I want to offer a simple reminder about the place of social media and content marketing in your brand’s identity.
Today, people want to feel good about the brands they support. They want to be able to relate to them in some way, and brands have many opportunities to help them do that. The increasing number of touch points that the worlds of digital and mobile are opening up behoove brands to endear themselves to their audience by offering real value.
The worlds of social media and digital marketing mean that brands have the valuable opportunity to be a good part in someone’s day. Today, marketing is still trying to shed its stigma as the institution that will call your house during dinner to sell you something you don’t want. However, good marketing today is truly about helping people and would never dream of intruding in this way.
By writing blogs on specific topics of value and curating articles of interest and consequence, we as marketers can help brands be a positive presence in our customers’ lives. Brands should offer themselves as legitimate resources instead of expecting only the inverse.
The idea for this blog came to me after seeing a bizarre marketing mishap on a live broadcast of the French Open last weekend. A shadow of an airplane was seen moving backwards across one of the iconic red clay courts during a changeover. The crowd and the TV viewers who noticed it were understandably confused and disturbed.
Thankfully, it was not a shadow of a real plane. The shadow was a projection that was supposed to move forward, intended as a clever marketing device by an airline to remind viewers of their presence as a sponsor. As a marketer this comes off as a creepy, disingenuous way to get in touch with people or remind them of your presence.
Instead of using old school bully tactics that don’t work, or high tech stunts that are disingenuous, all brands should look to the potential of social media and content marketing as a way to make honest, legitimate connections with the people for whom their products are relevant.
Brands should make it a priority to write blogs and curate and re-publish articles that have the potential to make a tangible positive impact in people’s lives. The purpose of content isn’t to “make a splash” or “create buzz.” It’s to be a good part in an individual’s day on a case-by-case basis.
Image Credit: CC by Kymberly Janisch
