Blogging, Branding and Bitch Slapping.(the death of social media)

"Riiiiiiight on duuuude, I'm a blogger too" chuckled the Spicoli clone I met at the beach.

Social Media has passed me by.  I'm out.

I announced it on FB last week, I'm officially obsolete. My milieu, the sickest people pix and irreverent social commentary, seems stale in today's hyper-connected, nano-seconded attention span, energy drink, ping me world we operate in.  I have not embraced mobile.  I'm not Instagraming.  I'm not feeding my Go-Pro into Viddy

I'm going backwards. No smart phone for A. Party. I tried it,  Google gave me a prototype android...a year before they came to market. Eventually my Google phone stopped taking a charge. So I free-cycled my old Nokia flip phone, clicked in the smart chip and all my contacts showed up. Sweeeeet.  No GPS, no i-Pod, no tivo, no tablet...just me..my dog, the NY Times (hard copy) and my lappie.

The complex world of social media.  #SM has become a real live corporate business and I'm still just tweeting "for fun".  Brands are all over the web battling for eyeballs trying to create and establish brand loyalty with their customers using social media tools and content strategies.   Actually now that everyone is a "journo" #sm has become a lot less interesting and the overall level of content has dropped...in my opinion.  Everyone is a promoting something.  Now it's all about the ad's,  and all about the benjamins.  Are people standing around the water cooler with their tiny screens talking about the latest gatorade ad?  I dunno...I'm not.

I'm a super-loyal dude, a  Scorpio ..which explains a lot.   If I find a product I like, I stick with it.   Q-Tips for example.  I only use Q-Tip brand cotton swabs.  I didn't care that Chesebrough-Ponds sold out to Unilever... its Q-Tips only in my bathroom.  Patagonia is another one... the consumer loyalty to Patagonia was made famous in a Harvard Business School case detailing how people are "willing to pay more" for perceived quality and a high level social conciseness.

The first time I can remember being disappointed with a brand was in the late 70's. I got a pair of Converse Dr. J model hightops.  I used to be a gym rat.  Hanging around Gorosh's or the Greene's or at the I.M. @ MSU.  Those Dr. J's were sooo sweeet.  I wore those kicks until I wore them out.  They seemed to make me quicker..and I'm quicker than I look.  I went through a second pair and went looking for a third.  Nobody had 'em. Converse had changed the model design.  I was pissed.  I remember screaming at the retail clerk "what do you mean they stopped making them??? Those are the best shoes ever."  That day I bought my first pair of Nikes and subsequently twisted my ankle.  Ironically Converse is now owned by Nike..and by using tools such as the internet..I could probably find a pair of Dr. J's tonight.

So fast forward to 2007.  Social Media is just getting going.  Facebook had out grown the Ivy League and began launching their strategy for world domination.  My Space was killing it.  I spent the Summer in San Francisco and through FB, I met some of the "thought leaders" in the social media space.  It was a pretty heady time.  Mashable, Tech Crunch and twitter were taking it all to the next level..and mobile was still just a concept that was not fully social.  Those were some good times.  It was easy to connect and engage with real people, interesting people... in real time.  Social Media was just rolling out to the masses.  Brands were not in the game yet.  It was fun and the user seemed to be in control of what was on their screen.

Facebook fumbled their IPO and created negative goodwill.Now it's 2012.  Two weeks after FB's IPO. The stock has performed poorly...a classic market top.  The hype was incredible.  Zuck went public, code jammed (hack-a-thon), got married (for tax purposes) and made the cover of People Mag. all in one week.  The offering was a pure flip...perhaps the biggest pump and dump of all time.  There is no denying that with 845 million users...500 million of whom are active is a force to be reckoned with.  FB is unquestionably a valuable company...but the eyeballs and the data are impossible to measure in dollars. Earnings are the most important thing now. But no one can quite figure out how monetize mobile and  revenues are dependent on jamming ad's down users throats.  "Promoted posts" are not that interesting.

It's not only facebook.

Twitter....it's a lot of white noise...and when you get down to the lowest common denominator...things get ugly.   I'll save that rant for another time.

Mobile?  Why people would opt in to have advertising texts pinging them all the time...I'll never know.

Foursquare?  I still don't understand why making your exact location public is so much fun.  I get why the restaurants, bars and stores want you to check-in.  I get that connecting with your friends in real life is fun...but i don't understand why it's important to broadcast that out publicly.

Groupon...I tried a few deals. My experience was always disappointing. I almost felt violated...close to being a bait and switch. I tried a few places and services that I will never return to..at any price.  They had the algorithim...they knew what I liked.  I opted out.

Pinterest and Instagram...I made a conscious decision to skip these platforms. Am I crazy?

Siri...tell me a joke???No thank you.Google is generally smarter, but ad sense always shows me the wrong logo.  Every time I log on, I get pop ups for an iconic Aspen hotel,  The Little Nell.  What the algorithm doesn't realize is that I will never stay at The Little Nell (TLN).  First off---I live in Aspen so it's a moot point.  2nd, I no longer would consider spending $1200 a night for a hotel.  Google doesn't process the fact that I used to be a huge fan of The Little Nell... and for 7 seasons I spent $1500 (plus tips) for the privilege of keeping my boots and my ski quiver at the TLN concierge.  The service was excellent, the convenience a luxury and I probably ate $1000 worth of brownies during the season. I was TLN's biggest fan...on-line and off.  I used to brag about TLN...I couldn't name drop TLN fast enough.  "Meet me at the Nell" was my standard line. I felt a tremendous sense of brand loyalty and I mistakenly thought the feeling was mutual.  I was a self appointed key influencer and unofficial ambassador.  I often recommended TLN, firmly believing that it was the "best in town". But Google's formula cannot read between the lines.  I'm not really a fan of TLN any more.  A new manager came on board.  He dissed me to my face and made reference to "unauthorized photos" and quoted from the "paparazzi laws". I was offended (per usual), but I got the message. The loyalty and admiration was not mutual.  I immediatley found a new ski locker and hit the road.   Now every time I click You Tube (owned by Google) I get a TLN banner.  Every time I peruse a site with "ad words", there's the TLN logo.  Time has passed, The Nell is cool, but I rarely patronize the place any more and I'm not interested in their ads.   The concept of negative goodwill comes to mind.   Kind of like the Apple commercials with Samuel L. Jackson and Zooey Deschanal that have played incessantly during the NBA playoffs.  You've seen the SIRI spots with "hotspacho" and "tomato soup in the rain".   Cute ad's...but 8 to 10 times a night??? After that advertising overload I will never enable Siri...I assure you.

Whats the point of all this?  The Golden Days of Social Media are behind us.   Brand managers and ad execs have taken over.  The person-to-person interaction that was the foundation of social media is much harder to obtain... when you have to sift through the ads and promotions and blurry pix of someones latte...or their feet kicking back on a lounge chair.

Remember?...like in the olden days...when you were sitting around the dinner table with your family and the land line rang... interrupting the meal.  Mom or Dad would hop up to answer,  only to discover it was a telemarketing call.  Remember how annoying that was??  

I fear that's where social media is heading.  Brands are calling it engagement.  I'm calling it an invasion of privacy.  Social media was much more impactful when it was just social.

Party / Out

The inexact science of Brand Loyalty

Be sure to LIKE us on FaceBook.On the way out the door...after a massive teeth cleaning, my dental hygienist shouted "don't forget to like us on facebook".  The kid I knew at camp in the 70's, who used to wet his bed  sent a nasty gram asking "why don't you follow me on twitter?"  The local pharmacy keeps sending e-mails urging me to "join the conversation".  Really? The conversation about what?...my prescriptions?, adult diapers?, penny candy?   Everybody wants to connect these days, everybody wants to build an engaged and loyal social network.  AspenSpin is fully ensconced in the world of BRAND LOYALTY.  But what's the end game?  Really?

Press One for English.Brand loyalty is a funny thing.  AspenSpin is super loyal to some brands, and willing to throw others under the bus.  Call me crazy, but we will lend support to the brands we actually use and like.  We use social media to converse with, and even promote some brands who in our opinion have superior products and services and are totally relevant to us.   Have you ever shopped at Nordstrom?  They built their department store brand (since 1901) on superior customer service.  The sales staff is so helpful and attentive that we actually feel guilty leaving the store without making a purchase.  Sports Illustrated is another brand we love, we haven't missed an issue since 1968 and we're happy to "like" them on FB.

At the other end of the spectrum is AT&T.

Blue Horseshoe hates AT&T.We've been using AT&T as our cellular carrier since we scored our first cell phone in 1993.  It was one of those Gordon Gekko type models with the handset the size of Oprah's head.  For 18 years we've stayed loyal to AT&T despite living through oodles of dead zones, their terrible customer service, 3 or 4 regime changes and/or mergers.  We've always paid our bill in full...mostly on time... for 212 months in a row.  In exchange we get nothing.  In fact...new customers get a better deal than us, a teaser rate if you will, to sign up. 

AspenSpin is considering an upgrade of our mobile equipment.  Since we are ski habbing in La Jolla, a brand new AT&T store is only a short traffic jam away.  We threw on Sanucks, Mountain Khakis shorts, a TLFI tee-shirt, our Nike 6.0 trucker hat and Oakley shades , jumped in the Audi and hit the mall.  With so many choices, A-Spin figured it would be a good idea to see and touch the phones before deciding on a new model.  Handling the equipment is important to us.   As an aside, we recently received a text message AND a voice mail AND an e-mail  from AT&T reminding us that our bill was "almost" due.   Thanks for the heads up, bro.

Customer Service still counts. The newly remodeled AT&T corporate store in San Diego appeared to be state-of-the-art.  It was large, open and inviting. No threshold resistance.  The new phone options were voluminous, including i-phones.  We were greeted at the entrance by a smiling, tablet wielding "manager" inviting us to add our name to the  "guest list".  He assured  that the short wait to speak to a sales consultant was "only 15 or 20 minutes".  Looking around, there was one other customer in the store, but two sales consultants were heading into the back room with their well deserved lunch of Rubios Fish Tacos and Coca Cola.   The greeter was very friendly so we asked him, "hey, can I pay my bill in the store?"   He replied "of course" he then went on to explain that there is "only" a $5 charge to do the transaction with a "real person" and that we had to "get on the list" in order to do that.  He pointed out the automated payment kisok and assured me that paying with the kiosk was "free".  He added that AT&T is "trying to train our customers to use our automated system".  Awesome...a training session compliments of AT&T.

A quick recap. we've been an AT&T cellular customer for 18 years and we always pay the bill on time.  We've put up with their organizational inefficiancies, their growing pains, their spotty service and dropped calls.   In exchange for that loyalty, we get to wait "15 or 20 minutes" to talk to a salesman, we get to pay a higher fee than "new customers" and as an added bonus get charged a $5 premium to pay our bill in person.  WOW.

As we walked out the door towards the Verizon store in the same mall, the greeter gave us a friendly reminder;  "be sure to Like us on Facebook". 

Word of Mouth can make or break a brand. BRAND LOYALTY 101.