Are Companies People? A Look at Public Perception of Companies
By Sean Davies
What power do trends have in relation to technology? Dave Eggers, author of The Circle, is optimistic that trends can change corporate behavior. In the “Data Dystopia” podcast he mentions how if enough people erect boundaries between their personal data and the services they use then the companies behind those services will have to adapt. This makes sense as the goal of a company is to create profit. The public perception of a company will influence how and if it is used. Unfortunately, the standards we hold companies to are not very high. We might know of heinous acts a company does but the public opinion of the company is not tarnished much. The current perceptions of companies seems highly resistant and does not change even if we know they treat their employees unfairly or exploit child labor to manufacture their products. One factor of this problem is in how we perceive a company.
What does a CEO do? Many people are familiar with the position and think it is the top position in a company. How much power they have over the company is not well known and will be different for different companies. Nevertheless, a CEO is a figurehead and often represents the company as a whole. When I think of Facebook, I also think about Mark Zuckerberg. For Tesla, I think about Elon Musk. Microsoft has Bill Gates and Apple had Steve Jobs. When we connect these talented and sometimes charismatic people to a company, it humanizes the company itself. We achieve a sort of familiarity with the company from our familiarity with their figureheads. This familiarity leads to trust in a company and its products without the company disclosing any information about itself.
How do trends start? Trends are spread through our peers. Adopting a technology is akin to being a member of a group. People adopt technology as a way to connect with their friends. Willingness to adopt a trend is also based on the trust we have with our friends. Companies have utilized this with the emergence of influencers, people with large social media presences. Influencers are effective trendsetters because they are a close “friend” to many people. The trust in an influencer is translated to a company or product when they mention or use them. This goes beyond spreading the knowledge of a product and exploits social behaviors.
Are companies people? Companies themselves have been increasing their social media presence. Almost every major company has a profile on various social media and are increasingly informal on them. The company profiles have posted jokes, responses to other posts and news, and even comment on other companies' posts. Their social media profiles do not act like an advertisement, but more like a wise-cracking, ardent fan of the company. They act like any other user who mentions fast food more often than is healthy. It is profitable for a company to act more human. If it were not then this trend would not be emerging. This is obviously changing our perception of companies and how we think about them. This shift has come without us learning anything new about a company. If anything, we now know less about them while still feeling more familiar with them. I do not share Dave Eggers' hope that public behavior will reverse corporate behavior because right now corporate behavior is changing public behavior.