digital

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Mon 22 Feb 2010

This is not a Social Media blog

Posted by Lisa Hickey under advertising, branding, digital, future, random, social media
[3] Comments

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I started blogging, tweeting and using other social networking/sharing/media sites not too long ago. The experience changed my life, in amazingly powerful ways, a comment that is still met with a great deal of skepticism almost everywhere I go.

But “Social Media” (a phrase that doesn’t even do what it’s really about justice, as most people equate the words “social media” with “getting on Facebook”) has given me the chance to meet brilliant, thoughtful people from all over the world, and talk to them as equals about things that are important to both of us. It’s helped me get involved in projects I never could have dreamed of on my own: producing a book and a movie, getting a cameo role in a movie; having crazy, impassioned conversations about the future of publishing, sexism, war, pornography; gave me a chance to help start not just one but three online publications; taught me how to shoot, edit and produce a hundred small videos; gotten me over my last final fears of technology. But most of all, I discovered the power in helping other people.

So why wouldn’t I want to blog about social media, if it brought about such profound and wonderful changes?

Because that would be like having a blog about email.

What I’d like to do here is to give you insights into the way technology is colliding with human interactions and communication, insights that will cause you to say “wow, I never saw the world that way.” And, at its best, will let you see the actions you can take next to create the profound changes I think we all can make.

I’m sure that sometimes I’ll slip up and talk about social media, because it still is such a passion of mine. But, on the whole, this blog is not a social media blog.

What is it instead?

It’s a “how the way we interact with each other affects the places we go together” blog.

It’s a “let’s think about creative ways to solve problems and then go out and solve them” blog.

It’s a “what if you didn’t think about technology and communication and marketing and friendship and business and art and change as separate things, but ONE thing” blog.

It’s a “where the heck is this all going to lead us 5, 10, 20, 100 years from now?” blog.

It’s a “wow, this is cool and here’s how it might translate into a business model” blog.

It’s a “Think. Do.” blog.

As always, comments are adored, opposing views are welcome, feedback is thoughtfully considered, and spammers are not tolerated.

 

Sun 14 Jun 2009

Social Media and Branding Presentation for Ad Club

Posted by Lisa Hickey under Uncategorized, advertising, branding, digital, social media
[4] Comments

Ad Club Present2

I’ve been doing a lot of presentations lately, mostly speaking about Social Media and Branding. Here’s one I did for the Boston Ad Club. I’m sharing it because several people have asked for copies. I tried to make it as helpful as possible, and have included some (but not nearly all) of my commentary along with my slides.

One caveat: Everything I learn changes daily. This gets at some of my core thinking, but the rapid growth of new ideas in this field is astounding. Learn what you can from all this, but please, don’t hold me to anything. : )

Social Media and Branding, quite frankly, is one of my favorite things to talk about, so if you want to hear more, ping me and let’s connect. I’m always happy to have a call, an email, a tweet or, if physically possible a cup of coffee. Feel free to connect with me anywhere.

Thanks, and as always, comments are welcomed and encouraged.

 

Mon 11 May 2009

Digital is not my god.

Posted by BobMinihan under advertising, digital, social media
[4] Comments

photo: chantrybee

photo: chantrybee

>> Guest post by Bob Minihan

Allow me to interrupt the digital jihad for a bit.

Read a Tweet last week saying that Apple now ruled the world with their apps. Clicked on the link they provided as proof.

It led me to an Apple TV commercial.

My reply pointed this out. 0 responses.

Hmm.

Was I the only one who noted the irony of Apple, the new digital emperor, communicating apps to the online world via a, wait for it, wait for it, a TV spot?

Insanely cool Apple using TV?

Isn’t TV all DVR’d, out of date, old school, not with it, unmeasurable, a waste of money and dying like newspapers? Could brands like Apple, VW, Burger King, and now Microsoft with their “I’m a PC” campaign be so out of touch that they’re still using 20th century media as a cornerstone?

Don’t they know that marketing managers today feel so besieged that they need to prove direct results for every message? Just so they don’t get fired by the accountants, measurers, cost cutters and procurers now running the process?

Perhaps.

Or just maybe, could these brands know something that no one online wants to talk about? That before preference, purchase, relationship, and advocacy, you still have to create awareness?

That without awareness, none of the above matter?

Hello? Does anyone else see this, or just the brands that are magically rising above the toxic sludge of the current economy?

Could TV, while not what it once was, still be the most effective way of creating awareness with mass audiences? Like, duh.

Don’t get me wrong. I still have the original Apple battleship grey laptop in my closet. I love my iPhone 3G. I led a creative team that won a gold Clio for interactive way back in 2000. I am as pro-digital, pro-social media, pro-Twitter, Mashable, Facebook, You Tube, Hulu, and whatever’s-next as the next person.

It just seems that everyone online now has an axe to grind. Maybe to relentlessly push online to further their own businesses and their own careers?

Maybe to convert all through the gospel of Digitology? Whatever.

I just think we, as marketers, owe our clients a little bit of objectivity.

But maybe that’s just me.

Let the stoning begin.

bob-profile-pic1Bob Minihan is Executive Creative Director/Partner, ISM
“At ISM, we create Stories That Travel. We have proven that linking smaller brands to bigger stories is a tremendously effective way to compete with larger, better-financed brands, especially in these digital times.”