On social media, sell your brand, not your stuff

A new marketing study of Facebook users shows that hard-sell tactics stifle engagement, and engagement is gold. Off the coast of New Zealand last year, a kayaker was drifting along quietly when a seal burst from the water and slapped him in the face with a large octopus. As it happens, the trip was funded by GoPro as part of a product launch, and that sucker punch was caught on video by one of the company’s cameras. When GoPro posted the clip to Facebook, it exploded, yielding a publicity bon...