You Brand

In 1999 Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls and David Weinberger wrote ‘the cluetrain manifesto’, announcing ‘the end of business as usual’. Where do we stand 10 years later? Has everything changed? To be honest, I’m a bit disappointed.

Mahatma Gandhi said ‘You must be the change, you want to see in the world’ and that is exactly the point. I believe that we – the human race – are actually the major obstacle to fundamental change.

The technology is available and affordable. Are we exploiting the potential of the social web, are we leaving our comfort zone, are we liberating ourselves and really putting the pressure on? The answer is ‘no’. Many of us are happy to hitchhike down evolution alley.

2000 years ago, the Roman empire was built on several principles, one of which was ‘bread and games’. That still works for many of us today. Have you ever noticed that the party is always organized by the same people? The majority is waiting for the invitation and is happy to participate. The majority of the human race is not proactive. We wait for somebody to lead the way and take the decisions for us. This behavior has the added benefit that we always have somebody else to blame. We blame the politicians (who don’t usually elect themselves in democracies) and we blame the brands (who don’t usually force us to buy their products). Do we blame ourselves – of course not. We may change leaders and directions, but we’re happy to follow.

When asking people, why they are so passive, I usually hear ‘one person can’t make a difference’. People forget that ‘we’ is the sum of many I’s.

What are we waiting for?

A lot has been written about the social web and its rules of conduct already. I decided to write this post to add my personal experiences and recommendations for brands thinking about establishing a presence in the social web.

Be prepared to be surprised, as your brand is most probably already there, effectively being managed by fans and customers!

- There is no meeting atmosphere with an agenda waiting for you.
- There is no microphone waiting for you.
- There is no reserved seat waiting for you.
- There is no on-off switch allowing you to control things.
- Actually nobody is desperately waiting for you.

Look at it it as a get-together and you are late. So what should you do?

- Introduce yourself and remember that you only have one chance to leave a first impression.
- Be unbiased, listen and show respect, since you’re the newcomer.
- Add value and don’t try to harvest what you didn’t seed.
- Know your stuff, be authentic.
- Be available 24/7/365. In the social web prime-time is all the time.
- Be spontaneous, flexible and entertaining, since this is live.
- Be consistent across all channels, reliable and transparent.
- Take your time and build personal relationships.

Many of these suggestions will sound very familiar, because they apply in your private social life. Remember the Golden Rule: Treat others as you want to be treated. That holds true for people as well as brands.

What do you think?