5 Questions with Lindsay Patton-Carson

Lindsay Patton-Carson: Vice President, Customer Engagement of PiperWai Natural Deodorant

As the VP of Customer Engagement, Lindsay Patton-Carson cultivates the brand voice behind PiperWai Natural Deodorant. We caught up with how she injects her personal sense of humor and turns it into the social voice that connects with customers.

Where does your brand’s sense of humor come from?

My brain. But seriously, most of it comes from being on social media all the time. I love scrolling through Twitter and tumblr to look at memes and how people communicate using humor. I like to surprise people by showing our humorous side, since the majority of our content is positive health and wellness posts.

How did you craft your humorous social voice and segment it across the brand platforms?

Each platform is different, so the voice on each one varies. Twitter is the best platform for humor and is my favorite account to experiment with humor. It also is the platform with the toughest audience, so if I do something that works on Twitter, I can translate it to Instagram and Facebook. Facebook is pretty straightforward, but there are a few opportunities to include humor while engaging with customers. If a customer uses humor to interact with us, then it’s all systems go. Instagram is the most polished of the three, which means we use humor the least on this platform.

How should brands walk the line between funny and snarky?

There is a fine line between being snarky and mean, which is why I am strategic with snarkiness on the brand’s accounts. I only use snark if I am confident the social media user enjoys my sense of humor and will want to play along.

How do you seamlessly integrate your brand into cultural conversations on an authentic level?

Almost everyone uses deodorant, so it’s easy to talk about the brand and why we’re different. People are often curious when I tell them I work for a deodorant company. They want to know how I wound up in my position, will ask questions about what natural deodorant is or tell us they’ve tried natural deodorant and had a bad experience. This is when I can swoop in. ????

What do you predict for the branded content space in the future?

Influencer marketing is the key for up-and-coming brands. Millennials and Gen Z are wary of advertising directly from brands and would rather make a purchase based on customer reviews or friend/influencer/celebrity recommendation. Instagram is also killing the social media game. They’ve outdone Facebook and Snapchat by stealing ideas and making them better. Not ideal, but it’s working for them.