening the reigns” and expressing your brand’s personality:
- Favor a human voice over a brand voice. There’s a lot of talk among marketers about establishing a “brand voice.” Often, this means responding professionally, consistently and without emotion. It’s not human. On social networks, it’s OK to use an exclamation point! Common social phrases such as “check this out,” are better than “read more.” Sharing “congrats” is better than sharing “congratulations.”
- Consider the “social mission.” The things you care about define who you are online. What kinds of things can your company contribute to social networks that aren’t specifically related to your products? How can you make the community smarter about your industry? What information can you share that doesn’t mention your products? You fans already know what your company does. Chances are, they can find your website when they’re ready to buy something. What other contribution can you make? The causes supported by your company (and the passions expressed by it) are a meaningful part of its social profile.
- Connect to human emotion and milestones. Help your fans celebrate good times and endure bad times. Find ways to connect to the milestones in their life: Birthdays, vacations, their family, their job, their personal dreams, the frustrations they have on social networks. If you’re going to distribute coupons, tie them to your customer’s lives.
- Use the social elements Facebook provides. Your customers are on these networks for one reason — to initiate social interaction. Allow reviews, discussions, and polls. Adjust your Facebook setting so that fans can share their own photos and video.
- Show human a human face — literally. If you’re not using human faces on your Facebook page or as your Twitter avatar, regularly post photos of employees, customers and company-sponsored events. At most, they should be “one click away” on social-network pages. The more they get to know your brand, the more followers want to see the faces connected to who they are talking to.
- Use the “delete” key sparingly. Humanizing your brand means tolerating negative sentiment on Facebook. Test the tolerance of your brand to accept critical posts. If your brand has 300 or more active fans, it’s possible — maybe even likely – that one of them will respond to criticism on your behalf. Give your fans an opportunity to come to your defense. As a last resort, if your brand is uncomfortable with this, you can set the default view of its Facebook wall so that only the company’s comments appear by default.
- Align your brand with others. Gain fans by sharing your fans with other brands. Peer relationships are an important aspect of social networking. For companies, this means social networks are an ideal environment to explore co-branding. Brand partnerships aren’t new. For ideas, visit a grocery store, and you’ll see dozens of examples. Promote brands that your customers like. Ask those brands to promote your brand to their customers. Research shows that both brands will receive increased awareness, consideration and brand lift. It’s the commercial equivalent of “friending” or “liking” another brand.
Brand that hide their human aspects behind layers of advertising, packaged messaging and control find it difficult to gather momentum and achieve results on social platforms. Hunt, named one of the most influential women in technology by Fast Company magazine in 2009, said brands need to stop treating customers like second-rate citizens. They need to stop designing for monetization and start designing for people.
“I’m not getting sucked into your sales funnel, dude.” she said. “This is a long-term relationship.”
Image Credit: Mark Anderson
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Really interesting information – especially agree with creating a more personal, human atmosphere around a companies profile
Love the drawing. Great work.
As a community manager for businesses in the high-tech sector, I've been mulling over best practices for brand representation in social media for some time now. I understand that it is best for brands to be as human as possible when connecting with others in social forums. They need to express themselves in ways that are relatable to other's experiences and emotions, respond to others and share intriguing content. However, after reading a substantial amount of content on the subject, I'm not sure that I'm convinced that a brand can be completely human, and so perhaps it is not a best practice for brands to go to extremes in sharing their love, sadness, happiness, food preferences etc. In my opinion, I think brands should use social media primarily to demonstrate thought-leadership in an industry by furthering conversations with insightful information, case studies and other experiences. What do you think?
I work in new media for a large university, where posts that are too personal could cause problems. We deal with people of all ages, ethnicities, and beliefs, and what we're selling is our university. Will students be more likely to come because I like tomatoes? Wlll alumni be more willing to donate if they know I'm sad about my car accident?
I believe the problem is that we're confusing "personal" with "personable." It's possible to be personable without ever delving into the personal, just as we may find people who become too personal not personable at all.
Personable makes another feel comfortable, cared about, and respected, and that's the road I think we should be taking, whether we're thought leaders or not.
I agree Lsc, personable definitely makes people feel comfortable. Although I think personal, as you describe it, does too. I don't care about your love of tomatoes, per se, but the story of how you grow tomatoes in the backyard and how that relates to something specific about the university is much more engaging than just the "about the university" part.
For most service companies — law firms, consultants, universities, etc. — the stuff they sell is nearly identical to the competition. Specific stories make the institution feel human and as Troy and Mark point out, it has a lot to do with who I decide to do business with.
Thanks for posting; all the best,
Michael
My recent post “Targeted” Marketing
Hi Alexandria, Happy Holidays!
I think when brands align themselves with human issues/causes it is of benefit no matter how big or small the brand is. I agree with what you say when it comes to matters of "food preferences" and "small unimportant issues". Business's sharing and publicizing their commitment to non profits and needs of the community is postive almost in all cases. If you look at fortune 100 mission statements and charters, most all align themselves with donations and contributions of the Company and their employees to service and civic organizations. It brings a "human side" to the Company. The "old school" definition of this was "institutional advertising" I think it is a "best practive" to communicating positive contributions the brand makes to social causes on social sites. However, keep it brief and relevant.
Especially for those of us over the age of 30, who didn't grow up naturally sharing online with peers, it can be intimidating to open yourself up online and share more of your personal side — after all if you just stick to the business facts it leaves less room for critics. However with that said, the more I share of myself online, the more potential clients feel I am approachable. In fact, I just got back from a biz dev meeting with a potential new client who found me after he read a community essay I wrote for SignOnSanDiego about the housing market and recession. It had nothing to do with my Internet Marketing books or consulting company, but he ended up feeling a connection and wanting to do business with me.
While consulting for major brands like Verizon, we found ways to personalize the company through personalizing the employee blogs and customer support. Although from legal's point of view, attaching a real person's face and bio to part of the company's brand/mission can be risky, in the end, it gives customers a more personal, real, and trustworthy connection to the company. They know there are real people willing to put their own face forward.
Whether you are marketing for a major brand, or yourself, I agree, personalization is key to gaining customer trust.
My recent post Using Online Communities to Assist with Customer Support
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Great post. I agree that if you're going to interact with others on social media you need to sound human….it's about socializing. On social media you are now speaking on a more personal level than to a mass public like you do with advertisements. http://www.adrianagallegos.com
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[...] 7 ways to show your customers that you’re human Too often, social-media marketers act like robots designed simply to suck users into a sales relationship, write Troy Janisch and Mark Anderson. That’s counterproductive — it’s far better to act like a human being, showing real emotion and designing for people rather than for monetization, they note. “I’m not getting sucked into your sales funnel, dude. … This is a long-term relationship,” says author Tara Hunt. SmartBrief/SmartBlog on Social Media [...]
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