When companies say that they are scared to get involved in social media because they don’t want to lose control of their brand what’s the most common response that we usually end up hearing? “You’ve never had control of your brand.” That statement is for lack of a better word bullshit. If companies never had control of their brands than someone better tell all the schmucks in the marketing and branding world that they should find a new job because clearly brand managers and marketers are useless. Of course companies have control of their brands!
Twenty years ago before the internet was around business still carried on. Instead of consumers talking about brands online, they did so in person; does that mean that companies never had control of their brands because consumers were talking about them? No. The difference with the internet and social media is that we can actually participate in and listen to these conversations, but we don’t have to. Social media doesn’t make sense for every single brand in the world and not every single brand in the world needs to feel obligated to use it. The same goes with Enterprise 2.0, Social CRM, and anything else.
By telling companies that they are not in control of their brands we’re just putting them in a state of panic and as Esteban Kolsky responded to me on twitter:
“Panic never led to solutions, only bigger crisis — brands are not lost to customers”
Let’s stop making brands look like lost puppies who just need to find their way home. These brands have some of the smartest and most creative people working for them and the last thing we need to be telling them is that they have no control. Social media is not a way for companies to regain control of their brands but a way to help make that control more efficient and effective. Social media can help show companies just how much control they DO have over their brands by confirming the work they do with what people say about the brand. Are we going to tell a company like Apple that they have no control over their brand? They would laugh you out of the room. When Apple designs their products they always make them with the hip/cool factor in mind and guess what? That’s exactly how consumers think of Apple. When Virgin America launched they designed their entire airline with the same basic premise in mind, they want to be the hip and cool airline, and they are. Both Apple and Virgin America have control over their brands.
The point of all of this? Just to make one simple point. Companies have control over their brands!
Comments