This beautifully sunny Sunday morning I lost it. I lost my patience for the noise that my Twitter stream has become. Between desperate invites to check out the latest merchandise, to hashtag overload and cross-syndicated updates, these days my Twitter stream is mostly a distraction from the important things.
Being a self-aware person, I blamed myself for the poor “curation” of my content stream. Therefore I decided to take a closer look at the list of 2,300 names I follow. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy many of my contacts’ updates, but I find them largely outnumbered by promotional messages and noise. What I quickly realized was that most of what caused me the annoyance on this peaceful sunny morning was coming from the brands I followed. So I asked myself, why did I follow them in the first place?
When I joined Twitter back in 2007, there were almost no fashion or beauty brands on the platform. There was a sense of a small community of innovators who often engaged in conversations. When fashion brands started joining Twitter, I almost automatically followed each newcomer, cheering them on with my follow. Some of them had a human side and we became friends (like @dkny), but most of them never interacted with me, or even provided any valuable piece of content (I don’t count retail discounts as valuable content, sorry).
They stayed just logos to me, and it’s tough to have personal connections with logos. I recently noticed that I started tuning out and/or skipping messages that didn’t have a human icon next to them, or at least a virtual character I could relate to.
This morning I realized there is no reason to continue pretend like I care about what most brands are saying. Posting your “exclusive discount” and “first look” of your own merchandise just doesn’t cut it anymore, because everyone else does the same. Asking questions about how my Sunday is going doesn’t trick me into thinking you really care. Maybe it’s because I know too much, and I know that your intern pre-scheduled this tweet question on Friday afternoon before leaving the office for the weekend.
Today I unfollowed most logos in my Twitter stream because I’m not willing to waste another second consuming the noise. These days I rely more than ever on my close circle of contacts to provide valuable information to me. If you are a brand and have something meaningful to say, I’m sure this will be shared among that circle, and from there will find its way to my information stream.
My advice to brands? Find your personality. These days your brand needs it more than ever. The only way you can participate in online conversation is as a human, not as a logo – otherwise how do you expect anyone to feel a connection? So, how do you find that personality or personal voice of your brand? Look around your company, from top to bottom, define the human DNA of your brand and translate it to the social medium. The good news is once you found that personality, it will be easier for you to adapt to new online platforms, which are popping up almost every day. If you don’t do it now, it will get harder for you going forward, as all of our interactions online will eventually become social.
This was an informative read. I too, dislike the “bot” tweets that brands schedule on twitter. They’re annoying & impersonal. To me, it’s a lazy route. When I tweet and/or post on Facebook it is me, I truly believe it forms a relationship. Readers connect with me, not just the content on my blog.
Excellent and informative read!
I agree and disagree. This is a hard one for me because I’m on both ends. I think those of us like you Yuli who have the “behind the scenes” knowledge to how things really work, it can make you feel a bit jaded and want to shut out the brands. But there are so many more people than insiders like ourselves on Twitter (and Facebook), who are looking for the info. from a brand (new products, reviews of current products, discounts, what the press is saying, sales, etc), might work all week and only venture online on the weekend (why the occasional pre-scheduled Tweet/FB is needed) and so on. While I realize we (bloggers and leaders in the social media space) are considered influencers — my theory rests that the true influencers are the consumers the brands interact with. At least that is what I’ve seen tweeting as the brand. I’m basically putting myself out of a job (as a blogger) by even voicing that out loud. But one thing I notice is that consumers pay attention to other consumers who interact with these brands…not so much what you or I say. So when I see a brand tweeting about a sale, or RT’ing things consumers say…I don’t necessarily get worked up about it anymore. They’re doing what works for them. Of course, it doesn’t mean I still have to follow them.
Shannon – thanks for bringing a great perspective! yes, I’m completely jaded and probably also overwhelmed more than an average consumer with social media. But your last sentence sums up exactly how I feel. I still enjoy shopping these brands and tweeting at them when I have something specific to say about their product. Does that mean I should follow them? NO. I’m talking here about the daily interaction and brands who are trying to be part of it. Unless they invested efforts in creating engaging personality who I’d love to be part of my everyday life, there is no reason for them to be part of it.
I understand the writer’s frustration, I am equally as frustrated as they are in their decision to follow those brands on twitter as I am with my decision to read this drivel. Hilarious that people get frustrated with the advertising they volunteer to receive, I mean did you really expect sincere friendship from a logo? Consumers get consumed; being less of a slave to consumerism could possibly pave the way of maintaining that close-knit community these social networks started out as. Or you can simply choose who you follow as wisely as those you are now choosing to unfollowing.
Black – as I mentioned in my post “Being a self-aware person, I blamed myself for the poor “curation” of my content stream.” The reason I followed these brands first was because I loved what they represent and was hoping to find interest in their content. I was clearly disappointed.
And don’t ever feel the need for a “reciprocal follow”. Just because someone or some logo follows you doesn’t mean that you have to follow them back… you absolutely don’t! Keep your follow list meaningful! Or… start using a more powerful tool that will help you filter out the noise.
Amen Yuliz!
Most of the beauty brands I follow are “supposed” partners I have had for more than 15 years ~ sadly enough most of the tweets I get are about discounts, sales, and giveaways from these brands that I have literally worked side by side with. There is no engagement; it is about liking their FB page – not education. I am not saying this is true across the board but unfortunately more often that not that is what it is. Bottom line – know who you are engaging with. Every brand asks me to put them on my blog and well, Im not a blogger – that is not the business that I am in, there are plenty of wonderful people in that space but I am not one of them.
I completely agree with you! I feel that brands need to have some sort of personality. I mean it is social media after all and people these days fall in love with the person/personality first and then buy whatever it is they’re selling. While promotion and sending out news about your company is important, it shouldn’t dominate your feed. I love to see brands interacting with their followers. A simple Thank You for mentioning their brand in a tweet or a blog post can go a long way.
Thanks for the great post!
I agree, especially about the pre-loaded tweets. How is that any different from a robo-call? If a brand doesn’t interact or give me new, relevant information and ideas that I can use to make my life better, I find myself unfollowing. I ordered your book off of Amazon today and I’m enjoying reading your blog until it arrives!
Late commenting but I totally understand the frustration. I’m a blogger and I initially followed brands and other bloggers to build a nice little online community but I’ve recently started to unfollow the majority because there is no engagement. There are a handful that I communicate with regularly but for the most part it’s only links, hastags, etc. that’s not what i signed up for. Granted, I do enjoy learning about discounts here and there, but I really do wish more followed the blueprint that @dkny created. There’s a personal element to it but they still convey the brand’s message well.