1. 6/29/2015 Stop Acting Like a Robot and Start Socializing Your Brand
http://www.inc.com/michelle­manafy/humanizing­your­brand­for­social­success­the­content­connection.html 1/8
LEAD
Stop Acting Like a Robot and Start Socializing
Your Brand
When it comes to social media, brands have a fatal flaw: They aren't human. But there is
an art to humanizing a brand so that it is more authentically and successfully social.
michellemanafy @
IMAGE: Getty Images
When it comes to social media, brands have a fatal flaw: They aren't human. And last I
checked, the word social is not one commonly associated with non-humans (with the
notable exception of certain animal species, but let's not go there). So while there are
brands that are quite successful on social media--if that success is measured in
BY MICHELLE MANAFY

2. 6/29/2015 Stop Acting Like a Robot and Start Socializing Your Brand
http://www.inc.com/michelle­manafy/humanizing­your­brand­for­social­success­the­content­connection.html 2/8
followers--there is an art to humanizing a brand so that it is more authentically and
successfully social.
And when thinking about measuring success, that follower count metric is one worth
pondering a bit more. Coming back to the humans-as-social-creatures metaphor: do
you measure your popularity by the number of acquaintances you have? Probably not.
Social success in the "real" world is akin to that in the online world and is better
measured through meaningful engagement and interactions.To humanize your brand,
create deeper relationships that will help grow your business' popularity.
Here are three effective strategies a business of any size can put to work:
People power your business. Without a doubt there is at least one person working at
your business (or I'd like to know who is reading this column right now!). Consider
including staff photos on the homepages of your social media accounts so that anyone
checking out your feed will these the people and feel the culture behind your brand.
Another possibility is to link to a social media bio page, as McDonalds does for its
Twitter feed. If your organization doesn't have an entire team, including "tweets by"
with the applicable Twitter handle can accomplish much the same thing.
For businesses focusing on social as the core of their content strategy, it is important to
encourage staff to participate in social channels with their own feeds. By cross-posting
among the official business accounts and these individual accounts, you highlight the
wonderful people your customers will be coming into contact with across your
organization. Photos go far here because, frankly, what's more human than a face?
Automotive sales site Edmunds.com does a terrific job tweeting about staff car tests and
recently featured staff members in a fun content initiative. The brand could be all cars
all day, but including the personalities of the people who drive the cars (and the
business) brings depth and humanity. Tweeting about staff training, staff involvement in
worthy causes and your community, employee events and honors, along with lighter
fare--like bring your dog to work day--can go a long way to infuse your social presence
with the humanizing power of your people.
Conversation is two-way. One of the biggest mistakes any organization can make is to
treat social channels as a one-way broadcast medium. In terms of humanizing a brand,
this is akin to the dinner-party monologuer who goes on and on without a care, whether
or not anyone is listening, much less interested. At a bare minimum, social media offers
an ideal medium to respond to customer complaints and inquiries. American Airlines is
incredibly responsive in its social channels, handling myriad customer issues on the fly.
Mattel is another brand that actively engages with its customers, even explaining game

3. 6/29/2015 Stop Acting Like a Robot and Start Socializing Your Brand
http://www.inc.com/michelle­manafy/humanizing­your­brand­for­social­success­the­content­connection.html 3/8
The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.
rules via Twitter. In both cases, they handle problems and issues with grace and
humanity, speaking with their customers not at them. (If only call centers were this
pleasant.)
Other than customer service, there are other conversational ways to amplify your own
customers' endorsements of your work, such as hair salons or retail outlets that post
customer photos or retweet customer selfies. Note that this does not mean you should
retweet every positive comment you receive. Rather, show off some of the best
examples of your fan base. Healthy snack maker Kind has mastered the retweet and fan
Facebook interaction. In particular, they are terrific about adding context and feedback
that demonstrates their engagement with their social media audiences and reinforcing
their corporate culture and brand values.
People have personalities. Now picture your corporate logo--the first thing most
customers see when they land on your social pages. Does it have a personality? The
answer may actually be yes, but ultimately even the funkiest or most elegant logo
doesn't communicate the full range of qualities that comprise a human personality.
Certainly, when it comes to what makes a post go viral, emotions are incredibly effective
with joy and humor topping the list. And without a doubt, a brand with a great sense of
humor, such as Oreo, will get a lot of laughs and love in social channels.
However not every brand is all about the funny stuff. Slate, for example, offers an
extensive mix of content on its site and in its social channels. The brand is particularly
adept at retweeting loyal and engaged fans' reactions to its content as well as adding a
bit of personality to its own content tweets. And frankly, having a range of emotions is
more relatable than being a stand up comedian or Debbie downer. As a general rule, it is
a good idea to interact using first names and to employ the first person to better convey
humanness and genuine connections as well.
While I've focused here on social media outlets, the majority of these strategies can also
be applied to other aspects of your content creation strategy. And although I've used
examples from larger organizations, the good news for small and medium sized
businesses is that they are even more likely to be people and personality driven. So let
that shine through. Brand your company as a caring companion and you'll not only reap
the social media rewards, you will find that you have more engaged customers for
whom you will remain top of mind.
PUBLISHED ON: JUN 29, 2015
ADVERTISEMENT