How to not use Social Media

Mike Maulbeck, an unknown video game developer decided to throw a tantrum on his twitter targetting the CEO and founder of one of the biggest game store platforms in the world. The issue was over one of their newly released games simply being mislabelled by an error. It was advertised as “early access” when the game was in full release. Regardless, even though a phone call or email could have fixed the problem, the developer decided to go to twitter to vent his frustrations.

How not to use twitter

As a result of this, their game was pulled from Steam. This is a massive blow, because Steam is almost a necessity for small developers. Essentially, that one tweet has ruined Mike’s credibility in the industry, as well as his company and his partners in the company.

This example really illustrates how important it is to really maintain yourself on social media. Social Media is a window to the outside world, and you cannot let your frustrations get the better of you. Venting on social media is the same as screaming out loud in front of a shopping centre full of people. The entire world can see what you write so you must conduct yourself civilly.

Had Mike simply posted about the issue with the Early Access on his game, the outcome will have been different. Valve would have fixed the problem and consumers would still be happy. Slanderous comments would not have been posted, and the game (which was expected to sell decently) would have netted a hefty profit for their company. However, due to a momentary lapse in judgement on social media, Mike’s credibility as well as his company’s credibility in the industry has all but been destroyed.

This isn’t the only example where a company has handled a situation poorly on Social Media. One that springs to mind is the Amy’s Baking Company scandal which had a similar impact, destroying an organisations credibility due to a few posts made on social media which were made in a moment of anger.

Amy’s Facebook Ability

Social media is a great tool when used properly. However much care needs to be taken, as the whole world is your audience. One wrong move could put your company into a crisis.

What examples of poor social media handling have you come across?

Internet Celebrities

Snapchat has exploded.  A platform seemingly impossible to advertise on is becoming more and more saturated with celebrities or people with a lot of followers to endorse products. The days of going on the app to see what your friends are up to are dwindling, and it’s becoming more with seeing what Sedgy Fergo is up to tonight and whether or not she’s going to her FAVOURITE club, Blue Velvet in Newcastle.

The app is slowly turning into marketers utilising people with a decent following to endorse products or places, much like what’s happening with popular instagram accounts. As a result, these new celebrities are being born under the guise of still being “untainted” by the corporations. Dan Bilzerian and Jen Selter are the most popular instagram celebrities who post the products they used or recently purchased to their mass of followers. It is unknown whether or not organisations such as Nike are behind the accounts and pay them, but one things for sure – they reach millions of people daily.

A Dan Bilzerian post, showcasing his products

This is what marketing is turning into digitally. The consumer is becoming fed up with advertising and advertisements and will find ways to block them, hence the popularity of AdBlocker. Companies are looking for other ways to engage their audience and are using an age old tactic of endorsement. It happened to sports such as soccer in the 70’s and 80’s and now it’s happening to people who have a large following on social media. People are getting paid to simply make give aways on their youtube channels, flaunt their new watch they were given on instagram or let people know where they’ll be a certain night to build hype for the venue.

A Popular YouTuber’s giveaway

Essentially, it’s traditional marketing with a digital twist. My question is: how does this affect your browsing of youtube or instagram? Do you really care about advertising if it’s non invasive in the form of giveaways or photos on instagram accounts?

The meme, and how to utilise it

It’s no surprise that marketers love viral campaigns. They’re (usually) cheap, easy to implement and the consumers do most of the work for you spreading it around various websites and notably social media. “Memes” are especially vulnerable to becoming viral. They’re short, funny and relate-able, but they do suffer from one thing: being bloody annoying.

A meme is defined as “an image, video, piece of text, etc., typically humorous in nature, that is copied and spread rapidly by Internet users, often with slight variations.” (Oxford Dictionaries) They usually originate in places like Reddit or 4chan, and get posted till they die in those sites. Eventually, sites with less credibility for creating original content pick them up and so begins the cycle of the repost. The repost is exactly what you want to avoid when creating memes or using memes, as the audience quite frankly gets sick of seeing the same thing posted over and over again.

The irritating and quite frankly dead “troll face”

Memes such as this annoying thing originated in 2008. 6 Years on, it’s still being reposted in pictures and even some companies facebook pages still use this thing. It’s done, it’s dead and it keeps being revived and revived and it loses all meaning to what it meant in 2008. All of a sudden, you have people using it incorrectly which loses the whole humour of the meme and it becomes a disaster post with people simply ignoring it, or unliking pages because they’ve seen that stupid face 1,000 times over the course of 6 years. In fact, this particular “troll face” meme has sparked another meme where users will use the face satirically to imply that they are children or idiots who have no idea what they’re doing on the internet – not something you want to be associated with as a business.

In order to use memes effectively, organisations will need to either create original content or use existing and relevant (relevant being not done to death) memes to try and sell their products. Another great post I’ve seen is Jagermeister’s Facebook page, who have added a relatively fresh new twist on a dead meme. The “Tag a mate” meme is done to death when its utilised with stupid internet pictures, however Jager has created their own, original art and have added a funny post as well. Long story short, when I’m scrolling the newsfeed amongst the other meme drivel, it’s refreshing to see something original with a fun twist. Needless to say, I usually chuck it a like and get involved.

The Jager “Tag a mate” meme

Regardless, when used properly a short and funny picture which gets people involved is always a good thing for a business. However care needs to be taken to make sure it’s not a repost of a repost as that becomes annoying to people who see the same thing posted constantly. Originality and relevancy is key here.

What do you guys think? What makes a good “meme” to you?

– Tom