Might they be better to ditch what the journalist and blogger Tshepo Mokoena this month called their "faux chummy behaviour" and turn the clock back to a time when they communicated via crisp and clear advertising messages? Mokoena has had enough – from Domino’s Pizza Tweeting cat memes to Burger King’s "banter" with its followers by telling them: "If bae eats your burger bae is not bae."
The trend that began with Innocent in 1999 has now spiralled out of control, with Twitter, Instagram and Facebook becoming free-for-alls for brands, Mokoena claims. She warns: "This grating element of digital marketing needs to stop." Moreover, she suggests, it is counter-productive – a survey by Forrester involving three million people concluded that less than 1 per cent engage regularly with brands online.
So is Mokoena right when she says "Let’s get back to the good old days when you could tell your real friends were the ones not trying to sell you stuff"?
Client
Matt McDowell, European marketing director, Toshiba
"Not to be using social media would be to miss out on a big part of your market. And if your target market happens to be a youthful one, you have to speak to it in a way that’s relevant and engaging. Of course, you shouldn’t be trying to communicate in an inappropriate way. It’s no longer just about street talk. There are many different forms of social media, much of it used by people aged 45 and over. It’s too much of a generalisation to suggest it has all spiralled out of control."
Planner
Andy Nairn, founding partner, Lucky Generals
"The problem with brands that use social media is that they copy what others are doing instead of developing their own tone of voice. You only have to look at what happened when Luis Suárez bit an opponent at the World Cup. It led to hundreds of internet jokes, many of them crap. Your brand will never stand out if you do that. Too many brands treat social media simply as free media and will use junior people just to pump out boring Tweets before they move on to something else. That’s not the way to make social media work for you."
Agency head
Richard Costa-D’sa, chief executive, Deep Focus London
"It’s certainly true that there has been too much ‘culture-jacking’ by brands using social media. The important thing is for brands to be authentic than to just try being a friend. People will visit Paddy Power’s site for entertainment and light relief. But other brands may need to talk about their usefulness. They don’t need to cultivate a ‘chummy’ personality. I think we have almost reached the second stage of the social media revolution. The first wave was all about getting a Facebook page. Now, there is a better understanding of how social media can impact on business."
Creative
Caitlin Ryan, group executive creative director, Karmarama
"The issue isn’t about whether or not brands need to be ‘matey’ when using social media. It’s about whether or not they are communicating in ways that mean something to their audiences. Brands need to behave in a modern way. But while ‘mateyness’ is fine if your audience is young, it won’t be right for banks because people look to them for security and assurance. Just like people, brands need to find ways of speaking that are unique to them. The problem is that a lot of them are more used to communicating via carefully scripted messages in 30-second TV spots."