In order to create advocates for your brand, you must encourage the free flow of dialogue in social media.

1. It’s the dose
that makes the poison.
A cautionary tale against trying to control brand dialogue in
the social space.
by panos papadopoulos, october 2011

2. Intro
Many marketeers get into social media for the wrong reasons, with the
wrong intentions, consequently getting the wrong results.
It’s a horror story, really.

3. The preamble
Day after day the social space is invaded by marketeers who want
to claim space for their brands in Facebook and Twitter. They often
see social media as an opportunity to break out of the vicious –
and exorbitantly expensive- cycle of traditional media.

4. The protagonists
Marketeers under pressure to bring in higher results with smaller
advertising budgets. In our horror story they come in three types:
the premature ejaculator, the control freak and the scaredy-cat.

5. The premature ejaculator
This marketeer does not have the patience to plant the seed
of conversation in social media, water it, and harvest when
the time is right. He is overeager, fussy, result-anxious.

6. The control freak
This one will rarely allow dialogue to unfold
uninterrupted in social media. He will always succumb
to the temptation to control it, brand it, thus derailing
it in the process and putting everyone off.

7. The scaredy-cat
This one is afraid that a free-flowing dialogue will harm his brand, his campaign, his
career. He wants to monitor every conversation closely. He often applies censoring
mechanisms, not realizing that attempts to curb dialogue are self-defeating.
Much like a “beware of the sharks” sign at a surfers’ beach.

8. The quest for the Holy Grail
All three flock to the place where miracles do happen. The Shangri-La of
communication where one can get something for nothing - or so
conventional wisdom goes.
The social space.

9. And lo and behold, they all become social media specialists in a flash.
After all, how hard is it to make the leap from “editing your Facebook
profile” to “executing your social media strategy”?
Social media is every marketeer’s life-jacket.
In over their heads

10. Greed is a powerful motor…
They get into social media expecting lightning-quick results.
After all, with such a huge incumbent audience, you have to be
a n imbecile not to achieve your goals, no matter how grandiose
they might be.

11. …and so is gluttony
Subsequently, the briefs to the agency are of the type “I want a
Facebook campaign that ends with a test-drive” or “Give me a social
media initiative that will drive traffic to our stores within the month”.

12. After all, what good is Facebook or Twitter if I can’t
get my hands on some ROI ASAP? It’s all about
showing me the money. Right?
WRONG

13. The Right
The cardinal benefit of a brand’s participation in
social media is -or rather should be- the creation
of brand advocates. And that’s a long,
painstaking process.

14. A brand advocate is a brand partisan, a tireless defender. He will
always serve as the brand’s walking, talking, content-disseminator.
He is a tireless spokesperson for his favourite brand.
Nailing the advocate

15. It’s all about the right attitude
The only way to make advocates out of dispassionate observers is to be
interesting.
The obvious way to be interesting is to stand for something big.
The best way to prove that you stand for something big is to engage people in an
honest, open, provocative, and often disparaging dialogue.

16. Speak. Listen. Then speak again.
Social media are the ultimate conversational channel. This is where people go to
exchange ideas, talk shop, vent, meet like-minded individuals or just waste time.
They do all these through engaging in countless conversations, ranging from the
brain-damaging and the pointless to the heart-rending and the deeply
stimulating.

17. Listen some more. Then speak.
Do you want to turn these talkers into advocates of your brand?
Then you need to be prepared to speak with them. Directly. Freely.
Mano-a-mano. No holds barred. No punches pulled.
No bull.

18. Dialogue builds sexy brands
People are attracted to brands that have the balls to go all-out in a conversation
with the consumer. Why?
Because it is so unexpected.
Because it is so unlike a brand to stoop down to a human level and open up.
Because a brand that can live up to the challenge of
real-time/real-life conversation is irresistibly cool and sexy.

19. Social media is not for everyone
That’s the bitter truth. There are marketeers who are
decidedly incapable of launching their brand in a free,
no-fine-print, engaging conversation.

20. A game for the patient
It’s very much like flirting. You want it to go on until you hit a home run.
Would you ever interrupt flirting by making an obscene proposal? Cutting
short a new-found relationship in social media through the abrupt
insertion of a hard-selling promotion is tantamount to pulling a John
Belushi right after ordering an expensive Bordeaux in a candle-lit bistro.
Do not expect a second chance.

21. Talk the talk
The point to drive home here is that everyone involved in a conversation
in social media wants, above everything else, to converse. If the dialogue
turns sour for whatever reason, those responsible will be repaid with the
public’s indifference, or worse. And when you lose the people’s interest,
regaining it usually requires twice the effort.

22. The moral of the story
Let the dialogue flow freely. Let it take you to uncharted territory. Let
consumers dictate its course. It might get unpleasant at times, it might
even get dangerous – and if the conversation is indeed open and honest, it
is guaranteed to get thorny.
But in the end, the benefit is always commensurate to courage.

23. panos is a planner, fringe traveler and wannabe
free thinker
papadopoulos.panos@gmail.com
thanks to kurt beren geiger and to stan gruel for their always astute
comments