Is a brand your friend?

If you were a company whose key differentiator was 'real relationships', wouldn't you embrace social media? When I think about 'real relationships' I think about someone I'd make out with, or someone I'd go get drunk with. Those are real relationships, at least within my narrow world-view.

But I look at my Tweetdeck and I don't actually see a whole lot of friends there. I see a lot of companies, magazines, bloggers, governments, etc., telling me a lot of crap I really don't care about. In that respect it's a lot like TV or radio. But there's a default column in the software called 'friends' and all those aformentioned things are in there. It's a bit insidious actually.

Facebook is only marginally better. At least there I can be a 'fan' of a brand, which distances me a bit. Although the software still shows me a brand almost the same as it shows my friends.

I'll admit to being a bit surly. Which explains my paltry 63 facebook friends. But to be honest, even that's too many. I could get along fine without half of them--just like I did before I signed up to Facebook. And I'm pretty sure I can live without the added noise of half the junk I'm following on Twitter.

So I wonder what kind of traction your favorite dish soap is going to get when it starts trying to be friends with you--having a 'real relationship'. You could go out and get drunk with your favorite beer brand of course, but you're still going to be alone.

So I'm not sure I'm ready to cuddle up with my toaster. Honestly I share all my feelings and all I ever get in return is toast. Tasty, but not very fulfilling.

Brands who claim to have real relationships with their customers are going to need to do some hard thinking about what that means, and whether it's a commitment they can actually live up to.