The (mis)use of social media

Social media is fast becoming one of the most important platforms in the areas of advertising, marketing, and public relations.  It’s attractive to companies for a number of reasons: it’s free (in terms of media buying), it has the potential to reach a huge number of people, and it is ubiquitous in today’s culture. Online interactions are the most widespread forms of interaction in today’s society. It provides unique ways to communicate with customers. It is more personal and direct, since users are already accustomed to interactions with other individuals within these sites.

But the biggest problems arise when companies attempt to solicit users into spreading the corporate communications across these social networks. There is a fine line between promoting your brand and begging for attention in the form of “likes,” “retweets,” or “shares.” This also includes trying to capitalize on things without creating any kind of relevance to your brand.

 

Worse yet, we have examples of companies veil their attempts at spreading brand awareness with the pretext of charity. Aside from the obvious ethical problems with this, these efforts are usually easily spotted by consumers and often result in very negative PR for the company involved.

The best ways for companies to utilize the social media platform is by taking advantage of its direct and personal nature. Seeking out instances where individuals mention your company or finding other instances where your company is relevant to the conversation is the key to successful social media updates. Even negative mentions can be turned to an advantage if it is addressed correctly. And a little bit of humor always helps as well: