5 Ways to Give Your Boring-Ass Brand a Relatable Personality on Social Media

3 min readJul 8, 2019

Millennials. Gen-Z. Teens, tweens, toddlers. Your future customers are all using social media to interact with the people and, most importantly, brands they care about on a daily basis. So why should they care about your brand? The fact is unless you can rise above the clutter, skirt assumptions about soulless corporations, and generally come off as “cool,” you don’t stand a chance at earning any cache (let alone cash) from these sought-after demographics. But don’t worry—thanks to pioneers like Wendy’s, Steak-umm, and MoonPie we can create a roadmap to social media success by ripping off their tried-and-true techniques.

Here’s how to give your brand a personality on social media:

Meme yourself.

Nothing says “I understand self-obsessed internet culture” quite like making a funny picture or gif of your own logo or mascot and then writing a relatable caption. Example: If you’re a burger restaurant, post a picture of a burger that fell on the ground and write, “When ur [BRAND NAME] burger falls on the ground.” The internet will eat it up! (Hopefully, if you’re a burger chain, literally!)

Use wirdz (which is slang for “slang”).

The language of the internet evolves and mutates faster than most people can keep up — but you’re not people, you’re a multinational brand! Is your beef jerky “grunk?” You bet it is! Does it matter that that word seems to be used in only a sexual context? Only somewhat! Just tell the suits in the c-suite to trust the process and “peelax,” as the kids are saying this week!

Be an impudent little shit.

Trash talk your competitors. Call Beyoncé overrated. Tell the Pope to delete his account. Maybe even use some swear words! (With asterisks, of course. Don’t be vulgar — at least, not until another brand does it first.) The people you might piss off don’t want your products and services anyway, and the people you delight might even give your account a follow! Engagement = priceless.