{"id":70592,"date":"2012-12-14T16:24:59","date_gmt":"2012-12-14T16:24:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/insight\/is-social-media-making-us-lazy\/"},"modified":"2012-12-14T16:24:59","modified_gmt":"2012-12-14T16:24:59","slug":"is-social-media-making-us-lazy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/insight\/is-social-media-making-us-lazy\/","title":{"rendered":"Is social media making us lazy?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Social media dominates much of our day to day communication. We post on a friend\u2019s wall to wish them happy birthday and double-tap their pictures to show we care about their lives. It\u2019s also increasingly becoming the way we engage with businesses.
\nWe angrily tweet companies when our deliveries go AWOL or vent about bad customer service. We scroll through beautifully curated feeds full of perfectly styled people, engaging with brands without consciously realising it. But is this a force for good or is it encouraging laziness among brands?
\nInfluencing the nation<\/strong>
\nInfluencers are a thoroughly 21st<\/sup> century phenomenon. \u00a0Beautiful people who have turned their talents, like makeup, fitness or simply looking great into their business now dominate our social media feeds. They\u2019ve always existed, in the form of models, singers and actors, but the influencer of the digital age is different. Now, they\u2019re \u2018normal\u2019 people who have grown their following online, rather than in the unrelatable Hollywood hills. We love their relatable lifestyles even if the reality is they\u2019re anything but.
\nNow, companies have started to recognise this.
\nInstead of bombarding customers with sales-y jargon and in your face advertising, they\u2019re going undercover in the online world. Although influencers are bound by the ASA to declare sponsored posts, an #ad post about a brand from someone who is trusted by their followers is still comparatively covert.
\nWhen influencers share beautiful snaps, we subconsciously associate the brand they promote with that aspirational imagery. Buy this lipstick, fake-tan or teeth whitener and maybe you\u2019ll end up like the person you admire. Are we really that easily influenced, you might ask? Well, it seems we are, otherwise influencers wouldn\u2019t charge four (or five) figure fees for a single sponsored post.
\nAs we demand authenticity from advertising in the world of fake news and \u2018alternative facts\u2019, influencers that we trust and feel as though we know bring this to the table.
\nThe death of creative marketing<\/strong>
\nAlthough influencer marketing is an interesting direction for the world of advertising, it has its own drawbacks. By relying on trusted bloggers to sell their products, brands no longer have to deploy the creativity they once did in traditional marketing. Instead of coming up with intelligent, memorable campaigns, they can pay people just to mention their products and watch the cash roll in.
\nThis isn\u2019t appealing to everyone though. Influencer marketing doesn\u2019t fit with every brand\u2019s identity. It\u2019s totally ineffective when targeting groups that don\u2019t spend much time online and we\u2019re also becoming aware of how false social media can be. Influencers promote hair-growth vitamins with thousands of pounds worth of extensions secretly bonded to their own fried locks. The much-craved authenticity doesn\u2019t come from every influencer.
\nEveryone can write, but not everyone’s a writer …<\/strong>
\nBut one thing that influencers will never be able to replace is the impact of expertly-crafted written communications. A pretty face and nice personality will never be as influential as spell-binding words. The popularity of influencers may wane, but people will always be drawn in by interesting, engaging content that offers an intelligent take on a subject.
\nParticularly in more complex industries, like financial services and healthcare, it\u2019s wise to leave the content to the experts. Writers who can decipher head-spinning jargon and make it into something we can understand aren\u2019t as glamourous, but their skills are a rare, valuable commodity. Invest your budgets in ensuring your written communications are as strong as possible, and you won\u2019t suffer if the influencer trend dies out.
\nRead more from Stratton Craig<\/strong><\/p>\n