Is Your Brand the Creepy Kid on Facebook?

What value does your brand bring to social media?

Social media represents an unparalleled opportunity to engage customers, but in retaining such immense potential value, it often locks brand eyeballs firmly on the prize. Brands think about how to extract profit from social media, but they neglect to consider how their brand best fits into the social mix.

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As a result, far too many brands blend into the portrait of desperate companies trying to reach customers without spending money. These brands are theoretically where they need to be to capitalize on the social revolution, but they are there as passengers rather than drivers. They make it easy for users to come to them without necessarily making users want to do so.

Yet they still wonder why "social ROI" remains so elusive.

Embedded within the numerous social media presentations at the 13^thAnnual Call Center Week in Las Vegas, NV was a prevailing theme: brands need to bring value to their social interactions. Brands must have something compelling to share across social networks, for it is that valuable content—not the mere thrill of getting to connect with a brand online—that elicits customer interest. It is that valuable content that puts the "social" in social media.

Companies who appreciate that concept are not merely thinking about ways to share links to a new product across their social networks. They are thinking about what they can do to reduce the distance between their brands and customers. They are thinking about what it takes to forge lasting relationships at the brand level rather than the transactional level.

Passionate about using social channels to share valuable communications, opening keynote presenter Michael Biondo, the vice president of customer operations for Clear Channel’s iHeartRadio, praised Skittles for its down-to-earth approach to social sharing.

Instead of offering an endless stream of hollow promotions for its products, Skittles populates its Facebook page with a down-to-earth sense of humor and observation. The iconic candy manufacturer regularly shares one-liners and cutesy photos, giving customers a human motivation to connect with the brand.

While a customer can only "Like" shameless product pitches so many times before the endeavor becomes tedious, he likely has a far greater tolerance for comments like, "The fence behind my house is actually a fence around the whole universe except my yard" and, "Rabbits don’t wear top hats because they’re afraid of disappearing." He is far more likely to share a funny picture of a video game console or hockey stick covered in Skittles than he would a reminder that Skittles can be bought at the local Wal-Mart.

By providing that relevant, interesting, appealing content, Skittles gives its audience a reason to regularly visit the brand page. It gives them an incentive to watch out for Skittles updates in their news feeds, providing the brand SCUBA gear to avoid drowning in a sea of Facebook status updates. It makes them want to connect with the brand, which is the crucial ingredient for lucrative, two-way engagement in social networks.

Why Would a Customer "Like" Your Brand?

Because it takes a single mouse click for a customer to "Like" or "Follow" a brand, the idea of equating the activity to customer loyalty has become a laughingstock within the customer management space. Yes, it is probably true that those who Like a brand are more likely to loyally support it than those who do not, but the act of Liking is not, in and of itself, a sign that the customer is committing to doing more business with the organization. There is no reason to assume a direct correlation between growth in Facebook fans and growth in revenue.

But that logic has also given the "Like" an unjustifiably bad reputation. While a "Like" might not be motivated by an undying devotion to the brand or a vow to break one’s piggybank to purchase every new product, it does involve an obligation to welcome the brand into one’s life. When a customer chooses to engage with a brand’s Facebook page, he is not simply broadcasting his support for the brand to his own network but also giving the organization carte blanche to stream content to his news feed.

As the level of social discourse continues to grow, customers will increasingly appreciate the importance of that commitment. Whether they hesitate to "Like" a brand out of concern for overloading their feeds or simply ignore all posts from brands about which they do not care, they are not necessarily going to give brands the time of day simply because they have Facebook accounts. They are going to gravitate towards those who add value in the social sphere.

As Beth Dockins of Scott’s Miracle-Gro explained at Call Center Week, customers already know whether or not they support a brand; they do not necessarily need to notarize the relationship with a "Like." If a customer is going to go the extra mile and actually issue that Like, he needs to know something meaningful will come of it.

When brands take that lesson to heart, they again encounter the importance of quality content. If they cannot point to the caliber of the material they share as proof that they bring value to social media, they are inviting customers to look elsewhere for quality social media engagement.

They might not immediately lose customers as a result, but they are certainly squandering an opportunity to more actively and interactively engage their audience.

Don’t Be the Creepy Kid on Facebook

There is no way around it—the rise of Facebook has been a massive victory for the creep community.

By providing a three-dimensional window into the lives of others with little obligation to share comparable information, the world’s creepers and stalkers are able to register for the site, throw up a few non-descript bits of information, and snoop on unrequited lovers, exes, corporate rivals and minor school acquaintances without facing any stigma.

And even those whose intentions are pure face no pressure to go the extra mile on Facebook. They might miss out on some great conversations and networking opportunities, but there is no guarantee of reputational harm for those individuals who prefer to observe social discourse instead of creating it.

Brands, however, cannot be that creepy or passive social media user. They cannot hide in the background as they wait for others to share the cool pictures and drive the interesting conversation.

Virgin Mobile CMO Ron Faris explains, "The trick is to create or curate in a manner that's authentic to the brand's voice. A brand with no content is a brand with nothing to say. And a brand with nothing to say socially -- or, worse, a brand that only posts offers -- is like a creepy user on Facebook with no profile pic."

Brands do not have the schoolyard or water cooler to connect with those in their social networks and improve upon their "online" reputations. In many cases, social networks provide their only platforms for engaging potential customers, and if they instead opt to spam news feeds with "offers" from the background, they are squandering an opportunity.

Worse, they are exposing themselves as organizations that are inherently out of touch and inherently disinterested in providing value for customers.

With so many competing brands working to assure relevance with target audiences, those who play the "creepy kid" on Facebook not only risk being ignored.

They also risk being abandoned and stigmatized by those who once believed in their customer-centricity.