A Friendly Reminder to Brand Owners and Marketers

I’m a fan of marketoonist (marketer + cartoonist) Tom Fishburne as to how he draws issues about brands and marketing in an editorial (and funny way sometimes) for us to understand and imagine what he is talking about. It’s both a reminder and a learning he’s passing on. Like for instance, I’d like to share his latest post about marketing brands with social media…

He is right that brand owners and marketers tend to jump and join the bandwagon of being in the social media without even thinking of its risk(s). Risk to mention one is that it’s should be kept alive, interactive and there should always be something new. It’s time-consuming and it needs attention and dedication. These are what we’ve always been telling our clients even before social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc) came in the picture. These reminders have been posted since the introduction of websites. Yes, websites. There are reasons of building and having a website and for heaven’s sakes websites should be updated!!! Specially if it’s intended to have such “community-building” intentions. Mr. Fishburne is right: communities are not built by the brand but it’s the consumers who believe if it’s worth to be built for and around the brand.

Going back to the Facebook, I found out the difference between “Like Us” and “Friend Us” about mid-year of last year. Those pages that has to be liked are fan pages and for those to be added as a friend it’s like taking it as a person or a friend. I don’t know it this methods came in at the same time or one after the other. I just find it funny if a brand is treated as a person just for the sake of having more “friends” to have followers. Isn’t it suppose to be consumers becoming fans of it and liking the brand then community is being built with the responsibility of the brand to sustain it be giving it’s “fans” reason to love it more and keep on coming back? I remember an illustrator friend of mine being told be another friend to build a page in Facebook for she has fans and from which she will be followed there. She finds it weird and quite self-serving if she will created her own fan page account. “Like I’m creating my own fan club”, that what she said. She preferred to have a personal FB account.

Ok, I have to admit that it’s irritating for me when brands suddenly have FB accounts specially when it’s not updated. I fear that Facebook will become Multiply that it will end up being a “selling” or “store” website. I just wish brands, their owners and marketers will ALL be responsible enough with this FREE media they are using. Like what Mr. Fisburne said: Brands lose interest because they run out of content, get distracted by other priorities, or expect immediate unrealistic results. The result is a negative social media experience, which is worse than no social media experience at all. It’s a warning. A FREE warning. Please take it that way.

Consumers are wiser nowadays. They can tell if you’re just sucking them or if you are true.

To Mr. Tom Fishburne, you did it again! *applause*

For the actual post of Mr. Fishburne check his post here.