Social Media to Blame for Bland Online Brand Identity
I’m an advocate of keeping up on social media news. As a professional in the industry, I take it upon myself to be aware of all the newest toys, most up to date strategy ideas, creatively executed campaigns, etc. But lately, I’ve found it increasingly difficult to find inspiring social media news. The churning wheels have slowed, and it has become official: social media is no longer trendy. And I’m not the only one who thinks so.
Here at Cyphers, we’ve always known to count social media as just another tool in our arsenal of marketing skills (we’ve nearly given sermons on integration). Had all marketers been this realistic, they would have seen that social media would eventually become conventional and commonplace. All you have to do is look at the past, seeing how the ad world has changed. Each new fad or medium spurred creative growth, so why count this one as any different (history repeats itself, right?)?
So here we are, at the crossroads of trendy-meets-routine, and it seems that “everyone is doing it” these days. But just taking part doesn’t mean that you’re doing anything super special. In fact, it seems that the excitement and talk of all the things that social media can bring to a brand has simply boiled down to brands replicating each other on social networks. I’m not blaming brands. In fact, I think it becomes twice as difficult to be creative when you are working in an entirely new space with an entirely new set of rules. It becomes hard to think outside of the box when you’ve barely seen inside it.
But each day, month, quarter, year, brings a deeper look. As marketers, we must challenge ourselves to use social media in ways that aren’t confined to just Twitter and Facebook. Let’s not allow social networks to infringe on our creativity. Let’s take risks and be game changers for our clients. Let’s be those people who competitive brands look at and say, “Damn, let’s do it like them.” Let’s use strategy to bring value to our clients’ consumers in ways that no one has thought of before. Let’s give our clients’ consumers a reason to pay attention. Because, with a little strategy, creativity, and social media knowledge, these things can actually happen.
Do you accept this challenge? Get to it.
