Should businesses try to be “cool”?

I’ve recently come across three articles that touch on the idea of “coolness” as it relates to social media and online culture more generally.

In this day of overnight break-out internet sensations, memes, and going viral, it’s become harder to say why things are “cool”. At one point in our culture, cool meant the very opposite—selective, unusual, not for the masses. But today measuring the worth of online products or talent feels more like a popularity contest. Who can get the biggest, fastest.

If you need proof that coolness has changed look no further than Urban Dictionary, which offers no less than 170 definitions of “cool”. The one I like best is “socially acceptable by modern culture”. That seems about right.

Zach Kelly, who writes for the Village Voice, uses Carly Rae Jepsen’s rapid rise to stardom as a prime example of how the internet undermined her coolness. Her song “Call Me Maybe” has barely been on the radio and already the analyses, parodies, renditions, and references have made her and the song decidedly uncool.

Paper Mag writer Alexis Swerdloff echoed the sentiment: “While I love participating in pop-culture phenomena and most things viral (whether it’s live-tweeting the Oscars, watching Mad Men, reading The Hunger Games trilogy, eating kale, clicking on videos of sloths…these moments, these restaurants, these TV shows then become “too communal,” and my personal connection to them vanishes.”

But contrast these views with a new survey published in Marketing Charts in which 43% of American Millennials self-identify as “cool”. That’s a pretty confident youth culture. But are they feeling “cooler” because they like so many of the same things. Is it cool only because it’s collectively cool? Only in a culture that rewards social acceptability would we see Converse All-Stars, Axe Body Spray, Sandra Bullock, and Bill Gates all named “cool” in the same list.

This makes me think about the challenges businesses face when they try to do social media. For businesses that target young adults, it’s a balancing act—you want to go viral, but you don’t want to be forgotten about. Most businesses though, have the opposite problem- they just want to make a splash in the social waters. I am reminded again and again that the best mantra for businesses may be “brand before buzz”.

Or as Eric Harr (CBS news social media expert) said in a webinar that really resonated with me: there has to be a WHY to your business- a human aspect- before you tell the world your who, what, when, and where.

Your brand identity may be apparent, or it might take time to build. And it takes building block-sized parts: a great website and strong web development, clear logo and brand design, SEO, a fully envisioned inbound marketing plan, strategic social media, and much more.

So call me uncool, but I’ll take value over virality in a business any day.