I was never much of a “jeans guy” because I could never find a pair that fit right on my awkward body. My wife, however was determined to get me into a pair of jeans that I could wear “for life” because she believes in investing in high quality products that don’t need to be replaced after 2 – 3 months (cough, cough Old Navy jeans).

The search was long and finally led me to Trunk Club, which is the best invention for men on the planet. You sign up for Trunk Club, get a personal sylist and they send you a box of clothes based on your body type, etc. You can try the clothes on, keep what you want, and what you don’t want goes back in the trunk and left on your front doorstep for FedEx to pick up.

Justin, my “personal stylist” helped me discover a pair of jeans that would soon become like our new “couple”. The jeans, while perfect, also cost $165 (which was much more than I ever dreamed of spending). Up until this point, the most I had spent on jeans was $40 at GAP.

But, I couldn’t resist these J Brand Walker in Boone jeans. It was love at first fitting. They had to be mine and I have barely taken them off since the first time I put them on.

Since this obsession with J Brand started I’ve been slowly plotting buying a second pair.

But, at a premium price of $165 (although worth every penny) J Brand Jeans aren’t something you buy on a regular basis.

Then, something miraculous happened. My wise wife told me that J Brand was running a
contest on Twitter, I just had to RT their post and I could win a FREE pair of J Brand Jeans. Being a slight social media geek myself, I love a good Twitter contest (although I’ve never entered one) so I gave it a whirl and entered, never thinking I would hear from J Brand.

But then, something amazing happen. I got a reply: and I won. I WON!

Moments later, I had a DM from J Brand asking for my email address so they could send me a code to redeem my free jeans on their website.

(finally getting to my point here) 

Instant Gratification Always Wins 

What happened next was truly magical.

I got the code, found my jeans, added them to my cart, entered the code and checked out. Much to my surprise and delight, FedEx overnight shipping was also free.

So in less than 24 hours I won jeans on Twitter and then had them on my doorstep shipped overnight from California.

This is real social at work. Connecting online to offline in a powerful way through personal service and over the top instant gratification. J Brand didn’t have to ship overnight, but they did. They made a “talkable” contest even more exciting by going over the top.

Why can’t more brands do this? Why can’t brands REALLY deliver? It seems brand interactions are always just what you expected, or worse, less than you expected. However, to compete in this new world where everything around us happens instantly, brands need to step it and always deliver instant gratification too. But, brands are afraid, or cheap, or both.

It will always be a win, win situation when the customer is first, the brand is second and brands are giving them what they really want: everything instantly.

– Seth Godin

Obviously the masterminds at Facebook think this is a genius idea, after all, their  mission is to make the world more open and connected, however a physical device in a social world is a misstep.

Here’s 3 reasons why “Buffy” will be killed before she ever sees the light of day:

1. Phones aren’t social. People are. The physical device we’re holding doesn’t make us more social or the world more open, it’s simply a channel, a method to on-ramp ourselves into the social space.

2. The “physical phone” space has already been mastered by other players…..Facebook doesn’t have a seat at the table and they don’t need one. Apple, Google, you name it are already years ahead of Facebook and they’ve gotten there by focusing on a blank canvas device that can be colored in with apps. We need apps to have phones that function and we need phones (a canvas) to house our apps.

3. Facebook isn’t the end all, be all for social connectivity. Sure, they’re the 800 pound gorilla in the room, but let’s face it, humans have been social since the cave man days and we didn’t need a phone to do it. I’m curious if Facebook will be the only social app allowed on the device or maybe they will play nice with others. Or maybe, just maybe Facebook’s feelings are hurt because Apple decided to integrate Twitter beautifully into iOS5 instead of Facebook. Note: Twitter didn’t need their own phone to be “social”.

Call me old fashion or maybe I’m not a “social visionary” I just think that Facebook should be focusing on the real thing that makes people social, their platform. If Facebook is going to stay the giant they are they need to have laser focus….Buffy is a distraction, a pet project that should be killed now.