Branding isn't dead, but it's no longer in your control

It pains me to write the title of this post (why is this even being discussed in 2016?), but it pains me even more that this continues to be the most consistent fight in the marketing department. 

Between calendars and layers of approvals and bottlenecks caused by brand managers who need to check everything posted on social channels for 'brand consistency', you may as well just throw in the towel on social altogether. Why bother? 

I have a policy when it comes to working with clients now: after we agree on the strategy and have a mutual understanding on some  basic ground rules, I get to be in charge of the social channels. No approval processes, no bottlenecks, no committees of people trying to make a tweet or a gif more 'on brand'. The only exception I make is for heavily regulated, legal-compliance stuff, but even then, I'm working on loosening that up through creating a 'do's and don'ts' checklist to follow.

Brand 'management' is a complete farce anyway. Too many people think it means to use the right RGB code and kerning on the fonts and those that understand true branding have missed the memo that they lost control a long time ago. 

However, as I explain in this week's video, all is not lost. There is still a role for branding, it's just changed a lot.

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I've been working on this social stuff for over 16 years and I've been a participant in the social web since 1992. My videos will come out every SUNDAY...with 2-5 minute "lessons" on what are truly social practices (and what are NOT).