Brands don't know shit about Social Media

Wait, before you think this guy is crazy and doesn't know what he's talking about, let me clarify that a bit:

Brands got it all wrong how to use social media. Using the same old tactics from mass media age repacked for the new digital age simply doesnt work. Yet they pure billions into the same old boring content that nobody watches or notices.

They wet their pants thinking “branded content” is the holy grail of social media marketing. Why? Because it will allow them to skip traditional media and build relationships directly with the customers. Boy they were wrong.

Viral, buzz, memes, stories, native…became the new marketing language. But despite all the buzz-words and billions spent, the results didn't came in.

Yes, there are brands that understand social media and are doing it right. But they are just exception of the rule. The reality is that very few brands have managed to build meaningful consumer communities and interest online.

Brands dont get that today we live in a “CommunityCulture”.

This changes everything and digital only amplifies this phenomenon. Social media brought together communities from all over the world. This was not possible in the past. Today you have communities around almost anything. Games, art, tattoos, products, cartoons, movies, music…anything.

Brands using brute force to inject themselves into these social media communities resulted only with a backfire. So while McDonalds has only 200K YouTube subscribers, PewDiePie has 40 million. What do you think who spends more $$$ making the videos?

The truth on Social Media is: what works for PewDiePie doesnt work work for Pepsi. So, dear Brands, please stop trying to copy and hope for the same success.

Instead get excited about something, show us your true colors. Help me do something better. Show me how your product makes me better or do more. If you get on my mobile, give me relevance, location context, and serendipity. Be honest and genuine. If you do this, social media communities attention will definitely follow because viral is not the goal, viral is the side-effect.

Genuine attention, not empty impressions!