Social media identities in #adelaide

Is it just me, or are all #adelaide social media identities, freelance sole operators? Are there any left, working as an employee, inside of a traditional ad agency or business? If it’s true it does seem fair on one count, but unfair on another. I’ll explain. To me, the power of the individual in social media…

Charlie-Helen Robinson

30 Nov 2011

1 minute

Is it just me, or are all #adelaide social media identities, freelance sole operators? Are there any left, working as an employee, inside of a traditional ad agency or business?

If it’s true it does seem fair on one count, but unfair on another. I’ll explain.

To me, the power of the individual in social media is king. Or queen – if you are female. It’s what make social media tick, ie people liking and following and starting conversations etc. Some have hundreds of followers, some just a few – but this is what we measure, ie the influence and klout etc etc. Yes, we could talk and pontificate for hours.

So, if #adelaide social media identities, are all freelance sole operators, I beg to ask the question “does this mean traditional business, even in ad agencies etc, are unable to cope with this new dynamic of having an identity for people to follow?”.

I’m hoping I’m wrong but I have to throw it out there and get some comments… if we consider TV and radio, the main or lead character always generate their own following… you see overseas that an “identity” in social media quite often has a bigger following than the company they work for etc etc.

So, why cant we do this in #adelaide? Why are we so controlled. What’s the future?

2 responses to “Social media identities in #adelaide”

Anna

November 30, 2011 at 3:09 pm

There do seem to be many sole operators – but most orgs seem to be doing things In House in my experience – How well it is being delivered and how well it integrates with the Business, Marketing and Communications Plans for the org, well I guess people find out in time.

Those who are willing to spend on graphic design and strategic development and planning and making certain that social Media integrates with the existing business and brand will clearly benefit from efficient use of resources and greater ROI.

I suspect that the Euro SM identities that you speak of have been well and truly managed to leverage their appeal through Personal Branding that links very strongly to the Corporate Branding – I’m thinking Phillips – who have one of the largest SM personalities associated with their name, apparently living in Amsterdam. I imagine the age, gender. discussion topics etc are are strategically planned and adjusted and that charters like this are chosen from the HR pool to build into the brand.

In other cases, It can be difficult to ascertain if a person actually exists outside of their assumed persona/avatar – like a great ‘Soap Opera’ writer, I am sure there are people employed to plot the identity against market research and then write the story and topics of a person’s life: some of these characters may well be fictitious – it has crossed my mind a few times when tracking what some people actually claim to be able to do in a day/week/month – Maybe they have an entourage to help them!

Hopefully my comments throw up a few things that add to the discussion!

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charlierobinson

November 30, 2011 at 3:27 pm

Thanks Anna… yes, there are comms people (like I used to be) who manage a companies social media policy, but I would say they do so as the company brand (am thinking of someone like Andrea Matthews for Holden – she doesn’t have the identity per say – we just know who she is).

So, my thinking is probably targeting advertising and digital media agencies who offer campaigns to clients… in that they aren’t using the power of the voice.

-charlie

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Charlie-Helen Robinson