How formal is formal? How brands should act on social

Brands walk a tightrope on social media. The last thing you want to be is boring, but that doesn't mean that you should be too corny either. Levels of formality on social media these days are hard to get right, and depend on the industry that brands are in. For example, consumer brands (particularly food) have more freedom to be light-hearted and comical, whereas I find some tech brands to be very utopian and professorial.

Image: mkhmarketing via Flickr (URL: http://bit.ly/1plwEGf)

Some of the most noticeable accounts on Twitter in the UK (apologies to any other nationalities reading) are Tesco Mobile (@tescomobile), Domino's Pizza UK (@Dominos_UK) and Paddy Power (@paddypower). Whilst Tesco Mobile and Paddy Power are great for 'banter' (I genuinely gritted my teeth whilst typing that), Domino's is good for it's use of user-generated content - in their case pictures of their pizzas uploaded to Instagram.

Now this is all fine and good, but having nice images that people can share and holding witty conversations with audiences isn't the be all and end all for brands on social. When there's a problem, you've got to put your brand cap back on and answer it with a straight face, even if in your last post you were joking about cats. Or whatever it is people like these days.

A great opinion piece on The Drum's website by John Davie, which was partially my inspiration for this post, condemns 'brandter' and all it's awkwardness. I think that Mr. Davie has a salient point when he highlights that forcing this informality is not only pretty corny, it's also reducing the brands image as one that can be taken seriously.

On that thought, brands should really think about how they're seen by audiences already and how they want to be seen before getting in on the banter (gritted again), because it's not for everyone and it's not the only way brands should behave on social.

Having said that, I'm off to go have a chuckle at the funny hangover memes that event companies upload on to Facebook.

This post was written by Jack Clark, a second year PR and Communications student and writer for Student Wire and Champion Up North. He has previously interned for Mercury Design and Marketing and Aberfield Communications and is currently seeking a year placement beginning summer 2014.
@JackThePRLad