You like a brand…I mean, in real life. Then you search for them on Facebook and ‘like’ them there too. Normal occurrence, but is there any responsibility for you, beyond that, as a fan/follower?
Two recent blog posts that I came across seem to suggest that.
To be fair, the first one refers to this with a music fan’s perspective and hence seems logical too. The post, from Brian Smith (@radhaus) says, among other things,
The truth is, that companies and their brands are going through rigorous transformations in an effort to serve their customers and stakeholders within social networks â?? specifically, Facebook. Brands are following codes and policies and guidelines all in the name of transparency, disclosure and customer service. What are brand fans doing? Are they taking steps to be responsible towards the brands that they â??like?â?
My point here is that we ALL have a stake in the success of the brands that we interact with daily. I might love brand X so much that when I have a bad experience I feel compelled to let â??em have it â?? in much the same way you would with a sibling. But when you do that in front of thousands or millions of other fans on Facebook what does that do for the brand? You might get a freebie from customer service, but at what cost to the brand?
The second post by Bhanuprakash is a lot more direct in its approach towards fans’ responsibility, but puts that point across from the influencers’ perspective.
Just as we educate our clients that encouraging Online influencers is must, the same goes to the online influencers too. Brands deserve such encouragements and hence can embrace the medium.
Encouragements are fine, but is that really a responsibility?
My take? To start with, I do not think fans and followers have any responsibility towards brands or companies, online or offline. I find the notion of a fan’s responsibility preposterous.
They do have a responsibility but that is not towards brands – it is a larger responsibility to be honest and civil, in general and that is more towards the society they live in than directed at any brand.
So, when a fan is upset with his favorite restaurant, he can choose to rant about it anywhere he feels like – in a private letter/email or in a public forum online. It is his wish and opinion since something he assumed will be delivered, perceived or actual, has not been, in his view. That is the only relationship between the fan and the brand – the brand promises something for a fee…an experience or ownership and it better deliver on that promise. Regardless of whether it does or doesn’t, it cannot ask a fan to be responsible in anyway.
A fan becomes one when he likes the experience delivered by a brand. He will remain a fan as long as that experience continues to be fulfilled. If the brand stops delivering on that experience, or – a more likely scenario – if another brand delivers a better experience for the same payoff, then a fan may change loyalties. As simple as that.
It is nice to imagine that a brand-fan relationship is all emotional and lovey-dovey but the plain truth is that it is a commercial transaction. However much brands humanize themselves online, they cannot become humans in a way that they start expecting fans to behave the same way they do with real humans in their families or society.
Brands try to humanize themselves online to become better corporate citizens…to become better brands in the eyes of its stakeholders and customers. They however do not become bum-chums with their fans online, enough to ask them to be responsible in some way. That relationship is held by a thin line and is a transaction, usually involving money.
But again, do not confuse responsibility with loyalty – the latter is simply a matter of satisfying a fan/follower long enough to let him continue to do business with you. Connect the emotional dots and deliver on perceived promises long enough and you have a loyal customer. But you do see where that relationship ends, right? Stop connecting the emotional dots and falter delivering on brand promises…you lose that loyalty.
On encouragements from online influencers, I think it is absurd to seek encouragement specifically. A brand should earn that from influencers, online or offline. That is done by delivering a superior product/experience/value, so that an online influencer is impressed enough to go out of his way to talk about it/encourage the brand. All this talk of seeking encouragement and fan responsibility seems way too desperate and pointless to me.
Having said that, here’s an alternate view.
What happens when brands give fans/followers a greater degree of control in how that product/service is handled?
Take the example of Crowdbands, referred to in Brian’s post. It seeks to let the fans have a lot of say in many things about the band and its decisions. When bands (not brands…yet) offer such a great level of participation from fans, it does seem fair to expect some kind of responsibility from them. Now, if you transpose this to brands/companies too, it would ideally be a matter of the kind of participation they allow…or seek. If that participation is around marketing, packaging and so on, it seems too little to demand any kind of fan responsibility.
But if the brand is trying to crowdsource participation in some way to create the product/service itself, I believe there is some logic in demanding responsibility. However, when such levels of participation is offered, they cease to become fans and become co-creators/collaborators and such groups’ responsibility is vastly different from those expected from mere fans.
For instance, Indian actor-filmmaker Rajat Kapoor famously spammed around 3,000 people in 2002 and asked them to contribute money for hs under-production film, Raghu Romeo.
A more recent example is that of another Indian filmmaker, Onir, who has collected over Rs. 1 Crore from 400+ people for his film ‘I AM’. The kind of film Onir is working on seems to be geared towards addressing certain issues in the society and he makes a plea online to become a co-producer of the film by contributing funds. Unlike Rajat’s film, Onir’s project appeals at 2 levels – one, emotional connect…the very plot of the film that is aimed at a larger goal and two, monetary.
These are exciting ideas that challenge the notion of the brand-fan concept, but if you notice deep enough, you’d see that these creative owners do not let the fans/contributors into the process of content creation itself. That could become a lot more messy if not managed properly, though Onir, at some level is looking at the emotional connect with his theme to do the job.
Coming back to the example of Crowdbands, what if the bands crowdsource lyrics? Or ask for recommendations on the themes they should sing about? That’s when bands can start asking for responsible fans, I suppose!
Pic courtesy Wildolive via Flickr.