The Social Brand bug crawled up Doc Searls’ (Cluetrain co-author for you Philistines) butt and inspired him to say the right thing about brand being for cattle and breweries. I now have a new acronym to go on the wall along with NMDB: SEFTTI.
“As for social media, all media now need to be social. Mediation is between humans, some of which are inside companies. Hence, “social media” as oxymoron. Sort of, anyway.
“Meanwhile, lots of social media types are talking about brands and branding as if these were new and hip things. They’re not. They’re heavy and old. We need to move on, folks. Think of something human instead.
“When a friend came back from SXSW recently, we talked about how, at the show, it was “social every fucking thing there is.” The term SEFTTI was thus coined.”
The problem remains: Every time we have to append “social” to a form of communication, which is intrinsically social, we’re really saying “a way of selling shit to people stupid enough to buy our faux sincerity.” We should the rationalization and recognize that we’re not really making friends when selling, we’re simply deepening a customer relationship.
So, go ahead and sell me a computer or software (hence, covering both our businesses), but do it without drowning me in marketing fluff. Give me valuable insight about my business problems or personal goals, help me link that information to my aspirations, do it respectfully, and we can engage more deeply than if you treat me like one of the cattle trained to come to the trough.