There’s a lot of talk about branding these days. (Which I’m still finding refreshing as the need for it gains more recognition and respect.) And a big part of branding in this “new normal” is social media. What fascinates me the most about social media? It’s not the latest apps and platforms. It’s not the underlying battle between traditional marketing and digital marketing. No, what intrigues me is when I see companies and organizations dare to reach out to consumers in unexpected ways to create a reaction. You can see the earnestness in their attempts. You can imagine what they hope to accomplish.

Sometimes their efforts go incredibly right. Sometimes their efforts go unexpectedly wrong. This is what I plan to write about in this series. I’ll be like that chick at the airport happily people watching. It’s fun to observe what happens when the playing field is leveled by the constraints of a social media platform and you realize brands are just people trying to do their best to influence other people. With social media, it’s a different kind of blank slate. It takes a lot of psychology to tap into a market that, thanks to the nature of the medium, has a shorter attention span than ever.