Socially Awkward

I passed by an Exxon gas station yesterday and noticed their sign:

UNLEADED $3.59/gal

JOIN US ON FACEBOOK

Since when do I need to be an official Facebook member of a gas station in the piney woods of East Texas? Doesn’t this strike anyone else as odd?

Brands need friends on Facebook. They need fans, followers, browsers and passers-by. Facebook can be appropriately used for showing new products, highlighting old products, continuing the tone of the brand, starting conversation and so on. A brand’s Facebook page can be the voice, the vibe, and attitude of the company as well as the customers’. I was told that a major beverage company last year cleared out a top floor to set up three desks well spaced out apart. The business hired young 20-somethings to fill these three seats with one assigned to Facebook, one assigned to Twitter, and one assigned to something else. Maybe it was YouTube. Regardless, the drink company saw the importance of having someone “on it” at all times, communicating with their customers, fans, and potential loyalists. They realized the crucial quality of timely responses, proactive involvement online and good, current communication representative of the company.

A gas station, though? Please. This one wasn’t even a Buccee’s. Unless the gas station offers 1989 gas prices and pumps the gas for me, I’m not signing up for more infiltration into my Wall on Facebook.

Remember: Products are cool. Businesses are not.

People like brands, not conglomerates. People can get fanatical about a delicious regional iced tea or a spicy, tangy barbecue sauce. It’s tough to get excited about the holding group that owns that company’s parent manufacturing outfit that falls under the umbrella of the company that owns the rights to the company that sells the tea or BBQ sauce. I’ll sign up for what I care about and what pertains to me, and I even feel that I am more willing than most.

The Facebook and Twitter thing has gone too far when my two neighborhood Exxon stations are vying for my Facebook fandom (the two stations are less than 2 miles apart…same road). I don’t mind ads on Facebook. Part of my paycheck even comes from helping people advertise on Facebook, so that is not the issue. The issue is how the execution is handled. It’s one thing to dangle a product out there once in a while or tell us how many dolphins your company saved last week, but it’s another to invade our Walls with repetitive minutia. Too much of this, and we consumers reach a plateau of numbness and inattentiveness.

I view Facebook and Twitter as the online social equivalent to Jenga. The game, Jenga. Put stuff out there a little at a time, carefully, gently and let others have their turn. Then when you make a great big move, it’s all the more impressive. Too much, too often, and you ruin everything as it comes crashing down in backlash.

Otherwise, you’ll be like the Boy Who Cried Wolf. I follow several celebrities on Twitter. It’s the only reason I joined Twitter in the first place. I follow Conan O’Brien, Steve Martin, a few other notables, a few baseball writers and TV hosts, some pro athletes and celebrity chefs. Most of these guys do it right. Conan typically posts one funny line per day. I look forward to it and I am never overloaded. I’ve never seen Steve Martin post more than three tweets in one day; and the one time he hit three, it was a three-part series to a joke, each one playing off of the other. Eloquent. The reporters and hosts I follow may tweet something about an injury report, news alerts or plug a segment or something for an upcoming show. Their one-liners are little golden nuggets, little eclipses in the night sky that are gone as quickly as they came, so I am left to hang on and be grateful for the little daily offering as I patiently wait for the next 20 hours or so to pass ‘til I might get a taste of the next. There is one celebrity chef, however, who is playing dangerously with my Jenga set. I am a big fan of this particular chef. I own the chef’s cook books, I record this chef’s shows, and try out the chef’s online recipes. I am a loyal devotee to this chef, so it hurts even more that the tweets are out of control. Dozens. Every day. Tweets and re-tweets about mundane happenings and observations, what other people who I don’t know or care to know have tweeted to this chef. I have to read them all because they’re may be one among the plenty that is of substance like an upcoming interview or episode or new recipe. I have found myself starting to gloss over, though.

Glossing over is when you scroll past, seeing just a big block of text – viewed as more of an annoying shape of black and white as opposed to actual English language and information. When you start glossing over, you are becoming numb; you start to not care anymore.

When you don’t care, you’re not affected anymore…which is the whole point of signing up or sending out social media messages in the first place. As a person or as a brand, you want to affect people and attract people’s attention. If you are a brand or a company, don’t abuse it. Your fans and followers want to know what kind of deals you have, what cool new things are happening at the brand and what they can be a part of at their convenience. Make your website about you or your company. That’s not invasive. Visitors voluntarily go to your site for that stuff. Make your business/brand Facebook or Twitter or Foursquare or whatever else about your customers and your attitude/environment.

Just be cool. It’s like going to a party with tons of guests, fans, friends, potential friends, brands, companies, singles, jerks, jocks, nerds, cliques, and more. A total melting pot. Don’t try too hard to entertain. It’s not your party so it’s no pressure. Don’t be the socially awkward one trying to fit in or talk louder and more often to be heard. Nobody likes that dude. Just be cool and people will listen when you do talk.

-Lance LaRue, Advertising & Creative Manager at Americom Marketing Ad Agency in Beaumont, Texas 2011