Ogilvy One, recently released a study on social media in China. Named – Connected – it served to answer questions about how a client brand should and can navigate through a newly social world.
The report introduces this notion of “Frand”, where users mixes friends and Brands into their personal communities. For a brand, this presents huge opportunity to grow a brand identity and, conversely, to tarnish one.
I like the term “Frand”. It used to be that a brand message was clearly gotten from an advertisement, now with social media, brand message can no longer just be communicated in a singular fashion to the user. In true fashion of a social network, a brand message now mingles with friends’ messages, and if couple in the right tone and manner, will be even more powerful as users are readily able to share the brand message to their friends and friends of friends.
Staying authentic to the brand and providing content that users can easily share are the key to success in Social Media. Remember, a brand is no longer just a brand on a social network, it has evolved to be a Frand, and users will either like you and talk about you, or dislike you and also talk about you.
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