Many corporations have failed to fully understand online social media culture. You have probably noticed a few companies try to be cool and edgy but they just fall flat on their faces miserably. One of the only successful companies to ever truly understand what kind of vibes there are on the internet when it comes to social media is Wendy’s.

If you follow them you’ll see that they continuously rip on McDonald’s for their frozen meat and their milkshake quality. Wendy’s will openly trash talk McDonald’s which causes controversy but more so a lot of people like it. For someone who doesn’t understand the ‘roasting’ culture, this kind of move seems suicide for their business. Actually, there’s a fine line between being aggressive and being insulting. So do you have employees in your marketing team that truly understand how to be nuanced online? Do they really understand what the impact of their marketing campaigns are?

The Style of Campaign

First off, you know you’re trying to sell something and consumers know you’re trying to sell something. Therefore everyone involved knows that you will try to sound positive and really talk up your product, service or company. Lets get that out of the way so everyone knows where they stand. Your marketing campaigns are inherently biased, laced with positivity and persuasive language to convince consumers that you are better than your rivals. However, what if you could drop this stereotypical narrative and just be honest? Why not just adopt a style of campaign that boasts about your business being better and the best option? Indeed there’s a fine line between boasting and bragging.

For your hashtags, slogan, video content, blogging and more, take on the approach of being supremely confident. Ask consumers to “join us”, as if they are missing out if they don’t engage with you. Take the place of center stage and boast that you are presenting to the world, a piece of the future, something better, and something that will improve even more over time. You want consumers to feel as if they need to be part of a new journey.

Overcoming Your Hesitancy

It’s understandable that many businesses don’t want to boast and act like they are the kings of their industry. If something goes wrong such as your technological products having software errors, this is going to leave quite a lot of egg on your face. This makes companies hesitant to go down this route, but with LexisNexis Social Analytics you can monitor social media from around the world. Listen to your customer channels, in every language online. You’ll have coverage of 150 million websites, more than 10 social networks that include Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube as well as being able to track what print media is saying about you. You can dissect the language, and see whether or not your confident approach is resonating with consumers. Put into simpler terms, you can change your marketing campaign on the fly, as you read and watch data coming in about the public’s response. Do they like you roasting your rivals? Do they like a cool suave confident boasting attitude?

Your marketing team has to understand modern social media culture. People actually like a bit of roasting, a jab here and there between companies. It shows them you really do believe in what you’re selling. If you are still hesitant, use advanced analytics to absorb the widest possible public reaction to your campaigns