Why don’t Facebook like words?

A few months back, I was asked to write a couple of ‘long copy stories’ for a client to use as image content on their Facebook page. The colleagues who requested them were keen to test out how copy-heavy images performed versus the usual design-led content.

Why can’t we carry brand tone of voice into social spaces?

The Condescending Corporate Brand Page on Facebook has given us all the chance to chuckle at ourselves self-depreciatively in recent weeks. And while not every post appearing on there is necessarily ‘condescending’, the page has undoubtedly shone a light on an issue that’s seriously troubling the industry – why on earth do so many brands continue to talk to their Facebook fans and Twitter followers as if they’re a bunch of illiterate eight year olds?

Why do we think a hashtag is enough of a call to action?

London’s hosting of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games caused an inevitable deluge of sport-related advertising – whether the brands in question were ‘Official Partners of the Games’ or not. Amidst the monsoon of press ads, all featuring desaturated shots of sportspeople looking a bit too serious, I noticed something: almost all of these sport-focused brands’ expensive creations signed off with nothing more than a hashtag as a call to action.