I just spent my 2 days in the last weekend completely sick and in bed. Though Bill Bryson’s ‘The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid‘ gave me damn good company, something stuck me while I was flipping through the newspapers and television channels mindlessly.
It only stuck me mildly first, but then I persisted and went back to each media for a formal count. Yes, I noticed as many as 16 brands where they had listed a Facebook Page in their communication – this was in their print ads…the leaflets they enclosed with the newspaper…or in the TVCs, displayed prominently.
Sixteen. In one weekend.
Think about it! It almost looks like brands and organizations have decided that a Facebook page is like a more-frequently updated website that is built a bit more easily.
Yes, they do offer freebies, special incentives and randomly interesting ‘updates’ via those pages, and also indulge in random conversations with ‘fans’, but consider how many brands could a person reasonably like and continue engaging with? This, after already having tons of people friends and connections on myriad social networks! Remember, brands were offering these freebies and incentives via other forms of media before Facebook existed; what is different is the nature and frequency of conversations that such social networks enable.
The most important and time consuming part of a brand page on Facebook is hence those conversations, because that is the stand-out feature in a platform that faithfully replicates most other media’s features. But, brands seem to be wanting to spend as little time in conversations and only hurry up with continuing to announce something to their growing number of fans, usually acquired through Facebook ads.
That is just one part of the problem; hold on to that thought. The second one is even more interesting.
Out of the 16 brands, 2 belonged to shopping malls in my city (Bangalore). One was an underwear brand! One was a confectionery brand making small, sugar-coated toffees that are retailed for pittance. Another was a alcohol brand that spoke about leadership with a picture of Indian cricket captain and a soda bottle next to him. One was a toothpaste. One brand produced chairs…yes, chairs. Another produced chocolates. One brand produced and sold inverters!
Now, I’m clearly not implying that there is any kind of entry rule for making online communities, but there is clearly some common sense needed before jumping online in the hope to build yet another tribe…yet another community…yet another ‘fan’ page.
However fashionable my underwear is, I personally would not want to join a tribe of a brand of underwear. It’s an underwear for heaven’s sake…put it on and get on with life. I do understand that you may be different and would love to discuss underwear options.
Inverter? Chairs? Shopping mall? Yes, they will all build their online communities to 10,000s and 50,000s soon thanks to generous Facebook ad spend and some more tweaking of Facebook’s algorithm, but they are all probably spending their effort in the wrong place. If some evolved individual or an agency would have bothered to do even a rudimentary bit of research, they would have found small, existing communities and forums where people already discussed things relevant to their brands/products.
Inverters? There are apartment associations online discussing smart power back-up solutions. There are LinkedIn Groups of office administration managers evaluating available options!
Chairs? Those office administration managers are discussing that too on LinkedIn! And there’s a sub-group in a PC-related discussion board that discusses ergonomic options for desktops!
Shopping mall? There are existing Facebook groups that are built around city-centric interests – there’s one for interesting eating joints in Bangalore, for instance.
Get the drift? What have you, as the brand manager for that inverter, chair and shopping mall done to reach out to your already existing target audience online? Almost every product or service has some small community of users – mind you, not fans – somewhere on the net. The difference is that they haven’t built a community around your (or any) brand, but around their needs/personal or professional interests and needs. Have you thought of the best and most authentic way to reach out to them without merely spamming them with an offer or information?
That would be one heck of a useful thought before spending more on Facebook ads and updating that status, yet again.
Recall the point on conversations that I asked you to hold earlier? That…and this point on finding existing communities…they are both about conversations, incidentally. You cannot spam your way to an existing community and risk annoying them. You need to find a credible way to reach out to them and that happens through a planned and honest conversation with the people in the community online. That is simply a function of public relations, just that it happens using online tools!
Food for thought?
Pic courtesy Zyphichore via Flickr.