So you receive a Facebook friend request from your favorite brand and the next thing you know, this organization, let’s call it XYZ, is following you on twitter. You reciprocate the gesture by accepting the friend request and also start following XYZ on twitter. For XYZ, this is “mission accomplished!”
If you have signed up for company email alerts or entered your contact information for a contest, you are easy prey for organizations looking to add you to their Facebook page or to their list of Twitter followers. So here’s the question: Is it OK for brand personas to proactively follow/friend people in order to get a reciprocal response? Some view this as a strategic, deliberate tactic by organizations to gain visibility, expand their fan base and enhance popularity rankings. Ethical? Perfectly ethical as long as the organization does not misuse or abuse this medium to mislead consumers.
In fact, the PR practitioners representing XYZ are portraying the organization as personable, accessible and (for the younger, net-savy clientale) – trendy. Nothing wrong in being approachable, connecting to potential and current customers and engaging them in a constructive online conversation about your product/service.
For the organization, this is a convenient, quick way of gaining feedback, defending their brand, and providing honest explanations. For consumers, this is an opportunity to compliment, grumble or share ideas about their brand experience and ‘talk’ with fellow users. PR practitioners that employ such an approach (in a transparent, ethical manner) are effectively utilizing this interactive social medium to promote two-way communication and build relationships with stakeholders. Ultimately, for an organization, it’s about being where its customers are – Planet Social Media!
Thoughts anyone? And do take the online poll. : )
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There is a Chinese FB too. Once there is rumor saying Japan took over that FB just to get valuable info. regarding Chinese young folks! How scary that would be! With more people using FB and other social media tools to communicate, we shall raise our awareness of self-protection. That may help build good social media ethics too.
ReplyDeleteI already took the poll. I think corporate blog will be a very good tool. As we talked last semester at Dr. Johnson's crisis comm class, corporate blog appears to be more formal, credible, and thus reliable to stakeholders. What do you think?
ReplyDeleteI have a new post about e-mail marketing coming up too. Follow me at jingzhao-nc.blogspot.com
Thanks!
Neha nice post, I agree with you there is no problem in pursuing publics. And brands have aspirational value, people don't mind wearing a popular brand on their clothes/bags, basically on themselves then why not online? Through social media people have their existence on the web and can flaunt their favorite brands by becoming fans or following them!
ReplyDeleteHi Jing, yes, I heard the Chinese Facebook is quite a hit, especially with the younger generation. If we can have a roundtable discussion with representatives from all over the world maybe we can come up with a comprehensive social media ethics 'bible'. : )
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks for taking my online poll, Jing. Yes, my personal vote would be for 'corporate blog' for the reasons you mentioned - source credibility and legitimacy. : )
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely Paromita, I agree that the online medium has become an additional avenue to openly declare our brand loyalty. Great exposure for the brands as well huh? : )
ReplyDeleteHey Neha, nice post! I think even strategically, it'd be better to inform consumers of the XYZ behind the persona, because consumers can always defriend that persona when they find and not happy about XYZ hiding behind. Make a full disclosure, and if consumers still decide to follow/friend with you, the consumer data you can get will be of much higher quality.
ReplyDeleteHi Jean, great point! Yes, at all times, the brand persona must remain ethical and transparent. Afterall, building trust is a key part of building relationships with our stakeholders. Keep your comments coming. : )
ReplyDelete