SmallBusinessNewz

Social media needs a personal touch

Companies of all sizes wrestle with the promise and the pitfalls of modern outlets like social media. It may be the old-fashioned touch that ends up working best.

One may realize the Philadelphia Cream Cheese brand has been around for a while, but few know it's been around for 128 years. That's a lot of bagel schmears over time.

When it comes to Philadelphia products, we expect Will Smith to get jiggy long before a big food brand on the Internet does. But the cream cheese creatives at Kraft Foods decided to take a personal approach to social media online.

The Church of the Customer blog said a couple of product managers and their boss have turned to the online world to promote a new low-fat version of the product:

Adam and Tyler are two of the product brand managers. Along with their boss, Ericka Gettman, they're using a blog and YouTube videos to document the launch campaign for their new product. The traditional model might say at this point, "Great idea. Now hire actors to portray the brand managers. Then focus-group test it!"

The threesome certainly aren't actors. While the early results may be a bit campy (and they call us regular folk "consumers" a bit too much), the idea of removing the one-way mirror and turning the marketing into a public beta helps us understand that real, everyday people are behind something ubiquitous.

Our lesson here is about authenticity, or at least a reasonable facsimile thereof. Wendy's founder Dave Thomas and popcorn magnate Orville Redenbacher used this to great affect on television. They held simple, quirky conversations with viewers to engage them.

The Internet is filled with slickly crafted advertising. Many people tune out an ad message when they see it, but few ignore a conversation that appears genuine. In an age where reality shows reign, a realistic approach to social media advertising may fit in with customer expectations best.